Digital Innovation: Zoom Fatigue
In this episode our hosts discuss what Zoom fatigue is and how to overcome it in your work life.
Show Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: Hello and welcome to this episode of The T
in Teaching.
This episode is the first episode
in a series called "Digital Innovation," where
our hosts, Angelica Finley and Amy Safirstein Sharma
discuss new technologies, topics, and techniques
in online education.
In this episode, our hosts will discuss an issue
that most people have experienced, Zoom fatigue.
Thank you very much.
Please enjoy.
ANGELICA FINLEY: Hello, and welcome to the first episode
of the "Digital Innovation" series.
I'm Ang.
AMY SAFIRSTEIN SHARMA: And I'm Amy.
ANGELICA FINLEY: And we are glad to be here talking
with you today.
In this series, we'll be discussing some people
or most people have experienced, which is Zoom fatigue.
Amy, can you talk about a time where you felt Zoom fatigue,
whether that be at work or in a class type of environment?
AMY SAFIRSTEIN SHARMA: Absolutely.
I think we've all felt Zoom fatigue on both ends,
as a professor and as well as a student.
On the presenter or professor side,
I definitely have felt Zoom fatigue
whenever students don't have their cameras turned on.
It's almost like giving a regular presentation,
but just to a wall instead of two attendees.
You're giving jokes, you're explaining things,
and you have no idea if those jokes are landing
or if anyone's really paying attention
by the end of your presentation.
So it's pretty tiring, a little bit nerve wracking,
not really knowing where you stand with your audience.
And then from the other side, from the student side,
you've got your camera on the entire time.
Oftentimes, this is through really long lectures.
There may not be breaks.
You don't feel like you can really move around
all that much because you've got to stay focused
in the center of the camera.
And additionally, you're paying attention
to what you look like.
So this is how I figured out that my face is not
perfectly symmetrical, and then I pay attention
to that half of the class.
So it can be tiring, not super helpful.
That's where the Zoom fatigue comes
into play on both sides of the coin there.
So let's turn it around.
And Ang, how can students notice Zoom fatigue setting in?
And I know that you've taught some classes,
so as a professor yourself, how have you noticed Zoom fatigue
setting in?
ANGELICA FINLEY: So there are a few reasons
and a few sort of cues.
The first and most obvious would be just staring
at a screen for a long period of time, so that sort of intense
close up on a screen for--
it's usually over an hour or even more,
can really take a toll.
The second would be something that you mentioned,
the ability to see yourself in a meeting, or in a setting
really.
So in in-person settings, you're not
experiencing looking at yourself unless you
have a mirror with you.
A lot of the time, and in classes that I've taught,
I might be the only one with my video on.
So it's almost like I'm speaking at myself
for maybe an hour and a half, so that can really take a toll.
And like you said, you're sort of just
staring at your face and your imperfections.
We're all human, so everybody, I'm sure, has felt that way.
I definitely have.
The third, you're always expected
to be on in a Zoom session or in a remote session.
So with face-to-face interaction,
you have the ability to look around the class,
look away from the instructor, look down at your notes.
In an online class, you really don't have that ability.
I mean, you definitely can look away from your screen,
but you also don't want to look like you're not
paying attention.
You don't want to seem distracted,
so it is very taxing to always feel
like you need to be on and ready and that you're always
being looked at.
So in an in-person setting, you don't
feel like your other classmates are sort of looking at you all
of the time.
But when you're on Zoom, you have
all of the thumbnails showing.
You can kind of see what everybody
is doing all the time.
So it definitely can be a little bit stressful in that sense.
AMY SAFIRSTEIN SHARMA: Absolutely.
That's a good point.
ANGELICA FINLEY: The fourth--
I would say we all have experienced this-- would be
distractions and tech issues.
So in an online setting or on Zoom,
there is that temptation of being
able to multitask when you're in a class,
I would say, or just in a meeting,
whether that be online shopping or checking your email
or going on your social media.
You do have that sort of ability to multitask.
That's a big thing, and tech issues,
and we've all have experienced our fair share of tech issues,
whether that be Wi-Fi lagging.
There are Zoom issues that could come up.
A certain feature isn't working, breakout groups aren't working,
you're unable to share your screen.
That can be a really big distraction.
That can just ultimately be a stressor for faculty that
aren't expecting it, students who aren't expecting it,
and it can take a large sort of chunk of time
to recover from that.
To go off of that, what are some strategies
that students can implement to manage their Zoom fatigue?
AMY SAFIRSTEIN SHARMA: Yeah.
So one thing that we recommend is getting situated,
looking and making sure that you're centered, that everyone
can see you, and then turning off your own view of yourself
in Zoom so that you can't see yourself the entire time.
Definitely a hard thing to do initially
because you want to just keep going back and making sure
that your face looks as symmetrical as possible.
But it's better in the long run to go ahead and turn that
off so that you can't keep looking at yourself
and nitpicking what may or may not be wrong.
Additionally, if you can move your seat back a little bit,
just to create a little bit of space between yourself
and the screen, that helps to trick your brain
into thinking that you're not super
close up with everyone looking right at your face all
of the time.
And additionally, having that extra space
allows you to potentially move around a little bit more
in non-distracting ways.
One of the ways I actually found to help myself
in one of my classes was I bought a cheap stationary bike,
and I just set it up underneath my desk.
And during class, I would watch the class
and just be slowly pedaling underneath the desk
to keep myself moving, which definitely
helped me to pay a little bit more attention to class.
And then, finally, your professors are there for you.
They want to help you succeed.
So if you're really having issues with Zoom fatigue,
I would recommend talking with your professor about it.
They can come up with strategies and try to help you to be
a little bit less fatigued, maybe change things around
in their class a little bit.
They may not realize the students are really
getting fatigued through these Zoom sessions.
So that being said, Ang, how can professors
best help their students, either in class
or when designing their courses, to mitigate
those effects of Zoom fatigue?
ANGELICA FINLEY: Sure.
So one of the main things that I've learned
is that every second doesn't need to be filled with talking.
In-person classes aren't like that.
Zoom classes do not need to be like that.
So utilizing polls, breakout groups,
making room for questions or conversations even,
that can be really helpful, so just engaging
students in different ways other than just
unmuting themselves and communicating.
Utilizing the Zoom chat can be helpful as well.
I feel like a lot of my students really
enjoy using the chat to engage with the class
and ask questions, rather than unmuting themselves.
So that is a big one.
Utilizing applications such as Poll Everywhere, where
you can integrate them in PowerPoints,
integrate poll questions in PowerPoints, I should say.
Integrate WordBubbles, things that
just give a second for a break of just lecturing.
The most obvious solution here would probably
be to take breaks.
Schedule a break if you can during a session.
I know it depends on the meeting time.
So if you have a 50-minute class,
you don't really have the ability to take a break.
You kind of need to get that content and material in there.
But if you have a longer period that you're working with,
shorter breaks, a five-minute break,
that can be really helpful.
And also the last would be to schedule some video
off time in your session.
So if you want to put students in breakout groups for a class
discussion to work on a certain in-class activity,
that's really helpful.
They don't need to necessarily have their camera off or--
they don't necessarily need to have their camera
on for something like that.
It gives them a chance to sort of turn off
rather than feeling like they're on all the time.
So once you put students in a breakout session,
that gives them the ability to sort of turn off their camera
and be able to just talk back and forth with each other.
Or if they have just in-class work in general
to work on their own, they can go ahead and turn their cameras
off.
