With the sudden transition to online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers and students realized how challenging it can be to facilitate social interactions in online education, but also how important it is.

The need to create opportunities for social interactions in online learning environments has been extensively addressed in the literature and is often referred to as social presence. Social presence denotes the degree to which a learner feels personally connected with other students and the teacher in an online learning environment (Sung & Mayer, 2012). Several studies suggest that social presence can contribute to reduce the sense of isolation in online environments (Sung & Mayer, 2012), and can have a positive impact on learning outcomes, such as student satisfaction and perceived learning (Edwards, 2020; Richardson et al., 2017).

The mastercourse Learning and learning environment from the faculty of Educational Sciences is a good example of how multiple activities can be set out to facilitate online social interactions both in smaller groups and in plenary sessions.

“Social interaction makes it easier for students to focus, concentrate and participate“

Experiences of Dr Jaap Schuitema (see profile via uva.nl)

Read below experiences of masterstudent Emilia Roelfs

Dr. Jaap Schuitema

Attention to social interaction was already central to this course, even before we had to transition it to online education. Throughout the course various moments were created for social interaction. For example, we asked students to send in statements or questions for discussion before class. They had to prepare the statements in groups and every lecture three or four groups of students brought a statement or a question which we discussed with the rest of the class. I just put the statements on one of the slides where it fits best in the lecture and the story and then I asked one of the students to say something about the statement. Then students went into breakout rooms to discuss it and after that came back to the main room and discussed it with the entire group.

“It is difficult to give plenary feedback after breakout room sessions since you miss out on much information”

I also give assignments during these lectures, in which students can discuss the material in smaller groups and afterwards we discuss them in plenary. For example, students had to connect case studies to the course literature. I also gave one exam question each week, so the students could practice exam questions. Instead of having smaller groups discussing at the same time in one classroom on campus, online the different groups parted into breakout rooms, separate from each other. We have lectures of three hours once a week and it’s too long to just listen three hours in a row, so these assignments and elements of social interaction break up the lesson into smaller pieces and make it easier for students to focus, concentrate, participate and digest information.

I found it more difficult in the online setting to go back to the plenary session after the discussions in smaller groups. Normally on campus I walk around to see and hear wat every group is doing, you have little conversations and ask around. Even when I am standing with one group I do get some sense of how other groups on the other side of the room are doing. On campus you have more of an overview whereas online you have to enter each breakout room separately to get a sense of what each group is doing and you can only visit one breakout room at a time. Therefore I found it more difficult to debrief and provide feedback in the online plenary sessions since you miss out much information on what was discussed in the breakout rooms.

“Padlet helped to make it easier to give plenary feedback after breakout room sessions”

Since debriefing and providing feedback online was more difficult I started using an online tool called Padlet where students can put their answers, filling out a form. It’s nice that they can all work simultaneously in Padlet and see the answers of the other groups while they write it. That gives a sense of connection with the other groups, and groups can inspire each other with their writing despite being separated. This facilitated interactions between groups maybe even more than when on campus, where students have to wait for the plenary session to find out more about the work of the other groups, being so focused working on their own group and probably not paying much attention to what is happening in the groups next to them. In the plenary session after the breakout room sessions I used the Padlet as an overview and guidance to debrief and give feedback about the work of the different groups. And while I was talking everyone could follow it on Padlet as well and see what everyone had done. So Padlet was a good solution, that worked really well and is even something to keep on using on campus as well.

Social function of breakout rooms

I visited the breakout rooms to see what students were talking about, if they had questions, but also to participate in their discussion, to hear what they were thinking. This is something I really missed in online teaching: hearing what students think about the materials and find out about misconceptions. Listening to students gives me so much information; for example, which information was not clear and should be explained further. It is also nice to get in contact, to participate in their thinking, so I also like the social aspect. I visited each breakout room, also because there are no other opportunities to have talks with students separately when one teaches online. It wasn’t a problem for me if students talked about other things than course related subjects, because it is also important to have a little bit of a social conversation, which I missed in my teaching when online, and which they also missed during this online teaching period. It is nice to hear that students also experienced these breakout rooms as some sort of a social event, the feeling to be part of a group, that you are not studying alone from home, which was hard for many students.

