Boredom in online activity during COVID-19 outbreak causing dysfunctional behaviors of adolescent students: phenomenological study to the creation of virtual reality classroom

Abstract

Boredom is the phenomenon most adolescent students have been struggling with, especially during the pandemic; they were regularly mandated to stay in a new normal way. This research aimed to study the life experience of boredom towards online activities leading to dysfunctional behaviours of teens, to survey the preference for online learning methods of Thai adolescent students, and to create a virtual reality classroom for English writing classes. The first study, transcendental phenomenology, included ten teens between 13 and 18 years old selected by purposive sampling. In study, 285 Thai teens were recruited to answer the questionnaire, and the last phase included five experts to discuss the strategies for creating a VR classroom. The research findings indicated that most adolescent students experiencing boredom with online activities defined “boredom” in two ways: blackout and refuelling. The experiences of boredom during COVID-19 led to dysfunctional behaviours such as cheating, aggression, and procrastination. The essence appeared to be two conterminous elements: boredom towards “contents” and “forms”. The survey research findings indicated that almost 50% of the respondents preferred online learning in the form of virtual reality. The researcher, hence, created a four-station-learning VR classroom for English writing class, considering four elements: contents and learning activities, environmental design, multimedia invention, and online platform. All discoveries can be applied to many fields, such as behavioural science, psychology, education, and science and technology, to ignite the idea and enhance online learning to become more motivating and reduce adolescent students’ boredom.