Flow, Fear, and Classroom Modality: Student Experiences in a University Environmental and Sustainability Film Course

When the words climate change, environment, and sustainability are used in conversations today, they typically elicit engaging conversations among the current generation of university students. One common thread among these conversations is that students are looking to course faculty for answers as their fears are cause for concern. The purpose of this research was to determine if relationships existed between students in an environmental and sustainability film course through the modality in which they took the course, level of fear, and whether individuals exhibited flow experiences during the course. Fear and flow are socio-psychological constructs related to individuals having: (a) a level of fear or concern related to a specific instance or event in time, and (b) a perceived level of skill associated related to an activity (e.g., watching a film) and a level of challenge that individuals have that is associated with the same activity. Results indicate that occurrences of flow most often occurred in the online modality of learning by students. Additionally, fear levels corresponded to flow occurrences in by online modality students. This case study supports previous research that fear, and flow can be positive experiences for students when considering pedagogical practices in teaching and learning.