Knowledge clips

I made knowledge clips for the online lessons and will use those again when on campus. I also made knowledge clips from the recordings of the lessons and will use them again, because I find them helpful. When on campus the lecture took three hours, but because of the knowledge clips students had to watch before class we could cut the online class sessions back to two hours. I think it works well to have prerecord knowledge clips, because you can keep it really short, make it more to the point, and explain concepts in a more clear and structured way. So I think I will keep using the better ones when on campus, to help students prepare for the lecture. It also makes the lesson more interactive, because this way you create more space for discussion. The clips and preparing the statements before class helped to prepare for the discussions in class. It is a flipped classroom approach: the students prepared the theoretical part at home and during the online session we could deepen the content with our discussions, although there were still theoretical things that I lectured during the online meeting.

Experiences of student Emilia Roelfs

Master student Educational Sciences

Opportunities for social interaction before and during class

This course was successful in creating several opportunities for interaction. The fact that we had to prepare the discussion of statements before class in small groups created an extra moment of social interaction. And then in the online lesson we first discussed the statements, or we had to prepare an exam question in smaller groups in breakout rooms, which created other opportunities for social interaction. We had to prepare a presentation for the plenary session together and point out one of us to represent our group in the plenary session. Working in small groups before and during class created opportunities for social interaction and learning.

You learn from your peers

It is very useful to discuss a topic in a smaller group in the breakout rooms, to work on a task together and have a discussion about it. You learn from your peers. For me it is very helpful to read about topics, to discuss and hear about topics in multiple occasions and ways. That’s how I learn the most. Also you have to read the literature before class, otherwise you can’t discuss it, since it is such specific knowledge. You prepare for yourself, but also because you don’t want to let your peers down. The breakout rooms in itself were absolutely very helpful in the social aspect. The online lectures and especially the breakout rooms were the moment that I could talk to other students, because I didn’t see fellow students at any other time during the pandemic, so I think it is also really helpful for the bonding, the feeling that you are studying together and you are not alone.

Randomly assigned breakout rooms

The lecture was with the entire group and in the breakout rooms we worked in smaller groups. We were randomly assigned to a group each time we went into a breakout room. It is interesting and helpful to talk with different students, but for example if a group wasn’t a good match it isn’t a big problem, because you know that next time you will be assigned to another group. Not every student is always that motivated, therefore it was very good that the groups changed every time, so you were not stuck to one group. If one or more students in the group are not motivated it is not so nice, but since you have to show a result after the fifteen minutes spent in the breakout room the group as a whole is motivated to come up with something and that means you have to work for that. It was also very useful to see the results of what the other groups came up with. It inspired us for other ideas and kept me reflecting more on the topic.

“Padlet made the work of peers in other breakout rooms visible”

We had to prepare the statements before the lecture and it was mandatory to talk about it with fellow students a week or a few days before. We had to prepare it in such a way that we could make a presentation in class. And after the presentations we could go into breakout rooms with a different group to further discuss the statements. This structure was both social and helped learning, since you get to know and work with all students from the group in a deeper level. Also because we used this online tool called Padlet we kept in touch with the groups in the other breakout rooms. Though invisible to us, we could still share our thought process through the Padlet where we could read each other’s comments as they were written during the breakout room sessions. So we would still see what others were doing and vice versa.

Social interaction contributes to the learning process

All course activities, like discussing the statements or preparing the assignments in small groups, contributed to my learning. We know from the literature that it is claimed that social interaction helps for learning and I can confirm it really helps. Especially when the topics are difficult or very abstract, it is so helpful to talk about them. When you talk about them they become more concrete. I would say I really experienced the theory about the transfer from abstract concept to concrete. When you discuss them with your peers, you start to feel what that concept means. Social interaction improves learning, it made visible what we learned. After the breakout room session we discussed misconceptions, which was an eye-opening, because then you would maybe find out that that you misinterpreted something and once that is clear, you’ll never forget.

