Katie Seltzer has published an article ‘Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off’ on Edutopia.
As remote learning became the norm, some of my students began to not-so-subtly indicate that something was wrong. During a guest lecture on Zoom, several typically engaged students had their cameras turned off. One student stopped attending synchronous class meetings, and another stopped submitting assignments.
In conversation, it became apparent that these students wanted to remain engaged with learning—but didn’t want cameras on. I realized that I needed to reassess how I determined students’ engagement: by looking at their faces.
Here are some ways I’ve found to maintain community during virtual learning—while allowing students to make a choice about whether or not to turn on their cameras.
HOW TO MAKE VIDEO OPTIONAL
Running video-optional Socratic seminars: For small group discussions, I allowed students to meet on their own time—but asked that they submit a video recording to check for understanding. One group submitted a video even though students’ cameras were off; nothing was lost in my ability to assess their ability to hold a discussion.
Initially, I had abandoned replicating a Socratic seminar virtually. Following the lead of this group, however, I was inspired to embrace an experiment. I conducted a virtual Socratic seminar in which the outer circle turned off their cameras and only the inner-circle students spoke with video and cameras on.
Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off