Megan Lin/ Center for Teaching Excellence
As you likely know, all LCC faculty received an email from our Provost, Dr. Sally Welch, stating, “Except under certain circumstances, the use of cameras by students is not to be required in ORT courses. This is potentially an equity issue. Students may be embarrassed about their living arrangements, have hot spot issues, or have broad band issues. Please make sure that you do not have any statements in your syllabus that states you require the cameras to be on and do not include camera use in your participation points”. There are allowable exceptions in cases of formal presentation assessments, testing, exams, and roll-call for certain programs.
Below, we offer some perspective on the topic, along with ideas that encourage (not require) students to turn on their cameras, as well as ways to engage students with cameras off. Perhaps making students feel comfortable by having the option to turn their cameras off may open up new and different possibilities for teaching and learning.
Some Perspective:
Should Showing Faces Be Mandatory? A new question posed by technology.
By Matt Reed (Posted in Inside Higher Ed) on May 13, 2020
At this week’s open chat with faculty, someone asked whether they have the authority to compel students to show their faces during synchronous classes. I hadn’t really thought about it, and I’m still trying to decide on a good answer.
The answer I gave in the moment, which I think is fine as far as it goes, is that it’s perfectly reasonable to do that in classes in which visuals are part of the course. In public speaking, for instance, you aren’t only listening to the student’s words; you’re also looking at body language, gestures, even props. To do that, you need to be able to see the student. Classes in which students do presentations or give performances (like in an acting class) require visuals. It’s less clear why that would be true in, say, history.
Some professors argued, correctly, that it’s disheartening in Zoom to talk to a bunch of black boxes with names in them. Cold-calling those black boxes often results in silence, strongly implying that the student isn’t actually there. Good discussions — one of the affordances of synchronous technology — require that people are actually tuned in. When students wander off, the discussions fall flat. Besides, someone other than the student might be there, pinch-hitting. As the old cartoon says, on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. (Of course, that can also happen in a classroom class. I never asked for ID when I took attendance. If the same student answered to “Otto” every week, I assumed he was Otto. He could have been Otto’s smarter brother and I wouldn’t have known.)
Another professor alertly pointed out that in class, students have to show their faces. That’s more an inevitability than a policy, but it’s true. It isn’t true, though, in asynchronous classes, which suggests that the question isn’t as easy as it seems.
With Zoom (or whatever synchronous video app you’re using), there’s an element of visual overshooting; you see the background, as well as the student. Students may not want to show their surroundings, and there’s no reason they should. Yes, sometimes virtual backgrounds work, but I’ve found them maddeningly inconsistent. And I know well from all of my own Zooming that sometimes I just get tired of constantly staring at a screen. I would imagine that many students feel the same way.
To get an 18-year-old’s perspective, I asked The Boy. He quickly responded that no, students shouldn’t have to show their faces online. As he put it, “Online is different. Everyone can see you.” I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but he had a point. In a traditional classroom with rows of desks or tables, most students are facing the front of the room, so only the professor is seeing all of the faces at once. But in Zoom, students can see other students’ faces all the time. Even worse, given the way the screen works, you don’t know when someone is looking at you. For folks in the most self-conscious years, that’s an issue.
So assuming the class isn’t one with mandatory student performances or presentations, should professors be allowed to mandate that students show their faces? END
Using the Chat feature in WebEx and Zoom
One simple idea is to utilize the “chat” feature in WebEx and Zoom by asking students to:
- write a question
- write something thing they learned
- write a short summary of what comes next (if applicable)
- write an answer to one of your questions
- write a short reflection
These short tasks can be used for participation points, to take roll, as an “exit ticket”, and as informal assessments.
The following links are from Edutopia.org:
Strategies to Encourage Students to Turn Their Cameras On
Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off
This work by Megan Lin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Thank you very much for your presentation. I teach Japanese classes at LCC and use WebEx breakout room feature, as well as other features. I use paired or small group activities to encourage my students to converse in Japanese in small group settings. When I visit breakout rooms or even in general class sessions, I often discover students are not participating and nobody knows where they are.
