Distractions Can Kill Virtual Meetings - Musings about Virtual Leaning

While great people might argue about the technical challenges behind virtual meetings including online classes, the basic factors are often overlooked because they are so common! In fact, it is funny how ambient noise, untidy surroundings (often the bedroom in a state of disarray), shabby clothes and unkempt appearance, people moving around, an over-excited pet, or perhaps a tempting breakfast might create distractions that defeat the very purpose of the meeting!

One might have come across situations where during a virtual meeting, the cameras are off while the microphones are left on making it possible for everyone to hear strange sounds coming from the microphone of one of the participants. While to some it might sound as if someone was scraping a dish with great fervour. For some, it might look as if someone was scraping the dish not leaving anything for the cat. For others, it might sound as if someone was sharpening knives (such sounds, associated with pots and pans would be more likely to happen during lunch hours). On hearing the remarks of the others in the meeting, the sound stops, the guilty party realising that he or she is audible to everyone -an embarrassment for her, or him, but a moment of levity for the others! However, the damage would have already been done, the distraction would have killed the seriousness of the meeting.

In yet another instance, during a video conference (with mics and cameras on), there might be a loud sound of music from the device of the hapless participants and one might even see the person glaring at whoever was playing the loud music but to no effect (you can't scold a child in front of your colleagues). The expression on the participant's face is not lost on the others. It is true that in most cases switching off the microphone or the camera might help filter out the distraction, but then more often than not, it all happens so suddenly that one is caught off guard! Finding a quiet and peaceful spot for the online meeting might not, after all, be possible when one is working from home and sharing space with family members is a fact of life.

The fact of the matter is that one can expect distractions to be a challenge when working from home, (which is, in any case, an informal environment). I would like to share some of my personal experiences of how extraneous factors might result in distracting noises during an online meet. In one instance I could hear the sounds of Cattle lowing during a class with my students. Perplexed I asked the participant if she had Cattle as pets and she responded embarrassed that the sounds were coming from Cattle that were passing by - she had left her window open. In a yet another humorous incident, I spotted an old student of mine walking by while I was in a meeting with an existing student. I immediately called out to him realising that he was my students' brother. We caught up with old times and then reverted to the matter in hand.
While such incidents might appear innocent enough, they might in the interim cause an unwelcome break while in the middle of important discussions. While some of the participants in an online meeting might take the distractions as a welcome break from the tedium of hectic parleys and negotiations, others might take offence, especially those who feel that they might compromise the seriousness of the meeting. Another, rather interesting incident, happened while I was having an important talk with one of my students - his younger brother came into view and gestured towards him, danced a jig and then moved off-camera.
It might not be possible to iron out some of the extraneous distractions in an online meeting, but then setting expectations might mitigate some of them. One of the most important expectations that could to be set before an online meeting should be the dress-code. Being shabbily dressed up can be a great dampener for an online meeting especially as it might be an indication of casualness and lack of seriousness on the part of the participant. The sanctity and seriousness of any meeting (unless otherwise) should be established well in time. Even if you are working from home, you should be presentable and well-dressed.
In some cases, certain allowances can be made during online meetings but then eating food, taking regular sips of water, or even drinking tea while in full view of the camera can be a problem. This can apply to meetings between professionals or even online classes between teachers and students. Many of us, our students included, prefer to hide behind emojis as D.Ps. or even just initials of our names with our cameras switched off. This makes the online classroom transaction look most unreal and weird. It is as if you were addressing inanimate objects on a screen-which is akin to talking to a wall with roundels of initials painted on it. If so much effort can go into the designing of D.Ps, then one wonders if some more effort could not have been put into switching the cameras on!

Well, jokes apart, the year 2020 has been a roller coaster year, especially for teachers and students all over the world. They were first pushed one way and then the other by administrators and heads who were themselves confused. The request for cameras to be switched on fell on deaf ears, and then the microphones of most students caught a cold and so they could not be switched on (although you could hear the student responding to the attendance), and then it became a trend for students to log in to the video conference and then conveniently mute themselves (their cameras would be switched off) and leave the link on and then go off to sleep, or watch TV (Indian Matchmaking being one the most-watched series by school students in the metros of India today), or even play a video game on another device, all while the teacher is droning on! The same would be the case with eager program leads hosting online video conferences hoping to share some nuggets of information with teachers who are already mentally, emotionally and physically depleted after four or five hours of online teaching. While some of these distractions might not be visible or even audible, it is this lack of engagement itself which is sensed and felt that makes an online meeting distracting for the host or the organiser. Often one might come across situations where there is total silence during an online meet, which can be unsettling in nature. One gets distracted by the possibility that you might be spouting into the ether without anyone really listening to you, perhaps because of a break in the internet connection, or perhaps even some kind of a prank that the students might have pulled on you. These are certainly some interesting challenges faced in online classes that need to be addressed in the context of the use of a new form of technology to connect to an audience that might not, after all, be 'there' physically. In a regular classroom scenario, or a regular staff meeting you have a 'captive audience' but in a virtual meeting you can only have a 'notional audience.'