Knowledge clips

It was really helpful to listen to the knowledge clips before class. I was taking notes when I was listening to those clips. It is very handy that you can pause when necessary to digest it and think about it, but also to be able to go back or forward when you want. The clips made the two hour lecture different than a regular class. By moving the conceptual part to the clips you have more room for discussion in the online sessions. I really learned a lot during this course, that is the reason I nominated it during the focus group. When lessons are given again on campus I would like to keep the knowledge clips and the Padlet, because that makes learning visible. It is very helpful to see what the other students did and compare it to what you did yourself. Padlet is about making connections, it made me think and reflect more about the topics. I would also like to keep working in small groups, whether it is in a breakout room or live, both are very helpful. Also it worked really well to make one person responsible for representing the group in the plenary session.

Tip of lecturer Jaap

Assign a representative per group for breakout rooms

When you make use of the breakout rooms, you have to make sure that your assignment is clear, that students have something really concrete to do. This is something I experienced during this online teaching year. Just sending the students off into the breakout rooms, saying – you have to discuss this topic- doesn’t really work. You have to be very specific: fill in this form or assign one person who will represent your group when you come back to the main plenary session. I learned that it works well to assign one person in the group to represent the rest of that group, because otherwise you might encounter uncomfortable silences, because no one will start talking.

In my class students had to assign someone themselves who would represent their response in class, to give the summary, the outcome of their breakout room. I will implement this in the on campus lessons as well: have them prepare the statements in small groups, I think that works better and is more activating than discussing these statements with the whole group only. Next time I would try to make the knowledge clips shorter, the shorter and more to the point they are, the better. I am using them again, no time to do them over again, but I still think they are a bit long. Also next time maybe less talking during the online sessions and more room and time for assignments. My advice and experience is that it works best to make lessons as interactive as possible, especially online lessons.

Tip of student Emilia

Specify assignments and randomly assign small groups

I agree with what Jaap said that is really important to be very specific and clear in the assignment that one gives: you will do this, because of this, for so many minutes. I also think it is helpful to randomly assign the smaller groups, so that students work with different students each class. It’s informative to know all the students and all their ways of thinking and working. It is also very helpful to practice exam questions in groups, so when you doubt about an answer you can discuss with your peers what they think and come up with a better answer.

Reaction Jaap:

First I used to bring in potential exam questions but didn’t always say explicitly this could be an exam question. But because students always ask for practicing exam questions, I decided to explicitly mention: this could be an exam question. Every lesson we would discuss a potential exam question, smaller groups would discuss them in the breakout rooms and brought their answer to the plenary session. Afterwards I put these examples of potential exam questions on Canvas. The main goal of all these small group activities, this social interaction, is to engage students with the material, but – as I mentioned before– that was a goal of the course also before we had to teach online. While I as a teacher can explain things, and students can learn from it, it is also good that students talk about it and try to formulate their own perspective on the material.

Discussions activate your thinking by simply formulating to another student how you think about the material. Also to hear what other students think, to get acquainted with different perspectives activates your own thought process. Because the breakout room groups were randomly assigned by Zoom, so every class or even every assignment, students were assigned to a different group. So every student has shared a breakout room with all their peers at one point and therefore got to know many ways of working and thinking.

Literature

Artikel

Edwards, O. (2020). The impact of the social context on value and expectancy beliefs in an online graduate program: The role of social presence. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12492

Artikel

Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., Lv, J., & Caskurlu, S. (2017). Social presence in relation to students’ satisfaction and learning in the online environment: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 402-417.

Artikel

Sung, E., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). Five facets of social presence in online distance education. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1738-1747.

This story is part of a series of inspiring practical examples of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged during focus group discussions within the research project ‘Online and blended education at the UvA’. This research project provides insight into the experiences of instructors and students with online (aspects of) education and the strategies that instructors have used to stimulate (online) learning.

The stories and reports from this project can be found on the project page:

Go to projectpage ‘Online onderwijs during COVID-19’