Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

116 Studying online 
Internet” is often blatantly untrue because students who complain 
about “lack of bandwidth” are only too ready to talk about what 
they are watching on TV streaming services like Netfix. If they 
really had a poor Internet connection, they wouldn’t be able to 
watch subscription television. Instead, the students are providing 
what seems a logical reason to cover their reluctance to use video. 
Tis suggests that the students are not convinced of the benefts of 
having their cameras switched on during video conference calls. 
I have discussed this lack of desire to switch on the webcam with 
several students and discovered that one of the critical factors 
involved is self-identity. Tat relates to the same issues discussed 
in Chapter 5 about the unwillingness to participate in online fo-
rums. How we perceive ourselves and what we believe others 
will think about us is central to the reluctance to use webcams. 
Mistakenly, students think that people will be critical of their 
appearance, for instance. Yet, those same students would not 
worry about this in a face-to-face session on campus. Te rea-
son is that on campus you cannot see yourself. On online video 
conference calls, you are shown your own image on screen to-
gether with everyone else. Tat means we are constantly aware 
of what we look like, and this triggers concerns. So, the best way 
out of that, seemingly, is to switch of the webcam so we cannot 
see ourselves. However, the problem with doing that is that you 
remove the beneft of other students seeing you and engaging 
more with you as an individual. In face-to-face sessions on cam-
pus, you would be visible to others in the group in a tutorial, 
for instance. Without your webcam switched on, you disappear 
from the view of the others on a video conference, and so you are 
more likely to be ignored. 
Check out the software that your university uses for video confer-
ence calls. Some software allows you to switch of seeing yourself. 
If that is not the case, you can get a sticky note and place it on the 
screen where your image is to cover yourself. Tat way, you will 
not be aware of seeing yourself, thereby reducing that anxiety and 
increasing your overall engagement and beneft from using online 
video. 

---