Creating a positive learning environment in the online classroom with Flipgrid

Abstract

The pandemic has made more clear than ever that health issues impact education and that schools play a key role in supporting the wellbeing of learners. As emotion and cognition are interconnected, educators should use educational strategies that generate positive emotions so that learning is associated with pleasure. The aim of this study was to investigate if a warm-up activity with Flipgrid could contribute to creating a positive learning environment in the online classroom in Covid-19 time. Flipgrid is a free platform that allows video-based asynchronous discussion. It fosters educator-student contact, cooperation among learners, active-learning techniques and student engagement. A total of 37 MA students participated in the study. Informants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling. The data collection strategies were observation during the Flipgrid warm-up activity, a Moodle survey, and the institution student satisfaction survey. Students’ engagement was high and participants’ attitude on their responses was mostly positive or neutral. The warmer was highly rated in terms of creating a positive learning environment by the participants, and informants wrote positive remarks about their experience using the platform. The results suggest that a warm-up activity with Flipgrid is an effective educational strategy to generate positive emotions during the pandemic. Finally, the limitations of the study are addressed, and some directions for future research are proposed.