Cameras Off? Quick Ways to Engage an Audience in Video Conferencing by Kristen Fusaro-Pizzo

I recently gave an anonymous survey asking high school students and high school educators across the United States to explain their camera usage on video conferencing.  (Link to the open survey here. I'm keeping it open so I can keep learning and sharing.) 

Based on the 176 responses I received, numerous conversations with students as a teacher and with faculty as an instructional coach, it comes down to a few simple responses to why students and educators alike choose to keep their cameras off.  I will pull some direct quotes... let's see if you can determine if it was a student or an educator:

1. "When I was having a bad day or didn't seem to look presentable I did not feel comfortable turning my camera on. "
2. "I don't think it's necessary because the presenter is usually presenting their screen so we are not interacting with each other."
3. "Most of the times the presenters are on screen-share, so I feel like there is no point."
4. "When I was having a bad day or didn't seem to look presentable I did not feel comfortable turning my camera on."
5. "If I'm just a spectator, which happens when information is delivered AT us, what's the point?"
6. "I’m not comfortable showing my face."
7. "It can be draining to always be "camera-ready", especially for people I do not know."

Were you able to figure out which responses were educators and which were students?  1. Student, 2. Educator, 3. Student, 4. Student, 5. Educator, 6. Student, 7. Educator.   Are you surprised by any?

While those are only samplings of the responses, they resonate for about 85% of the echoed reasons that educators and students keep their cameras off.

Students and educators are self-conscious and disengaged.

While we, as presenters, may not have control over the chaos in the background (which makes up for roughly 10% of the reasons students and educators did not turn their cameras on), we can certainly have a positive impact around a camera-anxious and disillusioned audience.

I will present a list of some strategies you could use to create a Healthy Video Conferencing Environment to help reduce the anxiety around videos.

