Building Relationships Through the Online Classroom

Building Relationships Through the Online Classroom

Akihiko Andrew Tohei

Sakura no Seibo Junior College / Fukushima University

For the past two years, freshmen students at our university have expressed concerns about making new friends at school while learning online or wearing masks and keeping social distance from each other in the classroom. The students also have been worried about communicating in English due to their relatively low proficiency levels. In response to these concerns, the presenter sought to create an online learning environment that gave learners ample opportunities to communicate directly with each other in a safe setting. Through apps such as Flipgrid and Padlet, students shared information about themselves and commented on their classmates’ submitted work. As a result of these interactions, students indicated that their relationships with peers improved dramatically and they were able to talk more freely outside of class as they found things in common with each other. Their confidence in using English also increased. Through a voiceover of a slideshow, the presenter would like to introduce how he set up the online classroom, discuss the various communication methods used, give examples of actual student responses, and show how both teacher and student relationships improved through online interaction.