Should you require your students to turn on their Zoom cameras? | Center for Teaching and Learning

Pros

Creates a sense of connection and accountability.
Fosters community and enhances presence.
Is required to build engagement and trust.
Simulates in-person instruction. Students have to show their faces in class.
Makes it easy to identify students by name especially in large-enrollment classes.
Gallery view or the “Brady Bunch view” makes everyone visible to each other at the same time. May help to break perceived power differential.

The digital equity gap for example limited bandwidth, internet access, and no camera on older laptops.
Invasion of privacy. Students can see other students’ faces all the time.
Self-consciousness is also an issue.
The stimulation of staring into faces at close range can be exhausting.
The element of video overshooting; students do not want to show their surroundings.
Concerns about FERPA-protected information.

Establish expectations for turning on cameras early on, and explain why.
Set norms for synchronous meetings and the use of video camera.
Turning video cameras on should not be mandatory.
Have short conferences to have face-to-face with students. Encourage, but do not insist on the use of video camera for discussions, virtual office hours, and consultations.
You may ask students to make themselves visible if they are asking/responding to a question; otherwise, use chat.
In larger classes, some professors tell students to turn their cameras off during lectures.