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Edutopia
The Camera-On/Camera-Off Dilemma
A new study offers some guidance for striking a balance between class
cohesion and privacy. Plus, strategies from teachers to encourage
camera use in context.
By Youki Terada
February 5, 2021
When the Cornell professors Frank Castelli and Mark Sarvary switched
from in-person to remote teaching last spring, they established an
“optional, but encouraged” policy for video cameras. Concerned about
equity issues, they didn’t want their students to feel uncomfortable if
they lacked access to a private space or were embarrassed by their home
environment, for example.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has already increased college student anxiety
and depression, and a mandate for camera use may add to that trauma,”
they reasoned in a new study. But by the end of the year, the duo
realized that they might have struck the wrong balance. Faced with a
sea of blank screens, they often wondered whether they were talking to
themselves. How were their off-screen students reacting to challenging
material?
While the professors wanted to respect student privacy, the lack of
ambient feedback when the Zoom camera was off put a real damper on
learning. “Instructors benefit from receiving nonverbal cues from their
students such as smiles, frowns, head nods, looks of confusion, and
looks of boredom, so that they can evaluate their teaching in real time
and adjust accordingly to improve student learning,” Castelli and
Sarvary write—emphasizing the value that comes from being able to read
students’ faces.
Students, too, benefit from being able to see each other onscreen. In
the study, a majority indicated that “using videoconferencing helped
build trust and rapport with other students and helped them to develop
a sense of identification with others in their group.” The social
context of living classrooms—the often-invisible human connection that
reinforces learning—was missing for students, who insisted “that being
able to hear and see each other in real time helped construct a ‘more
complete picture’ of their peers.”
If both sides of the educational equation were losing out, then a
middle ground needed to be found, the professors thought—one that
respects the rights of students but supports the social dynamics of
learning, at least in some situations.
To refine their strategies around camera use, Castelli and Sarvary
surveyed hundreds of students to identify their main privacy concerns.
The students, it turns out, weren’t staying off-camera for the
anticipated reasons. Forty-one percent of students said they turned
their cameras off because they were “concerned about [their]
appearance”: They had messy hair, were wearing pajamas, or hadn’t yet
showered, the study reported. Relatedly, 17 percent of students felt
that everyone was watching them, creating a sensation of unbearable
self-consciousness.
Equity-related issues also cropped up. Underrepresented minorities were
twice as likely to be concerned about their homes being visible and
were 12 percentage points more likely to cite a weak internet
connection—perhaps a reflection of how the pandemic can exacerbate the
digital divide.
QUICKLY ESTABLISH A NORM
Being proactive about cameras early on can be an easy first step to
establishing the norm—more so than during the school year, if a
camera-off culture has set in.
That’s because virtual classrooms—and the expectations that follow—may
be new to most students. In the study, one in 10 students didn’t turn
their camera on simply because they felt that was the norm. “If you
don’t explicitly ask for the cameras and explain why, that can lead to
a social norm where the camera is always off,” Castelli and Sarvary
warn. It can quickly become “a spiral of everyone keeping it off, even
though many students want it on.”
To counter this, Castelli and Sarvary recommend including the camera
policy in the class syllabus and explicitly encouraging camera use on
the first day of class. A camera-on norm can also help address the main
reason why students turned their cameras off: concerns about their
personal appearance. If students anticipate being seen on camera,
they’ll be more likely to brush their hair and dress appropriately.
TEACHER-TESTED STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE
Addressing norms doesn’t mean that students will turn the camera on
daily—you’ll still need to make accommodations for students, and you’ll
need to encourage camera use contextually.
For Liz Byron Loya, a visual arts teacher in Boston, encouraging
students to turn their cameras on has its roots in building a positive
community, not in expecting compliance from students.
“Focus on trust, both teacher to student and student to student,”
writes Byron Loya. “Students who know they are safe and cared for by
their community will be more comfortable having their cameras on.”
Icebreakers and games—Pictionary and charades come to mind—can help
ease students into turning their cameras on, especially if they feel
that the focus is less on them and more on the activity.
Byron Loya also offers specific tips for encouraging students to turn their cameras on:
Survey students to identify barriers preventing them from participating.
Remind students that they can use a virtual
background if they don’t want to show what’s happening behind them.
Encourage students who have social capital to use their cameras.
Enable the waiting room and greet students one by one as they enter your virtual class.
Use Zoom’s “Ask to Start Video” feature to invite students to turn their cameras on.
For students who are reluctant about giving a
live presentation, provide an option to submit a prerecorded video.
For students who request to keep their cameras off, high school teacher
Katie Seltzer holds camera-optional Socratic seminars. “Students in the
outer circle, who typically would be evaluating the participation of
their peers in the inner circle, used the chat feature to echo powerful
comments they heard and ask questions of the inner-circle group,”
writes Seltzer. There’s no stigma associated with having their cameras
turned off, since the activity allows them to fully participate in a
way that mirrors the activity in traditional in-person classrooms.
Alex Shevrin Venet, a community college teacher and former school
leader at an alternative high school in Vermont, believes that the key
to encouraging students to turn their cameras on starts with the
teacher. Model mistakes and try to be authentic, she suggests, and let
students know that it’s OK to be themselves on video.
“Don’t worry about sounding rehearsed or making your space look
Instagram-perfect,” writes Venet. “Embrace the fun and silly moments
when pets and family members make guest appearances. Create an
environment where students recognize that turning cameras on means
laughter, making silly faces at friends, and being seen for who they
are.”
Read this and other stories at Edutopia
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