Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Using video 127 
students. Hence what is in the background may be theirs and not 
yours. Tis is another reason why it is essential to check your 
background before going on to a video conference call. 
alternative backgrounds 
Many video conference software programs, such as Microsoft 
Teams or Zoom, allow you to add “virtual backgrounds”. Tis is 
where artifcial intelligence determines what is in the foreground 
and keeps that on-screen, replacing everything else with a pic-
ture. You can either select your own image or use one supplied 
by the program. However, the software is not perfect. It will often 
think that something is in the foreground when it isn’t, showing 
that item. Also, if you move slightly, it can think you are in the 
background, and so it eliminates you from the shot. Virtual back-
grounds could become distracting for your fellow viewers as your 
image can go in and out of view if you move, even slightly. Indeed, 
researchers in Tailand studied online education sessions and 
suggested that the use of virtual backgrounds can be distracting 
(Ulla and Achivar, 2021). In tutorials that I have run online where 
people have used virtual backgrounds, there is often chat about 
the selected backgrounds taking time away from the topic being 
discussed. Plus, when people drift in and out of shot, there are in-
terruptions as people start saying things like “Where are you?” or 
“You’ve disappeared again”. Until the software is dramatically im-
proved, virtual backgrounds are not a good idea; they cause more 
problems than they solve. 
Green screens 
If you really want to get rid of the background of your room en-
tirely, you could use a “green screen”. Although these are usually 
bright green, they can be any solid colour. Te software for your 
camera can then eliminate anything that is green and replace 
it with an alternative image. Because the software only has to 
detect a single colour, replacing it is relatively easy compared 

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