Making Shapes in Zoom

As we gear up (did we ever gear down?) for fall semester to begin, it is increasingly clear that formal education will be relying more than ever on online teaching and learning, and within our online offerings, once again, it’s apparent that many teachers will lean heavily on synchronous classes (a.k.a. Zoom). The intent of this essay is not to debate the benefits of synchronous and asynchronous approaches. I’ve spoken on that at length, and my take continues to be that synchronous teaching should be the ketchup and asynchronous the burger. Less confident, untrained, unsupported, understandably stressed and exhausted teachers tend to flip that equation. Those of us who work with online faculty development will continue to encourage folks to think intentionally about their pedagogy and to ask education leaders to give teachers at all levels the training, time, and support they need to better understand the affordances and constraints of online pedagogy. 

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

My intention here is to specifically address the question of engagement in the synchronous session, or Zoom class, because this issue continues to present itself in my travels and talks with teachers. Most teachers and faculty I work with want to know that their students are engaged in Zoom, but many aren’t quite sure what that means or how to do it, and that leads to frustration for teachers, students, and admins. A knee-jerk reaction to this desire is to require students to be on-camera, as if that is a panacea that will solve all manner of engagement and attention ills. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

I’ve written about why forcing students to turn on their cameras is a really bad idea from a trauma-awareness and equity perspective. Here, I want to really zoom in (pun intended) on what I see as the primary motivation for teachers to force the camera issue: because teachers care about their students and want their students to pay attention and be engaged, they are relying on what seems like the most obvious and best strategy to make that happen: requiring students to turn on cameras. Administrators who are even less aware of online pedagogical strategies further complicate this issue by putting policies in place that require teachers to meet synchronously with their students with all cameras on. Unfortunately, this approach can have the opposite of the intended effect.

When I was studying to be a yoga teacher, my own teacher constantly reminded us that our goal was not to get our students to make a shape in our classes. If we were to look out at our class, and see ten cookie cutter clones of some idealized, Instagramized version of triangle pose, for example, we had missed the mark as teachers. Instead, she told us, we would know that we had done our job if we saw ten different expressions of triangle: some using blocks or straps, some with the lower hand touching the floor and others with a bent elbow resting gently on the thigh, some with eyes cast toward the ceiling, others with eyes closed. 

Image source: https://liforme.com/blogs/blog/triangle-pose-trikonasana

My job as a yoga teacher was never to get my students into a shape; rather, my job was to invite students to explore what a posture revealed about their body, mind, and spirit. 

Downward dog is one of the most typical images branded into yoga students’ minds. Everyone wants to make that perfect inverted “V” shape and get their heels planted flat on the floor. I will forever remember the first time a teacher of mine cued us to bend our knees in downward dog and to forget about our damn feet; I experienced the pose in a completely different way, using gravity to create space in my spine as my hands pressed into the mat. Now, whenever I feel my persistently pinched nerve acting up, I find my bent-knee downward dog. I wouldn’t have learned this medicine if I’d insisted on continuing to make a shape like what I thought downward dog should look like, rather than using it as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with my body.

Many teachers have a shape that they think attention and engagement look like, and they work very hard to get students into that shape. 

I am an excellent case study. I make a great paying attention shape. I can smile and nod with the best of them. I can get called on, have no idea what you just asked me, and share an intelligent remark that masks my confusion. But when I’m truly engaged, it doesn’t quite look like what you think it should. My paying attention is chaotic, messy, moving in my chair, playing with stuff on my desk, and backchannel chatting in the Zoom chat and via text. 

If you focus on having your students make the shapes of what you think attention and engagement should look like, you’re going to lose them, and they're going to lose valuable opportunities to express their curiosity and enjoy learning. Instead, I want to invite you into the alternative of creating spaces for your students to express their learning in a way that is meaningful for them. The best way to do that is to give students options to engage in your synchronous sessions.

Here are some practical strategies specific to the Zoom platform that can help you do that:

