Breaking out of the lecture rut: Using Zoom to build classroom connections

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brought momentous changes to higher education regarding how students attend classes and how faculty teach. While the effects of these changes will be evaluated and debated for some time, this past year has shown that technology can help build connections between students in the virtual classroom. This short paper will reflect on existing research regarding virtual classroom practices and build on that work by demonstrating how breakout rooms were used in two graduate engineering communication courses to facilitate collaboration and build relationships between students from diverse backgrounds and locations.