Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Using video 129 
next door to our utility room. Before every conference call or 
tutorial, I have to check that the washing machine hasn’t been 
switched on. If it has, I have to press its pause button. Otherwise, 
at some point in my conference call, it could go onto the spin 
cycle, and the noise from the room next door will distract people 
on the call. I remember once that I did not switch of the washing 
machine and one of my students wanted to know what that noise 
was ...! 
It is, of course, possible to mute your microphone on conference 
calls so that any background noises do not distract others in the 
session. However, this leads to ever-present shouts of “You’re 
on mute” or “Can’t hear you” when a speaker forgets to unmute 
themselves. Tis can be just as distracting as the background 
noises. Te answer is not always the mute button but a proper 
noise-cancelling microphone and your own attention to eliminat-
ing any background noises. Tat includes letting anyone else in 
your household know they need to be quiet when you are online 
in a video call. I shut my ofce door, and I have a sign saying “On 
Air” which signals to others to keep the noise down. 

usinG video chaT faciliTies 
All of the leading video conference programs have a chat func-
tion. Tis allows you to comment on the discussions taking 
place. As helpful as this seems, there are problems. You can’t 
mentally focus on the words being said in the call itself and the 
words you read in the chat stream. You can only interpret one set 
of words at a time. So if you are reading what someone has said 
in the chat, you will not hear what is being said in the video call 
itself. Researchers have suggested that, when watching video, 
the simultaneous chat stream can be highly distracting (Weisz et 
al., 2007). In online tutorials, I often see students entering things 
into the chat, such as “Nice top you are wearing” or “I like your 
hair”. However, when they are typing that or when others are 
reading it, they cannot possibly be listening to what is being said. 

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