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Since March 16 I’ve been teaching remotely—via Zoom—and here’s one issue I’d like to get your input on as I prepare for the spring semester: Should instructors require students to keep their cameras on while they’re in a Zoom classroom? Should they encourage it? Or should they let students choose what they want to do?
Let me present some basic arguments and their ethical foundations. We won't be coming up with definitive answers, but these are some questions and considerations to begin our deliberations.
Let’s start with the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence: Professionals are obligated to do good, to prevent harm, and to refrain from doing harm. In an article entitled “5 reasons to let students keep their cameras off during Zoom classes,” Tabitha Moses—an MD/PhD candidate at Wayne State University—cites some potential harms: stress, anxiety, Zoom fatigue, and a reduced ability to take care of “competing obligations,” including child care. In these times, and for students who did not choose this format, these are legitimate concerns.
But there might also be benefits to an on-camera approach. For example, students may pay more attention, participate more, and feel more connected to their instructors and peers.
Just because there are risks does not mean that a practice should be forbidden. After all, there are risks and benefits to all pedagogical decisions. For example, having to travel to campus creates financial hardships for many students. Many feel stress by being in a classroom with others—maybe we could call it “other-people fatigue.”
We can frame our basic decision about benefits and harms as a utilitarian one: Do the benefits of being on camera outweigh the risks, for a significant percentage of students, in terms of outcomes such as engagement in college and learning? We will be better able to answer that question as the results of empirical research become known. For now, we have mostly anecdotal evidence. (For example, most of my first-year students say to me that they feel better in a classroom where they can see their colleagues.)
But even when we know more about the effects of being on video, we will still have judgments to make. For example: What are the important benefits we provide for our students (a good question under any circumstances!)? How much benefit is enough to outweigh what risks?
Beneficence, nonmaleficence, and utility are not the only ethical principles to consider. Let's consider our obligation to respect people's autonomy—their right to self-governance. Here, we can start with two important implications. The first, as Ms. Moses points out, is that we should respect people’s privacy. We typically do not see the insides (or outsides, if the weather is nice and batteries are charged) of students' homes, and not everyone can or wants to invest in the equipment necessary to produce virtual backgrounds.
The second implication is simply that we should give students as much choice as possible in how they want to conduct their education. Total choice, of course, doesn't exist. We require certain courses, for example, and we override students’ choice by requiring papers, tests, and attendance, because we know (or believe) that these practices are so beneficial that students would not get their money’s worth from college if they opted out. Can we make the same argument for requiring, or at least encouraging, cameras?
One more ethical principle: justice. Does the requirement, or use, of video images of students put some students at an unfair disadvantage? Ms. Moses invokes justice when she discusses “financial means and other kinds of access.” She notes that many students “lack access to the technology needed for online classes.” Another example: Might we be putting parents of young children at a disadvantage? Is the disadvantage greater than the disadvantages created by having to come to campus, or having to meet at specific times?
What do you think? Should being on camers be required, encouraged, or optional? for students Of course, this basic question merely sets the stage for more subtle questions--and more creative solutions to the problems. A more comprehensive question might be: What types of video images, for what kinds of activities, should be required or encouraged for what types of students, in what types of classes?
The decisions we make, and how we implement them, might be different based on factors such as the nature, size, content, objectives, learning strategies, or level (lower-division, upper-division, graduate) of the course. What if we required some class periods to be on camera, when justified, but others not? Would it be ethical to provide incentives for being on video, such as participation credit, or extra credit? Should we give prizes or extra credit for the best virtual backgrounds?
Feel free to weigh in on any of these issues, whether you are a student, instructor, administrator, or a family member or friend who is just getting used to putting on at least sweat pants to walk across the living room.
