TY - JOUR
T1 - IT HAS POTENTIAL BUT… ‘ - EXPLORING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF BREAKOUT ROOMS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
AU - Savvidou, Christine
AU - Alexander, Katarzyna
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - COVID-19 has created a dramatic and rapid transition to emergency remote teaching in higher education (HE) creating both new opportunities and challenges for lecturers and their students. As HE adapts to these new circumstances, there is a need for instructors to design and teach classes that support collaborative learning and increase opportunities for student interactivity. This article reports on an ongoing study exploring university students' experiences and perceptions of using breakout rooms (BRs), a technical feature of many synchronous online platforms, as part of their online classes. Using a mixed methods research approach, 127 students, who were registered on English language courses at a university in Cyprus during Spring 2021, participated in the study. Findings indicate that students' experiences and perceptions of breakout rooms during this period were impacted in five key areas: (1) emotional/affective, (2) moral/ethical, (3) social, (4) pedagogical and (5) technological. These findings suggest that students' personal feelings, attitudes to online learning, sense of connectedness to their peers, expectations of the role and presence of the lecturer and issues relating to the technology, are all considered to be significant factors in their use of BRs. This study offers initial insights for educators who wish to use, modify and/or adapt synchronous online teaching to incorporate collaborative learning opportunities through breakout rooms.
AB - COVID-19 has created a dramatic and rapid transition to emergency remote teaching in higher education (HE) creating both new opportunities and challenges for lecturers and their students. As HE adapts to these new circumstances, there is a need for instructors to design and teach classes that support collaborative learning and increase opportunities for student interactivity. This article reports on an ongoing study exploring university students' experiences and perceptions of using breakout rooms (BRs), a technical feature of many synchronous online platforms, as part of their online classes. Using a mixed methods research approach, 127 students, who were registered on English language courses at a university in Cyprus during Spring 2021, participated in the study. Findings indicate that students' experiences and perceptions of breakout rooms during this period were impacted in five key areas: (1) emotional/affective, (2) moral/ethical, (3) social, (4) pedagogical and (5) technological. These findings suggest that students' personal feelings, attitudes to online learning, sense of connectedness to their peers, expectations of the role and presence of the lecturer and issues relating to the technology, are all considered to be significant factors in their use of BRs. This study offers initial insights for educators who wish to use, modify and/or adapt synchronous online teaching to incorporate collaborative learning opportunities through breakout rooms.
KW - breakout rooms
KW - collaborative learning
KW - COVID-19
KW - higher education
KW - student experiences
KW - synchronous online teaching
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131422744&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131422744
SN - 1642-1027
VL - 22
SP - 3
EP - 26
JO - Teaching English with Technology
JF - Teaching English with Technology
IS - 2
ER -