Posted by Dr Gilbert Price How to 0. These techniques have ranged anywhere from straight-out demanding it, to coupling digital attendance with webcam streaming to grades. I totally understand the teacher perspective though.
It really is quite difficult to teach synchronously if all you see are blank screens and just lists of names when going live. But there are ways to coax students to turn on those webcams. It really comes down to just making them comfortable enough to engage with you, the rest of the class, and the content on hand. From my on perspective, I definitely think that live online teaching is the way to go if you can! At the start of each class, I always tell the students that it would be great to see them but only if they are comfortable.
I also encourage students to unmute themselves if they have anything that they want to say throughout the session. This usually happens periodically in any given class, with the text chat being the most common form of in-class communication for most of my students. My two undergraduate courses in the fields of intro geology and palaeontology, respectively are part of the physical sciences.
In the online world, that switches to digital resources such as 3D models. Loads more students are only too willing to share their specimens, including oftentimes the seemingly shyest students in the class. They are not only extremely proud of what they have, but love the opportunity to be able to show-off their prized collections with other students. So to encourage further engagement online, I often ask the online students to show me what they have by flicking on their webcams.
In fact, a student last year brought one of their specimens to one of the rare face-to-face sessions. I was able to digitise it and turn it into an interactive 3D digital model and used it for teaching later in the semester. He teaches introductory Earth Science and second year Palaeobiology, as well as supports several other courses behind-the-scenes. He teaches by instinct and knows what works to inspire and engage students.
