Analysing Students’ Reasons for Keeping Their Webcams on or off during Online Classes

Vasile Gherheș, Simona Șimon and Para Iulia
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Vasile Gherheș: Department of Communication and Foreign Languages, Politehnica University of Timișoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
Simona Șimon: Department of Communication and Foreign Languages, Politehnica University of Timișoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Since, in some higher education institutions, it is not mandatory for students to turn their webcams on during online classes, teachers have complained that their students have adopted this behaviour once the educational activities moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering this, the present research aimed to identify the reasons behind students’ choice to hide their faces during online classes and find possible solutions to remedy the situation to enhance the educational process’s sustainability. Thus, this article presents the results obtained by applying an online questionnaire between December 2020 and January 2021 among the students pursuing an academic degree, recording 407 responses. The results highlighted the fact that more than half of the students participating in the study reported that they do not agree to keep their webcams on during online classes, the main reasons being anxiety/fear of being exposed/shame/shyness, desire to ensure privacy of the home/personal space, and chances that other people might walk into the background. The relevance of the research, besides the scarcity of studies on the topic, is also given by the fact that finding and understanding the reasons for this behaviour are, in fact, the first steps in undertaking regulatory interventions on it.

Keywords: webcam on; webcam off; online classes; sustainable education; pandemic; higher education; students; anxiety; privacy; shyness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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