Are you a teacher in the online environment looking to increase the engagement of your students in class, perhaps by encouraging them to turn on their cameras during class? Here are a few tips that might help you help them feel comfortable in doing so!
Establish having your camera on as the norm of the class. Oftentimes, students in online classrooms might be intimidated to turn on the camera if the majority of students have their cameras off to begin with. Start class by encouraging students to turn the camera on and explicitly initiating it as the norm.
However, be understanding if students cannot always have their camera on. Not only has the pandemic been correlated with increased anxiety and depression among college age students, but everyone's home situation is different and not all students may feel comfortable with the class being able to see their living environment, or they might not have good enough internet connection to be able to sustain the video on. Additionally, already underrepresented minorities as well as those within low income households have already reported higher rates of anxiety and depression throughout the pandemic. For all of these reasons and more, be flexible and realize that in this new home learning environment, not everyone may be able to have their cameras on all of the time, and offer alternative ways for them to participate.
Give breaks throughout class. Staring at a screen for long periods of time can be tiring on anyone, even those who think that they are used to it by now. Offer breaks throughout class at regular intervals. It can even be as simple as something that I have enjoyed in one of my classes called the 20/20/20 – every 20 minutes, we take a break from the screen to look 20 feet into the distance for 20 seconds. For longer classes, be sure to give students a few minutes every once in a while to avoid fatigue on Zoom and to use the bathroom or get a snack.
Assign activities that require student participation. In the case that a student may necessarily need to turn their camera off, there are still many ways that one can ensure participation and attention. This can come in various forms such as poll questions, typing something into the chat, or answering check-in questions about material covered in class. Students will be less likely to get distracted even if they do not have their camera on if there is some active component to the class. Active learning has been shown to increase the efficacy of teaching and lower failure rates in student populations, so why not incorporate it into online class?
Ask the students about the challenges that they are facing in their online classes. Whether it be through an anonymous survey or form, check in and see the students' reasons for turning on or off their cameras throughout class. This will help you as an instructor better understand the reasons that students are turning off their cameras and work to address these concerns and perhaps shape the class activities in a way that address some of these concerns.