Tip: Cameras On?
Framing the conversation around a question of who benefits from a cameras-on policy is helpful in thinking about what is best for students.
When I was looking at fall 2020 and trying to think about how on earth I would be able to get students motivated and engaged in remote classes, with a pandemic raging around us, I listened to some very thoughtful voices about whether or not it was a good thing to require that students keep their cameras turned on during class, and I concluded that it was not a choice I wanted to make for students.
I keep my camera on (barring internet issues), I greet students enthusiastically, and I build in opportunities for interaction that don’t rely on a student un-muting. I do not require that students turn their cameras on.
Now here we are in the seventh pandemic-disrupted semester, still grappling with teaching remotely and student engagement. I find that in conversations with faculty development colleagues, the consensus seems to be that requiring students to turn their cameras on is not the best approach to student engagement. Faculty, on the other hand, largely seem to feel strongly that students need to be encouraged, if not required, to turn on their cameras. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer here, but I have found that framing the conversation around a question of who benefits from a cameras-on policy is helpful in thinking about what is best for my students.
Who benefits?
Thinking about who benefits from seeing faces versus seeing black boxes begs the question of what is happening in the Zoom classroom. In a traditional lecture-based on-campus class, only the instructor really benefits from being able to see students, reading facial expressions and body language - albeit not always accurately - to assess attention. Leading to, back in the day, nearly as many debates about the use of laptops or other devices in class (ex. here and here) as we now have debates about turning cameras on. Students, in this classroom, see the instructor and not each other.
Do most of us have a lecture-based classroom, though? Hopefully, we offer our students a little more variety and more interactivity with their peers. Many of us have experimented with collaborating in shared Google slides or other docs, being creative with how we use breakout rooms or interactive quizzes, and more broadly thinking about what engagement looks like in the remote classroom and how to offer more authentic and project-based activities. All of these strategies help encourage engagement and interaction without relying on the proxy of seeing faces looking back at us. In this case, is there a strong benefit to the classroom experience - even if it’s a Zoom classroom - for students having their cameras on as a default?
How to decide?
Lindsey Masland created this very helpful infographic, including resource links, to help think through whether there is a learning- or student-centered reason to have cameras on.
It occurs to me, too, that many - perhaps most - meetings I’m in with colleagues are a sea of black boxes and static pictures. As we consider how we want to run our classes, we might reflect a little on our own reasons for wanting to lurk quietly in a workshop or eat lunch during a faculty meeting.
