Allyson McGrane
Author
Allyson McGrane
Affiliation
Memorial University
Abstract
Many post-secondary instructors who moved online due to the global pandemic were not experienced with teaching remotely and thus aimed to replicate their physical classroom despite it being completely different. Due to the speed required for the initial transition to remote learning due to COVID-19, many instructors initially chose to set up an online learning environment which closely reflected their typical in-person learning environments. But when they moved to remote online learning using blended synchronous classes, a common change from seeing and hearing one’s students in a classroom was instead having a screen filled with little black squares. For many reasons from concern about personal appearance to wanting to engage in an activity other than class to simple Zoom fatigue, students chose and are still choosing to avoid using their cameras while attending synchronous learning sessions. This challenge of determining whether students are participating and learning without visual cues has led to exploration of more flexible approaches which align with the principles of Universal Learning Design as well as those of diversity, equity and inclusion. These approaches include establishing new norms to encourage but not mandate camera use, offering audio and text-based alternative means to communicate, sharing through visual involvement such as collaborative whiteboards, bringing in real-time feedback using emoticons, facilitating small group learning in breakout rooms and opening up possibilities for individualized check-ins and workspaces. As a result, instructors may now wish to examine these alternative possibilities of how to engage post-secondary students who attend synchronous online classes rather than mandating the use of video cameras. By exploring new technologies and fully exploiting the existing features of video platforms, many teachers could learn that seeing their students is less necessary than they originally believed.
Keywords
camera use, Zoom, COVID-19, post-secondary synchronous learning,
Overview
A Pandemic Instructional Challenge: Cameras & Little Black Squares (05:18).
Introduction
For post-secondary instructors, a common experience in moving to remote online learning due to the global COVID-19 pandemic was the change from seeing and hearing one’s students in a classroom toward an experience of a screen filled with little black squares. Though two years into this crisis many students are now returning to in-person classrooms, some programs are retaining online options due to the uncertainty of the pandemic as well as student preferences and expectations. This chapter will explore how instructors can successfully teach students who prefer to keep their cameras off and typically provide minimal feedback during online learning offered via video conferencing platforms such as Zoom. It will review the current literature on this topic in order to draw