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FEM: Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica

versión On-line ISSN 2014-9840versión impresa ISSN 2014-9832

FEM (Ed. impresa) vol.24 no.2 Barcelona abr. 2021  Epub 17-Mayo-2021

https://dx.doi.org/10.33588/fem.242.1121 

EDITORIAL

Docencia virtual en tiempos de pandemia. ¿Cámaras y micrófonos abiertos o cerrados?

Virtual teaching in times of pandemic. Cameras and microphones on or off?

Virtual teaching in times of pandemic. Cameras and microphones on or off?

Jordi Palés-Argullós1  2  , Xavier Gasull-Casanova2 

1Fundación Educación Médica. Barcelona, España

2Facultad de Medicina. Universitat de Barcelona. Barcelona, España

The pandemic situation we have been experiencing for a year now has conditioned, among many other things, the teaching in our faculties. Delivery has shifted from face-to-face to virtual via different platforms, or sometimes in both formats simultaneously. And we teachers, just like our students, have had to adapt overnight to the new situation.

As we have progressed through the academic year, we have found that, in general, students who follow their teaching activities by means of an online platform mostly prefer to remain physically anonymous in the sessions, without using the camera that would allow us to see their faces or the microphone when they ask questions, or by answering the teacher's questions with messages in the chat rather than speaking out loud. This slows down the pace of the class and sometimes means that students' requests go unnoticed by the teacher. The 'cameras off' option after the experience of this academic year has made many teachers feel uncomfortable with this virtual format.

This situation has already started to be discussed among teachers and has been the subject of reflections in the literature by experts in education [1]. A careful analysis of this issue has to be performed from a dual perspective - that of the teachers and that of the students.

In the case of teachers, most of whom are used to face-to-face teaching and direct contact with students, working with the cameras turned off can often be discouraging and demotivating, as it gives the impression that you are talking to a wall and you have no idea who is behind it, who is following the explanations and who isn't, whether they find the explanations interesting or motivating, or if it is only the system that is connected, but the students are not there. It also makes communication with students and between students very difficult, thereby lowering the effectiveness of teaching.

Being deprived of the students' reactions (non-verbal communication), being unaware of whether or not we are capable of capturing their attention, whether they understand the explanations we are giving them or not knowing how they express themselves orally lowers the teacher's interest. It also makes it impossible to detect whether any of the students have problems of some kind that hinder their learning. Furthermore, teachers are deprived of necessary feedback, whether verbal or non-verbal, from the student, which makes it difficult for them to improve their own attitude towards teaching. For all these reasons, the question has arisen among teachers as to whether it would be better to require students to keep their cameras and microphones switched on.

From the students' perspective, according to some authors [1], switched-off cameras and the associated lack of visual cues, apart from being discouraging for the teacher, may tend to isolate students, while, on the other hand, it has been argued that switched-on cameras may even pose a threaten to their psychological safety. Others have focused on sociological aspects to justify the tendency we observe in our students to choose to turn their cameras off. Thus, for example, the need for students to constantly ensure that their appearance and surroundings are fit to be seen, or not wanting to show their home environment could partly explain this behaviour of turning the camera off.

But we believe there are other, simpler reasons as well. Those of us who have some teaching experience are aware that many students do not wish to participate and prefer to go unnoticed, as occurs in face-to-face classes. Our students generally find it difficult to participate in face-to-face classes when invited to do so and, in this context, switching their cameras off gives them a great opportunity not to do so or even to disconnect from the platform if they do not want to be asked anything or take part in the discussions.

We should make students aware that virtual teaching in which cameras are turned on has, in general, a series of advantages for their learning. These include interacting with their teacher and peers, forming a community, being able to detect signs of mental health problems, such as deterioration in personal care or loss of affection, which are very difficult to detect in a situation where the camera is turned off. Encouraging appropriate behaviour during video conferencing and allowing students to practise monitoring how they present themselves to others, including non-verbal aspects, is of great importance in human communication. Even acquiring skills such as those required for communication would be enhanced with the camera on. We must also bear in mind that, after the pandemic, telemedicine will become increasingly important. Hence, working with cameras switched on would facilitate the acquisition of these skills, which will be much needed in the future.

The question therefore arises as to whether or not it is appropriate to force our students to keep their cameras on throughout the sessions. However, establishing such an obligation is not easy, and I don't know up to what point it is advisable or even possible. But if distance learning is now here to stay, we should try, as far as possible, to make our students see how important it is for us to maintain contact with them and for them to stay in contact with each other in the best possible way. Perhaps in the case of large master classes it may not be indispensable for students to have their cameras turned on, but it would be essential for other activities where student participation is necessary and beneficial.

In any case, within our possibilities, we must try to ensure that switched-off cameras do not become the common norm, leading to the ultimate disconnection between students and teachers.

Bibliografía / References

1. Leung HTT, Bruce H, Korszun A. To see or not to see:should medical educators require students to turn on cameras in online teaching? Med Teach 2021;Jan 21:1-3. doi:10.1080/0142159X.2021.1873258. [Online ahead of print.] [ Links ]

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