• Zoom has several tools for quick audience participation including the option to raise/lower your virtual hand, answer yes/no to questions, or sharing emoji reactions (clapping hands, thumbs up). Make sure you have turned on nonverbal feedback in your Zoom account first. At the start of each session, review these options with your learners and encourage them to test them out. Don’t assume students know how or when to use these tools; teach them. If you aren’t sure how to use them, ask a friend to invite you to a Zoom meeting so you can practice.
• Use formal or informal polls. A colleague of mine loves using formal Zoom polls; I don’t. I find there’s just too much going on, and I get easily overwhelmed. I prefer informal polls where I ask for short responses in the chat. For example, I typically start sessions these days by inviting my learners to share one or two words to express how they’re feeling in that moment.
• Punctuate your session with questions. I always ask my learners (whether they’re faculty, students, or admins) what they already know or feel about a topic before I give them my take on it. Ask students what they know and have them share their responses in the chat. Keep asking informal questions throughout and encourage students to use the chat to engage with you and their peers. Students will often share ideas or resources that you haven’t thought of. Students know things!
• Most of us teachers have been taught that sometimes we might have to endure some uncomfortable silence before students will respond to our questions. It’s okay to pause in our Zoom sessions to give students time to think and answer. 
• Invite students to share out via audio and or audio/video in addition to answering in the chat. This should be optional and encouraged, not forced. If this doesn't fly at first, shift to encouraging responses in the chat, but don't give up on encouraging audio and video participation. Sometimes, it takes a bit of time for students to work up to this.
• You have the option to do a private chat in Zoom. Sometimes, if I sense a student has something to say or I want to encourage participation, I’ll send a private message to the student asking them if they want to share out. Again, I encourage them: I don’t force.
• Some students are hesitant to be on-camera because they are scared and nervous. No one has taught them yet how to be on-camera in a Zoom session. Maybe you can teach them how to do that. If possible within your own time and energy constraints, invite students to a one-on-one meeting to practice their on-camera skills. You could also hold a “Zoom Practice Session” for students just for the purpose of helping them get comfortable in Zoom.
• Normalize the fear of being on-camera to help students overcome it. If you’ve experienced that fear, share that story with your students. If not, I know for a fact that someone in your life, whether they’re a teacher or a student, gets nervous being on-camera in Zoom. Ask them how that feels so that you can communicate that to your students. Remind students that learning new things often brings about some anxiety. Let them know that while you won’t force them to be on-camera, you want to encourage them to try so that they can build this important success skill.
• If you need an example of overcoming fear, share this video of Keala Settle from The Greatest Showman performing "This is Me." It gets me every time.
• Tell a story of a time when you were scared to try something, but you did, and now it's old hat. Students (and their brains) love stories.
• Ask for student input about your sessions. You can do this within a session, in an asynchronous discussion, via email, or in an anonymous survey.
• If you’re a confident Zoom user, try using breakout rooms. You can split students into multiple Zoom rooms to work on a collaborative project (perhaps via Google docs) or to discuss a topic as a smaller group. I am not a heavy breakout room user, because just like with polls, I get a bit overwhelmed. That said, they are a great option to switch up the energy of a session and can be useful for creating a less intimidating space for introverted students to share out.
• Set the tone for engagement from moment one. I can’t tell you how many Zooms I’ve attended that start with ten minutes of introductions from the presenter or presenters. When we start our sessions that way, we clearly communicate who is the center of that session (the teacher). Instead, begin your sessions by welcoming your learners and encouraging them to get active in the chat. Let students know that you are there to learn along with them, and that their peers can learn from them too. Make the chat the heart of your session. 

By using these practical strategies, you’ll notice all sorts of attention and engagement happening in your synchronous sessions. Students will make all kinds of shapes when we create space for them to do so.

One more yoga story: once, during my yoga teaching practicum, I came to the end of class and cued my students to enter savasana. A young woman in the front row did not lie on her back and close her eyes like the others. Instead, she sat in the front row, eyes wide open,  fidgeting and staring at me. I was incredibly uncomfortable. All sorts of thoughts and judgments began racing through my mind. What was wrong with her? What had I done wrong? The other students experienced the world’s shortest ever savasana because I couldn’t stand my own discomfort. I hurried them along and ended the class. 

Weeks later, as I got to know this student a bit more and gained her trust, she disclosed to me that she was a trauma survivor, and that savasana wasn’t in the cards for her. For her, to have come to a yoga class and stayed through the end was a victory. Lesson learned for me, the teacher, taught to me by my student. Savasana, like any other posture, is not about me getting my students to all make the same shape.

Build your synchronous teaching toolbox and use the practical tools at your disposal. Teach and model being an online learner and participant for your students. Encourage their attention and engagement. Offer varied ways for students to express themselves. Accept that what looks like engagement might not be. Celebrate that the student who you assume is disengaged might just be expressing their engagement in a different way than you’re used to. Be human and know that your students are too.

How will you know if you’ve succeeded? Some students will have cameras on and will volunteer to share out. Others will never turn their camera on at all, but they’ll respond in the chat and make ample use of the thumbs up emoji. Another student you won’t be sure of, so you’ll follow up with an email to see how the session went for them. They’ll respond that they’re still getting used to this whole Zoom thing, and that they really appreciate you checking on them. In the next session, you’ll be thrilled to see their camera turned on, though they’ll stay quiet for the entire class.

In short, students will make lots of different shapes in your Zoom classes, and you will continue to create the space for them to do so.