Student Presenter(s): Marissa Karasz, Zenab Shafiq
Faculty Mentor: Melissa Huey
Department: Behavioral Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, New York City

With the onset of COVID-19, many colleges and universities have made the quick transition to Zoom classrooms, as opposed to traditional in-person learning. The Zoom classroom, however, holds several unique challenges to overcome. Learning about a topic via Zoom can feel more disconnected, and staying fully engaged with the material can be challenging. (Besser, Flett, & Zeigler=Hill, 2020) Preliminary data has shown that integrating Zoom breaks and various backgrounds could prove helpful to alleviating these issues. For example, one study found that "from an educational point of view, it seems that active breaks could be considered as an effective instrument to improve classroom behavior, as well as impacting on attention and cognitive function." (Masini et. al., 2020) The purpose of the proposed study is to compare the various modalities of Zoom backgrounds (no specific background, calm/relaxing virtual background, or other) and Zoom breaks (no breaks, one break, two or more breaks) and the effect that it has on the classroom learning in terms of (a) mindfulness; (b) academic achievement; (c) anxiety; and (d) engagement in the classroom. Surveys will be administered to students at NYIT once at the beginning of the Spring 2021 semester and once at the end of the semester. Results will be analyzed statistically. We hypothesize that calm backgrounds and one Zoom break will result in higher levels of mindfulness during class, lower levels of anxiety, and higher engagement.