Getting the Most out of Zoom: Teaching through Mock Stakeholder Meetings in the Virtual Environment

Through recognizing that teleconferencing platforms—such as Zoom—were not created to serve as virtual classrooms, but rather to host virtual meetings, I created a semester-long mock stakeholder meeting project for my Recreation Planning class in hopes of harnessing the unique strengths of a platform designed for meeting purposes. This brief details a number of aspects of the virtual meeting environment that were utilized in the design and implementation of this project, and implores leisure educators to create assignments and projects built for—not adapted to—the virtual meeting environment.