Overview

As we teach more online synchronous learning, the debate about whether we ask students to turn on their webcams has flourished. Overall, most experts agree that students should not be required to activate their cameras. We need to consider the diverse circumstances of students and respect their choices. However, encouraging (rather than requiring) cameras may be beneficial. So, please help your students understand that turning on their cameras (where they feel able to do so safely) may benefit fellow students and build their sense of community with others.

Mitigating some of the issues

While we would advise never mandating webcams, you can help students to feel increasingly comfortable connecting visually and/or orally.

• Build a sense of community with icebreakers and activities.

• Try a nudge approach: ‘Welcome! We wish we could see all of you in person, but we’re so glad you’re here.’

• Tell students about turning off self-view in Zoom, in case that helps.

• Suggest students either blur or use Teams or Zoom backgrounds (BlendEd 2020). This helps maintain some privacy, though it’s not a guarantee and doesn’t solve problems of ambient sound. In addition it may not be possible on mobile devices (Young, 2020).

• Give students the option to creatively choose a background relevant to the topic of the webinar using copyright free images.

Engaging beyond the camera

There are many ways to engage without a webcam, allowing students to establish a positive social presence within their cohort and to make their learning ‘visible’ (Webster, 2020).  Devise activities such as polls and quizzes, or pose questions students respond to in the chat to show you how they are understanding (Bali, 2020, Blake 2020).

You can also suggest that students:

• Use profile pictures: selfies, emojis, or even images of their pets.

• Post a picture/video introduction to themselves so you can put a face to a name (Bali, 2020) and students can get to know classmates.

• Respond to the class so far with a smiley, thumbs up, clapping hands or other emoji.

• Use audio-only and/or consider using cameras in smaller breakout rooms, even if they don’t turn them on in the whole group.

If you have any questions or if you encounter technical issues, please email us at moodle@setu.ie from your SETU staff/student email account.