Coming out of your shell online

I recently took a class online with UW-T in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic that helped me feel more connected compared to other online courses I had taken at the time. Online courses in general are very stale when it comes to interactions with other members of the class since there isn’t a room to convene in. In many cases these classes are asynchronous and there is little interactivity if any at all. When it came to kicking off my enrollment here, I looked forward to the excitement of experiencing what the campus grounds had to offer. In this class, the professor would hold lecture through Zoom, but would occasionally group us into breakout rooms where only three to five students would be present to discuss the class topic. When we had the opportunity to after completing the assignment, we conversed about our weekends and plans.

Initially everyone had their cameras off and only transmitted voice, but over time and familiarity with the classroom, people started turning them on. When the class opened up more, it started to feel like an in-person experience. This dynamic is similar to a normal classroom but it is particularly interesting seeing from this overhead perspective watching turtles coming out of their shell. In this particular case, technology alone isn’t what sparked the feeling of belonging, but the use of the tool to mimic local groupings in-class that provided an experience as close to the real thing as possible. The professor aimed to get more students to be active and the normal social reservations are still in play. Speaking up in a large group of people will always be more nerve-wracking than with a small group and there is less risk of interruption. By making these activities more like a collaboration, the class successfully created relationships with people through a virtual environment.