Cameras in Zoom: Should They Be On?

– Holiday E. Adair and Jeanne M. Slattery

Holiday Adair

There has been a lot of talk lately about requiring students to have their cameras on during a remote session of class. Various blogs, articles, and responses to these communications have been helpful in identifying the pros and cons of instituting such a requirement, with the “resolution” usually being to be clear – to yourself as well as students – as to the reason you are instituting such a requirement. 

I (HEA) taught the last half of Spring 2020 term via remote (on Zoom) but did not have a camera policy because that was the first time I was teaching remotely. To me, it felt more like an emergency situation, something to be gotten through any way the students (and I) could.  For fall, I decided to invite students to have cameras on, but it was completely their option. Many opted not to, and I accepted that. This Spring, I will be in the classroom (perhaps with some students) and will have some students opt to attend remotely. Again, while I will invite them to keep cameras on, it won’t be a requirement. I won’t be able to see them because of the nature of my classroom set-up (e.g., cameras and screens).

Why ask students to make their cameras active?

Why ask students to have their cameras on during a class session? Al-Dheleai and Tasir (2019) report that

Research in education confirmed that students engage in learning when they feel connected with others and when they play an active role in their learning process. Therefore, social presence (SP) [is] considered as an important component of effective learning in both face-face and online learning environment. (p. 13)

A “community of inquiry” creates presence (social, cognitive, teaching, and learner) and is key to enhanced learning (Garrison et al., 1999; Shea & Bidjerano, 2010). Encouraging camera use will likely increase social presence, by helping all parties become known, leading to more effective learning in remote-offered courses. Camera use may encourage learner presence by increasing learner engagement. 

Faculty more concerned with the practicalities of teaching may insist on camera usage in class by students because it prepares them for the post college world – whether they will need to transfer those video skills to remote meetings for work or generalize the social skills learned by always being on camera in future face to face professional encounters. For classes with a performative requirement (e.g., speech, art appreciation, acting), requiring camera use might be a necessity for assessment and engagement with others in the class. 

Figure 1. Contributions to a community of inquiry.

When institutions had to move to remote instruction in the spring of 2020, teaching and learning centers on campus encouraged “normalizing” the remote experience as much as possible (Marek et al., 2021). One strategy was to stay in visual touch with students by requiring camera use. When some faculty balked at this as an invasion of privacy, others countered that students are “required to show” their faces (and themselves) in class all the time. Faculty reported that “cold-calling” a student whose camera was off with a question led to too many instances of awkward silence meaning the student was really not there. 

Why give students a choice about cameras?

Although arguments for requiring students to have their cameras on make sense and are persuasive, arguments against this dictate are more compelling. First, there are the practical ones. We teach at public state universities, where many students are first generation college attendees coming from poor to working class families. Many are commuters from rural locations. Access to internet can be unstable; in adding camera use, the increased demand for data transfer makes it even more unstable. Students with limited means may have older technology that does not have the requirements needed for video use (such as a webcam or built in camera). Students with limited resources are at a disadvantage in a learning community that demands the latest in technology.

At some institutions, socioeconomic status may correlate with race or other legally protected variables, so requiring students to use the camera discriminates against those without the means to have a camera or adequate bandwidth to keep their camera on during class. In addition to personal characteristics, when the camera is on, students unintentionally reveal the status of their living situation. At this point, requiring a camera does become an invasion of privacy and is no longer the equivalent of being present in a face to face class.

Students in lecture-style classes often do not see the faces of all their classmates since they are sitting in single facing rows – they could if they chose to turn around. In Zoom (or other meeting apps), they are faced with a sea of faces for the whole session. One respondent (under the username of “Frankie”) to an Inside Higher Ed post  points out that “Zoom empowers students to reveal what they want to reveal – possibly decreasing judgements” (Reed, 2020).  When students decide to turn their cameras on or leave them off, they decide whether or not to release personal information. Being able to make this decision evens the playing field a bit for disadvantaged students. 

Jeanne Slattery and her students

Lännström (2020) pointed out that the research on the use of cameras and performance in class is not as straightforward as claimed. She remarked that seeing all classmates can actually be more distracting and reduce attention to the material. Faculty who want to see their students to judge attention and comprehension (getting similar feedback from the class as one would in a face to face environment) really do not get “good data,” especially in classes with more than about 7 to 9 students. With more students, the faces seen on the faculty member’s monitor get smaller and, often, create multiple viewing pages that the instructor has to scroll through to monitor more than the same few students who appear on the main viewing page. 