How can I encourage them to participate without using a camera? In a beginning language class, active class participation is very important, and in my f2f classes, about 60-70% of class time is in done in pairs or small groups, and I walk around and make sure everyone participates. Thank you very much for your advice. Mieko Philips, Japanese Language instructor
Last Spring and in the Fall I had several students in my ESL class who could not use the camera and also have audio. It was more important for us (the other students and me) to hear them than see them, so I didn’t require the cameras. I had to use a lot of direction to create conversational activities (example, I ask Student A to ask a question of Student B, and Student B responds. Then Student B calls on another student and repeats the exercise around the class. It’s slow, but everyone had to stay tuned in because they never knew who would pick them to pass the activity onto. Another thing that helped was Flipgrid, which I learned about in TLTT last summer. This is a free application which lets a student create a short video speaking about a topic. The student can record whenever they choose, so the student could go outside and record, for example, rather than having everyone see their living space. I used these as one outside assignment per week, so points were awarded for submitting the videos. Hope some of this helps.
I liked your example of playing rock-paper-scissors. As a programming professor, I have the students program this game. Having them play online before we program it would get their attention and help them think about the algorithms involved. Putting their hands right in front of the camera might help alleviate their worries.
As I was adding my comments, it was submitted. My additional comment was that I DO understand why the use of camera should not be required, and I think those are very good reasons.
Great points made! I agree cameras are optional but participation via chats, polls, breakout sessions, etc. are part of the online “realtime” experience and will continue to be a part of my coursework.
As a Learning Assistant and a student, I can understand this from both prospectives. I think most students are getting a little too comfortable with joining a virtual call and then doing their own thing. I also feel they are disengaging a lot and possibly losing good communication skills. I like the idea of having students at the very least type out something, like a response to a prompt, which is what my embedded professor used to do at the beginning of every class. However, to keep the student engaged through the entirety of the call, I think there should be multiple prompts/questions asked by the professor. I do not think they necessarily need to have the camera on to make their presence known. Unmuting, when appropriate, is also a good way to stay engaged.
I think you are right. Even private chat is fine if that is the way the way the student is willing to participate.
I do like the whole open-and-honest part of teaching. And, of course, part of THAT is just talking with (instead of to) students, about anything. Yes, I steer clear of certain divisive topics. However, before the class starts, sometimes it is nice to talk about hobbies, and I have found in the synchronous sessions, PETS!! Of all of the different things I have found to draw out most (not all, there is no all) students is talking about pets. Students seem more willing to show their cat or dog or whatever than themselves. For that matter, students seem more interested in seeing pets.
From my side, I had been unable to get my camera to function for the longest time, only recently purchasing a standalone plugin model. I eventually found an appropriate photo to add to my name. This semester I will have camera capability, but, as I use SmartBoard, a calculator emulator, an online textbook and homework system, and often present external material, it will likely be used sparingly to save both on bandwidth and my computer’s processing capacity.
Will I keep seeing “black squares?” Oh, most certainly – and there will be days when I will continue to feel as I am shouting into the void. To be fair though, when I do tell my students I feel as I am “Shouting into the void.” at least a few will respond, if not orally at least by chat.
Thanks for the information. I had quite a few issues with zero student camera interacting. It is quite frustrating to know that the majority are likely not actively viewing or paying attention.
you mentioned ” I never asked for ID when I took attendance. If the same student answered to “Otto” every week, I assumed he was Otto. He could have been Otto’s smarter brother and I wouldn’t have known.)
This issue is solved In high school, there is chart seat to know who is who. I did not see that in LCC. There must be a way to know the person in class or online. what do you think?
This is a challenging area for any instructor, tutor, etc, I think the use of cameras is better than not using cameras, it is just encouraging the students to use them, so the ideas here give some options to help, I have also worked with students that have problems with internet connection, which is a separate troublesome issue as well.
I try to engage students by encouraging them to include both family and pets in my ORT classes. It reminds me of the commercial on TV where there is a meeting going on and the business meeting is interrupted by his children because of working from home. I do not mind these so-called family interruptions, it’s great to have the kids interact with the class if they are willing. I introduce my 19 year cat Kelly to the class so they get used to see her interrupt me during class. I ask the class to introduce their pets as well, people love to be around their pets and talk about them as well. These are great ice-breakers to get the class involved more.