1. Build a Community. I put this first because it is, by far, the most important. The best way to tackle self-consciousness and disengagement is by building relationships. 
1. Lead by Example: If you want cameras on, keep your camera on. 
2. Use Names: As people come into meetings/class, greet them by name.
3. Play Attendance Games: I take attendance by asking my students a silly question and have them answer me with their voice (i.e.: What is your favorite video game?) I use this as a way to bond and have them bond with each other.
4. Share Yourself: Share fun and funny anecdotes about yourself throughout your presentation (of course, use professional discretion).
5. Check-in: You can do informal check-ins to gauge the mood temperature of the room.  Sometimes I open up a short forum for people to discuss, sometimes I ask them to share it in the chat, sometimes I use the polling feature.  Mix it up so every voice is heard.
6. Be Consistent: The best way to build trust is to be reliable, the easiest way to become reliable is to follow-through.  If you offer an agenda one day, offer it every day. If you promise you will follow-up by a certain date, do that. Don't hold yourself to expectations you can't keep  (this is also self-care: only promise what you know you can and WILL accomplish). 
2. Establish Norms and Procedures.  Whether you're presenting as an educator, as a student, or in general, it's imperative to establish your norms around video conferencing.  Ideally, you want to do this at the beginning of the school year (but it's never too late to start), and continue to do so until it becomes routine.  If you're presenting a short series or just one time, the beginning of the presentation is ideal. Co-constructing norms are excellent for long-term settings, such as classes or a professional learning series.  When you involve your participants, they become more vested and own the learning. Some ideas for norms:
1. Never mandate videos, but always request. The moment you mandate people put their videos on, you will automatically put them on a defensive. However, requesting for people to put their videos on, and explaining why: "Videos help us build our classroom community," "We all miss seeing faces," "Videos allow us to share expressions," "Videos show professionalism," "If we have our cameras on, we appeared ready to learn/engage/participate."
2. Ask people to stay muted until they're ready to speak. This allows for the speaker to have the floor without distracting background noise that other participants may not be able to control.
3. Furnish a daily agenda. If you present an agenda, people know what to expect, and when people know what to expect, they're far more likely to stay in their rational brains. (This is a sample of my daily agenda, which I post to Google Classroom the evening before class.)
4. Offer a weekly/monthly schedule. If this is long-term (such as a class or series of presentations), a weekly or monthly schedule can create clarity, highlight your goals, maintain expectations, and reduce anxiety about "what's coming." (This is a sample of my year-long syllabus.)
5. Utilize the "Hand Raise" Feature. Many virtual programs offer the ability for participants to "Raise Hand."  Explain this feature if you want this to be how your participants can participate.
6. Establish rules around the chatbox.  Be clear about your expectations for the chat. Decide on how you want everyone to use the chatbox and be very clear about it. (More ideas on this below.)
3. Encourage Virtual Backgrounds.  Many video conferencing programs offer the feature to change the virtual background and you could encourage this use to reduce environment self-consciousness, encourage self-expression, and even use it as a way to engage with the lesson.  For example, I change my virtual background to match each new unit I teach.  This allows me to engage with the material, protects the sanctity of my (sometimes) hectic home, and start conversations (when students notice a new background).   This is also a passive way to encourage students to have their cameras on (if they want) because then they can show off their background.   (Here is a link for free Zoom virtual backgrounds.)
4. Utilize the Chatbox.  The chatbox, when focused, can be a great place to create equity of voice.  Some ways to use the chat:
1. The Waterfall: Ask a question and have everyone type it into the chatbox, BUT don't have them press enter until you offer a countdown.  Then, all of the chat will flood in like a "waterfall."  Use this as a point for discussion -- either mention certain responses or encourage participants to comment on each other's responses.
2. The Q&A:  Use the chatbox as the place for Q&A.  Encourage participants to put all of their questions into the chat so that everyone can feel comfortable to find their clarity. Assign a couple of people to be the "Chat Masters" and they can monitor the chat for you to let you know when these questions pop up and you don't have to lose time.
3. The Reflection:  Encourage participants to use the chatbox as a point of reflection. They can answer a directed reflection question, or you can have them fill in blanks with: "I think," "I wonder," "I agree/disagree," etc.
5. Change Your Main Photo. Sometimes it's just not possible for people to have their cameras on.  Ask all participants to at least change their photos to their faces so that there is some humanity attached to the conference.  
6. Have a System for Calling on Participants: To create engagement, it's imperative to be a part of the learning process.  Sometimes people will shut their camera off if they have a gap in skill or capacity, which often may seem like a gap in will.  To help build this capacity, establish a way you plan on having each of your participants be a part of the discussion.  (In any new system, it's imperative you explain it with clear expectations and success criteria.)
1. Volley Technique: The same as you would in person, have participants to call on each other.  In my classes, I give this the name of the "conch" (from Lord of the Flies) and the "ghost." Passing the "conch" is when someone has their hand raised, and passing the "ghost" is when someone does not. (I only recommend "ghosting" in an established community, otherwise, it does not fare well.)
2. Use a Random Name Generator. You can utilize technology, such as Classroomscreen, to input the names of the participants and use that tool to randomly select. Be sure to build community by not using this as a "gotcha" tool, but instead be patient and kind and repeat the question as much as needed in an even tone of voice.
7. Split People into Breakout Rooms: Smaller groups may make it easier and more comfortable for people to participate in conversations.  
1. Give guided questions.
2. Assign specific roles.
3. Set a specific amount of time.
4. Hop in-and-out of the various rooms to offer formative feedback and/or assistance.
8. Be Clear: It seems so simple, but one of the biggest causes of disengagement and self-consciousness is a presenter's lack of clarity.  If they don't understand the directions, the audience may feel unsure about the content and/or their abilities, which leads them to shut down. Being really clear may mean needing to explain a task or concept in multiple ways:
1. Written instructions.
2. Video instructions.
3. Examples and modeling.
4. Videos from OTHER experts.
5. Peer-to-peer modeling.
6. Consistent check-in.
9. Be Open to Feedback:  This year, I established in my daily agenda a few minutes for each class cycle as the "Feedback Few."  This is an allotted time where I allow students to offer ME feedback on how I'm doing and what I can do to make their own learning better.  I established a safe space which also, you guessed it, builds community, to let me know if something I'm doing is not working for them.
1. *IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO RESPOND POSITIVELY TO ALL FEEDBACK!  Negative feedback is crucial and critical to our growth as presenters and educators.  As my favorite athlete, Robin Arzon, says, "I receive the haters. That fuels me. I literally pour it in my bowl of Cheerios in the morning."  While our audience (as students or as professionals) are not going to be "haters," we can still glean the message from Arzon that if we allow feedback to be our fuel and respond to it positively and proactively, we build trust and resilience.
10. Make Opportunities for Creation. Creation requires the highest level of critical thinking, which, in turn, requires the most engagement.  When you ask your audience to create something, you're also asking them to engage in such a way that requires them to explore beyond the scope of regurgitation.  This can be as advanced as project-based learning over the course of time or as simple as a learning activity done with a few people. 
1. For example, one of my favorite activities, when I used to teach 1984 by George Orwell, was to ask my students to write a six-line love poem in the language they're studying (for our school, it's Russian) - no dictionaries or translators allowed.  If they were native speakers, they had to choose the language from middle school. They bellyached and struggled. Then I asked them to share it within their smaller groups. They laughed and grimaced. Then I asked them to figure out my purpose, which, of course, was to illustrate how language constructs thought. I then asked them to take it to the next level and speak in small groups about how it would be for someone who doesn't speak English to try and communicate at various locations (I picked a different place for each group).  In that lesson of creation, there was also cultural competence, empathy, language, diversity, multi-disciplinary connection, but most importantly, everyone needed to be engaged to make it work.  

The main success criteria for this blog is if you glean that building community is the root of establishing all positive environments.  The video conferencing study made me realize that our critical issues for keeping our cameras off are really no different from mentally shutting off when we're in person:  we're self-conscious and we're disengaged.  Building a community with positive relationships can alleviate both.