Virtual Rec Room
Joseph Zhuang
How might we improve mental health among students attending virtual school through harnessing the benefits of informal interaction spaces?
Amidst a global pandemic, university students face difficulty meeting and forming important social relationships through the new medium of virtual school. This is especially an issue for newly-enrolled students lacking established communities or connections, and this is proven to have negative effects on mental health.
Spaces primed for informal communication- hotspots to easily form community- are now inaccessible to many students. In the physical environment, a recreation room is a prime spot for students to gather, relax, have fun, and a low-stakes space to meet new people and form friendships. What if this could be translated online?
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INSIGHT
What makes up the school experience? Drawing from my personal experiences and that of my younger brother, I couldn't help but think that there could be a difference in improving the student virtual school experience, currently characterized by isolation and anxiety.
Emerging out of a place of empathy, my research delved into mental health, challenges both students and educators face in virtual school, the importance of informal interactions in education, and the presence of virtual communities amidst the pandemic.
IDEA
Existing physical and digital spaces primed for informal interactions are present in the COVID world, which have beneficial correlations to student mental health. Spaces present on platforms such as Maple Story, Minecraft, and Discord help students to destress in informal environments where there is a collective sense of community.
However, I observed that many of these platforms were inaccessible in terms of cost and time commitments. What if the existing behavior present on virtual communities could be accessible and affordable to a larger body of students?
IMPACT
A virtual rec room integrated into a LMS (Learning Management System) would be a ripe, accessible space improving the formation and development of social relationships, proven to benefit a students' mental health and academic performance.
Moreover, imagine the possibilities of communal weekly tournaments and student-teacher matches- it would help break down digital divides, build a collective sense of closeness, and improve mental health through countering loneliness and anxiety.
Joseph Zhuang
As a designer with a multi-disciplinary background ranging from arts to animation, I draw from a diverse toolkit to simplify problems and create intuitive experiences that are a joy to use. Or, another way to put it- design experiences that simply make sense.
I enjoy designing at the exciting and constantly changing intersection of thinking, empathy, design, and technology. As an avid learner, you can find me solving design problems during the day and learning Java by night.