"Now you see me, now you don't": why students avoid turning on their cameras in synchronous online lessons?

One of the phenomena that lecturers who switched to online distance learning during COVID-19 reported is the refusal of students to turn on their cameras during online classes. This study aimed to examine the factors that predict the opening of cameras in class. The study examined this issue regarding three types of predictors: resistance factors, learning environment factors, and personal factors. The population included 205 students from higher education institutions in Israel who studied online during the COVID-19 period. Data were collected using an online questionnaire and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings show that camera opening among students during academic classes is indeed relatively low and only partial. The study also revealed four rejection factors to turning on cameras and personal characteristics, such as gender and self-image, that predict students’ rate of turning on cameras. However, the more the lecturers demanded to open cameras, the higher the students’ responsiveness, and the smaller the classroom, the greater the willingness to turn on cameras. Finally, the findings may help lecturers better understand the students’ perspectives of camera use in online classes and develop effective strategies to increase turning on cameras by students. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Interactive Learning Environments is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

In times of trouble: Higher education lecturers' emotional reaction to online instruction during COVID-19 outbreak.

The disruption of 'normal' academic studies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was embodied mainly in a rapid transition from in-class teaching to online synchronous instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the lecturer's emotions towards the change they experienced with the sudden shift to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of those emotions on their willingness to teach online in the future. In the present study, 239 academic lecturers answered an online questionnaire. Four groups of emotions were examined: Success, opportunity, failure, and threat. The findings indicated that the emotions lecturers experienced most strongly was that of success, followed by opportunity. The predictors of lecturer's willingness to teach online in the future were emotions related to 'opportunity' and 'failure'. Surprisingly, the dramatic event of COVID-19 lockdown evoked more positive than negative emotions among lecturers during the first semester of the crisis. The emotions of threat that might characterize this period did not affect the willingness to teach online in the future as may be expected. This study demonstrates how tracing the emotional response toward adopting technology may contribute to understanding technology acceptance. It also contributes to understanding the differences in experiencing change in the normal process of technology adoption as opposed to emergency times.