First, not sure if this is a serious question or not. I think you can you trust yourself I figure it out.
I don’t require webcams for my students. That’s a personal choice. I do to turn on my webcam and show the students my face, let them see my smile, allow facial expressions and gestures to increase that comprehensibility of input. I’ve had colleagues tell me the exact opposite. They only turn on their camera for about a minute, just let the students know they are there, and then disappear. As such, those same teachers report that students simply don’t respond or can’t answer questions.
Therefore, to me, having working microphone is far more important than webcam. If they can’t use their microphone, they can always type their response. I do call out students, sometimes randomly, but always with enough time to prepare for questions that have already been announced. Thus, if you are fearing that students are simply ignoring or turning off the feed, I think that class of 40 should be small enough to be able to randomly call on students to answer questions.
As @WongUser mentioned, albeit with a fairly more stern approach than I would advocate, students who have a week of online teaching under their belt should have certainly figured out how to use their device by now. I usually say that, for example if a microphone or webcam is not operational, that students would solve that problem within the week and be functional in the next class. Any student, for example, who’s using their cell phone to log into the online class should have absolutely no problem with using a webcam or microphone. This is evidenced by their continuous in ubiquitous uploading of Instagram photos and whatnot.
I agree that aspects of online teaching can be integrated into regular pedagogy with some effect. In fact, when we returned to face-to-face teaching, I have retained the option of students turning in work where they have pre-recorded assignments. That is to say, that they have the option of recording themselves, uploading a video, and sharing this with the class. I require them to be present for the class (whether it’s physical or online), and generally will ask them questions to elicit some impromptu or extemporaneous use of speech. As mentioned above, I don’t advocate fully online or distance education courses (although I took such courses as a student several decades ago, gaining extra credits in law and calculus which would otherwise have been unavailable to me having attended a fairly small school)
Where do you have students upload their presentations? Does your uni provide a server or do you use another service? I like your idea about the extra practice they get preparing the best upload. I’ve found that in-person they don’t care as much because they just want it to be over with. At home they would probably behave as you said.
Our school’s Moodle platform, if the content is within the quite restricted range allowed for upload (50 to 120 Mb, depending).
In every other case, I asked students to send me the file through LINE or email, preferably as a Google Drive link.
Once I have the students’ videos, I upload them to my university Gmail account, which is extremely and pathetically limited, but which can host a week’s worth of classes without having to be deleted (I.e. moved to my personal Google Drive and hard drive – back up). Then, using the share tab function on Google Meet, I will show the videos in class.
Now, that we’re back to face-to-face learning, I’ll just have them in a folder on my flash drive. Much of the time the students videos are too quiet and I use some online apps to adjust the volume to make sure that they’re audible when I play them in class (whether face-to-face or online). This, the extra prep time required for online teaching
If I were more technology savvy and a decade or two younger, I might have the skills that it would take to use Instagram or tiktok or something of that nature to have my students share their content. I have had several students upload their content to YouTube, and even make it public. However I don’t necessarily recommend this and I certainly don’t require this.
You use Audacity to boost the volume? There is a easy preset to boost volume as much as possible without clipping, and you can do batch files, which would save you some time.
I’ve used Audacity (didn’t know it could handle MP4 or mov files). In fact I use Audacity every week for other purposes. That or Goldwave. I’m often too involved in opening multiple windows and just upload to https://online-video-cutter.com/ which had a load of other editing options.
Yes, you need the FFmpeg library to extract the audio and a separate video editor to multiplex it back into the video. The FFmpeg library could do it all within Audacity, but they (the Audacity team) are adverse to supporting too many formats and the support requests that would come with them.
There are probably video editors that could do it all in one program with batch commands, but I’ve never used them so I couldn’t recommend one. That would be much easier now that I think of it.
I doubt it’s worth the effort, and I’m also suspicious of how ethical it is. Some students may not even have a computer, and they’re on one of the school systems without a webcam. (Often I’m on a school system without a webcam!) Or they’re in their apartment with shirtless dad or nightie-clad sister in the background. Or with the way they’re holding their phone, they can see the screen but the camera’s only showing the top of their ball cap or a poster in the background or whatever. If we’re going through something in a text, their eyes often shouldn’t be on the screen / me; they should be on the book.
I’ve got no right to see a student live in their home or wherever. Nor should I. To me that’s really invasive. Yeah, some students are going to abuse this, but that’s their call. I can insist that for particular occasions - they’re giving a presentation, or whatever - they need to have a webcam available for that; but for the whole class? No - not my decision to make.
I believe so. Whatever’s in the different Teams windows is visible for everyone to see, as far as I know. When I’ve been a participant in Teams meetings, I can see everyone else’s webcams, so that view isn’t exclusive to whoever set up the meeting.
Maybe there’s a buried setting so only the “leader” can see all the webcams, but if there is, I don’t know about it.
Last year as part of daoshi (導師) duties I was doing one-to-one or one-to-two interviews with students using Teams, and I asked but didn’t require them to use their webcams. Most did turn them on. And I was a little uncomfortable with how much more sense I got of their class / family wealth than I did from classroom interactions: bunkbeds or a cluttered living room in the background on a low-quality internet connection, versus gorgeous well-decorated bedrooms with crystal-clear high-definition connection. I didn’t expect a Teams window to reveal as much as it did, and I became warier about the privacy ramifications.
My wife and I both teach in private schools, but I know teachers that have used Zoom in public schools too despite the rules. No one hassled them about it.
Monitoring them is my concern . Say if there are 30 pairs of students. I’m sure it will be OK, but I’ll probably play safe and avoid pair and group work where possible.
Just make the rules and expectations known in advance and it won’t take much work. Jot down those that don’t comply and inform them after class of their failing.
@lostinasia of course their eyes would sometimes be on other material, but most of it can be presented on the screen ideally. I usually have a digitized version of everything i will use in class. Students should be in a private room with a real PC rather than a phone for class, so I don’t see a privacy issue.