Students at Stanford University (Nicandro et al., 2020) conducted an informal poll in the spring to determine student response to faculty requiring constant camera use. Over two-thirds of the respondents reported feeling uncomfortable with this requirement. They felt self-conscious and concerned about the privacy of their space. They reported feeling confused about the consequences of not using one’s camera because the faculty member did not say what would happen if a student did not have their camera on. Some reported experiencing shame at being “called out” during class for violating this rule. Students could think of no good reason for this as a rule in a class. Others reported feeling considerable social anxiety when they needed to have their camera on.

Recommendations

Considerable research suggests that when we are transparent about our goals, we can help students engage with class material and achieve their goals more effectively (Winkelmas, 2013). Rather than only being busywork, when we are transparent about an assignment, the assignment gains meaning and becomes purposeful. Do we have a purpose in asking students to turn on their cameras? For me (JMS), my purpose includes that my courses work on building listening skills; will help them become more successful in class, as they are likely to multitask less; and prepares them for a future where they are likely to need to learn to be effective in virtual interactions. I’ve added this language to my syllabi and will discuss these ideas with my students on the first day of my classes. Of course, I will also discuss ways of handling their social anxiety (e.g., choosing Speaker rather than Gallery mode in Zoom.

Different classes have different expectations, though. In a recent conversation with faculty teaching psychology in a doctoral program, all faculty believed that camera use should not just be a suggestion for their courses, but a requirement, as building and assessing interpersonal and clinical skills are essential in that context (Slattery et al., in press). One take-home point is that camera use can be ethical and appropriate when suited to the course – and camera use explained.

Why do you require cameras in your classes?

So then what is the guidance on camera usage for remote instruction? The Center for Teaching and Learning at Oregon State University shared an infographic that lists the pros and cons of a camera requirement as well as some general advice. They suggest:

• Establish expectations for turning on cameras early on and explain why. 
• Set norms for synchronous meetings and the use of video camera. 
• Turning video cameras on should not be mandatory. 
• Have short conferences to have face-to-face with students. Encourage, but do not insist on the use of video camera for discussions, virtual office hours, and consultations. 
• Ask students to make themselves visible if they are asking/responding to a question; otherwise, use chat. 
• In larger classes, some professors tell students to turn their cameras off during lectures. (Amobi, 2020)   

We believe that creating a community of inquiry and developing freely-chosen class norms about camera use will enhance student engagement and commitment to the format of the class (Garrison et al., 1999; Shea & Bidjerano, 2010). Some students will decide that camera use is optional and should only be required when asking/answering a question and while in breakout rooms and small group meetings. Creating a trusted community in the classroom will probably enable students to feel more confident about opting to turn their cameras on. Other ways to create community can be found in Slattery (2020). 

References

Al-Dheleai, Y.M., Tasir, Z. (2019). Web 2.0 for fostering students’ social presence in online learning based interaction. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 9(1), 13-19. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.552

Amobi, F. (2020, June 1). Should you require students to turn on their Zoom cameras? Oregon State University Center for Teaching and Learning Blog. https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/osuteaching/2020/06/01/should-you-require-students-to-turn-on-their-zoom-cameras/

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2), 87-105.

Lännström, A. (2020, August 20). Should we require students to turn their cameras on in the Zoom classroom? Online Teaching, Online Learning Blog. https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/2020/08/should-we-require-students-to-turn-their-cameras-on-in-the-zoom-classroom/

Marek, M.W., Chew, C., & Wu, W.V. (2021). Teacher experiences in converting classes to distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies,19 (1). https://doi.org/10.4018/IJDET.20210101.oa3

Nicardo, V., Khandelwal, A., & Weitzman, A. (2020, June 1). Please let students turn their videos off in class. The Stanford Daily. https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/06/01/please-let-students-turn-their-videos-off-in-class/

Reed, M. (2020, May 13). Should showing faces be mandatory? A new question posed by technology. Inside Higher Ed Blog. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/should-showing-faces-be-mandatory

Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. Computers & Education 55(4), 1721-1731.

Slattery, J. M. (2020). First day online. Hand in Hand. https://handinhandclarion.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/first-day-online/

Slattery, J. M., Knauss, L., & Hunt, M. (in press). Ethics in Action: Being “present” on Zoom. Pennsylvania Psychologist.

Winkelmas, M. (2013), Transparency in teaching: Faculty share data and improve students’ learning. Association of American Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/transparency-teaching-faculty-share-data-and-improve-students

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Holiday E. Adair is professor of psychology at California University of Pennsylvania. This is her first blog post! She has spent the last 15 years conducting student learning outcomes assessment on her campus. She can be contacted at adair@calu.edu

Jeanne M. Slattery is professor and chair of psychology at Clarion University. She is a student-centered teacher, who loves her students, teaching, and learning. She has published three books – Counseling diverse clients: Bringing context into therapy; Trauma, meaning, and spirituality: Translating research into clinical practice; and Empathic counseling: Building skills to empower. She can be contacted at jslattery@clarion.edu