Zoom’s catchphrase is ‘we deliver happiness’ because sustainable happiness comes from making other people happy (Zoom Video Communications, 2021). Some of us may laugh at this because Zoom has certainly given us headaches alongside this so-called happiness! How many times have we said some version of this in the last two years – ‘can you see my screen’, ‘your mic is muted’, and ‘…we still can’t hear you!!!’ …But maybe there is some value in keeping Zoom’s mantra in mind when designing online learning experiences by asking ourselves how we can inject happiness into our virtual classrooms.
While many educational institutions utilized some form of blended learning prior to the pandemic (i.e., LMS, Moodle etc.), many educators and learners felt like the rug had been pulled from beneath them when learning shifted completely online (Hodges et al., 2020). If there is one lesson that we all learned it’s that transforming face-to-face learning experiences into meaningful online learning experiences is easier said than done.
Finding the right balance in designing learning experiences can be difficult as many students report that they enjoy independent study over studying collaboratively (Evans & Galley, n.d.). Yet, courses that incorporate collaborative work with at least one other person reportedly perform much better in relation to student retention retaining students (Rienties & Toetenel, 2016).
Our PBL group discussed how we as educators can design and adapt online learning processes. We sought to answer four questions: 1) how do online and blended learning processes look today (personal experience); 2) how these processes should look (best case scenario); 3) why are these processes not as they should be (influential factors); 4) what can be done to fix it (content, resources, training, etc.). By examining these questions in our PBL group we learned from each other’s experiences and brainstormed innovative ways to bring happiness to online and blended learning for students and educators alike.
Did we find all the answers? …Well, not yet. But we have come some way towards understanding how educators, students, and organisations can aspire to create online learning experiences that bring happiness back to the classroom.
References
Evans, G., & Galley, R. (n.d.). Collaborative online activities guide. The Open University.
Hodges, C. et.al (2020). The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning. EDUCAUSE review.
Rienties, B., & Toetenel, L. (2016). The impact of 151 learning designs on student satisfaction and performance: social learning (analytics) matters. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge – LAK ‘16, pp. 353–7.
Zoom Video Communications. (2021). https://explore.zoom.us/en/about/
