For a year now thousands of Mercer students have been taking classes remotely, logging on to video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Teams and Collaborate usually twice a week for each of their classes.
Virtual classroom experiences are very different depending on the requirements of each professor, and the biggest difference many students make is whether they turn their cameras on or off.
WHO CARES WHO IS THERE?
According to a VOICE survey, 67% of the 100 students who took the survey say they don’t care much or at all if other students have their cameras on, but almost the same number say they find it important or very important that their instructors do so.
Lucky for them, 92% of the 27 faculty members who were also surveyed say they keep their cameras on all the time. Just a few said they did not and indicated the reason was that it isn’t optimal for the field they teach.
Professor John Morreale of Accounting is one of the few who do not keep their camera on. He told The VOICE in an interview, “The important thing, I think when your teaching Accounting is to show people examples.”
On the other hand, that 92% of professors that do use their cameras find them crucial. Professor Dr. Terry Voldase who teaches Business and Computer Sciences requires that students keep their cameras on during the entire class.
She says, “When you don’t see them, you don’t know them.”
The majority of faculty, 74%, reported that it was difficult or extremely difficult to “teach a class where you can see few or no student faces.”
WHY ARE CAMERAS OFF? ARE STUDENTS DITCHING OUT?
For students who said they don’t turn their cameras on at all, the most common reasons given were not wanting people to see their physical space or feeling exposed and embarrassed.
Dr. Yannick Ladson, Senior Counselor of MCCC Counseling Center explains this phenomenon. She says cameras provide “windows” into the lives of students and can be too intrusive.
“When the camera is on in my home, you’re seeing a window into my life and to who I am that I may not want to reveal,” Dr. Ladson says.
On the other hand, equally as many faculty members–50%–think students who keep their cameras off may do it so they look present and then they go off to do other things, basically ditching class.
Of the 100 students who took the survey, only one admitted they do so. They said they log in to class then turn their camera off and go help their mother with chores.
But many students said they log in and then turn their cameras off so they can just listen in, potentially missing presentations or other parts of class.
Further, it is possible students are under-reporting the fact that they are ditching out since faculty members say there is evidence that students are abandoning class regularly.
As one faculty member put it, “When ten percent of my Zoom class misses the end of class and the blank windows just sit there while I say ‘Hello? Hello?’ I’m all too keenly aware that’s the number of students who literally wandered off.”
From the 67% of faculty members that say they have discovered students who had “wandered off,” they said it had a highly negative impact on their perception of the student.
TECHNOLOGY IS NOT THE ISSUE
Out of 100 students who took the survey, many said they turn their camera off because they find the class boring, but not a single student who said they kept their cameras off all or most of the time selected technical issues as a reason.
One faculty member responded to the survey saying, “Some students are very shy, some don’t have working cameras, and some don’t have the bandwidth to support cameras on and staying connected at the same time. I don’t want working cameras to be another digital divide showing socioeconomic difference and making some students feel less able.”
However, many professors, 38%, said they require cameras on for some or all of their classes and many students say keeping their cameras on was a factor in their grade and that that was why they kept them on.
Another faculty member who responded to the survey said, “I require cameras on. If a student does not have their camera on, I will remove them from the class to the waiting room. In on-campus classes, no one comes to school with a towel over his or her head so they cannot be seen. I don’t accept their excuses for being video muted. In my opinion, if cameras are off, they are ‘multi-tasking’ and partially engaged. It’s easy to do, I do it myself when I am video-muted during meetings.”
The same instructor said they make some exceptions. “Occasionally a student communicates that they have a broken camera, I will allow that exception, but the entire class knows that is the reason Suzie has her camera off and this reason does not apply to everyone.”
WHO IS ALWAYS ON?
Students who keep their cameras on all the time say they do so because it is either a requirement, because it makes a good impression on the teacher, or because it keeps them focussed on their work.
“I think keeping it on helps you stay focused. You know the teacher sees you,” says Jermarie Madina, a Business Administration student. “It kinda helps you be in more of a class setting.”
Sixty-two percent of faculty members surveyed said they wished their students would have their video on more in class. But while 83% of students say they think faculty like it when they have their cameras on more, only 9% think they should turn their camera on more.
One professor who requires students to be visible said, “I work hard to earn their respect of my camera-on rule. These are some of the ways I try to humanize this whole $%%#% experience.”
