‘Give me a minute, I just need to put you into your groups’: transferring group activities to the online space using breakout rooms

Abstract

Transitions to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged how group-based activities were delivered. This paper explores how a quantitative social research design project allowed insights into digital pedagogy. Transition to group working in breakout rooms required planning to be centred on an imagined student learning experience. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), this included understanding the dynamics by group, supporting learning in the digital space, presenting accessible materials, facilitating the learning process across multiple groups, and (re)planning teaching sessions successfully for the online milieu. Breakout rooms are dispersed digital learning spaces and were in use at a time when students were experiencing significant declines in mental health, challenges with digital exclusion, disengagement, and a lack of online confidence in peer-to-peer relationships (Peper et al., 2021; Savage et al., 2020). Addressing these key factors required a more student-centred planning approach, based on individual and group needs, in ways which were not seen within face-to-face delivery. Drawing on experiences of the potential for isolation and uncertainty for students in breakout room spaces, I reimagined the digital space in terms of material presentation, facilitating student empowerment, and communicating and managing across multiple breakout rooms concurrently. These strategies contributed towards positive student experiences, providing pedagogical insights into newer online teaching practices for GTAs.