Abstract:

The present article explores the design of effective distance learning scenarios, with a focus on mitigating technostress and ensuring a positive learning experience. Technostress in online education refers to the negative impact of technology use on a teacher’s or student’s well-being, including physical and mental health, work-life balance, and overall quality of life. This can lead to decreased motivation, burnout, and negative impacts on mental and emotional well-being, and negatively impact learning outcomes and performance. A positive learning scenario refers to a carefully designed and well-structured educational experience or situation in which the primary focus is on creating an environment that promotes effective and enjoyable learning. In today's educational landscape, where distance learning is becoming more and more common, creating positive scenarios for distance learning is essential.

Typically, distance learning scenario design guidelines and templates do not explicitly consider the potential impact of technostress on learners and teachers. However, when developing a distance learning scenario, it is important to also assess and identify potential stressors and negative psychological impacts that may be caused by the use of technology on teachers and students, and to design strategies for their mitigation.

This article describes the technostress management process, including risk analysis and the development of teacher competences.

The article further introduces a practical tool, the Technostress Analysis Canvas, designed by the POSITIVE LEARN project to help educators assess and address technostress factors in distance learning scenarios and describes the structure of a positive distance learning scenario template, offering a step-by-step approach to designing and delivering positive distance learning scenarios to ensure that technology enhances the learning experience rather than causing unnecessary stress or frustration to learners or teachers.

Keywords:

Distance learning, technostress, instructional design.