Online classes can be tedious at times. Although teaching is usually exhausting, many teachers and students have begun to experience higher levels of fatigue and greater frustration with the limited effectiveness of their efforts following the massive shift to a learning environment dominated by live video classes.

Distance learning can be exhausting if it replicates practices that are no longer recommended in traditional classrooms—such as an exclusive focus on lecture-based instruction with little or no use of active learning methods.

A recent news story about a professor at the National University of Singapore caught the attention of many: he taught a synchronous online video class and didn’t realize his students couldn’t hear him until two hours into the class*.

Teaching in-person classes makes it easier to gauge the emotions of those present, even when discussing topics that require a high degree of nuance in conversation and empathy. This is much more difficult to achieve in a virtual setting. 

The accumulated fatigue at the end of the day has been experienced by students, teachers, and people in various professions. It’s so widespread that it’s earned a name: Zoom fatigue—though this exhaustion also applies whether you’re using Google Hangouts, Skype, FaceTime, or any other video-calling platform. Millisecond delays in virtual verbal responses negatively affect our interpersonal perceptions, even without any technical or internet issues. The lack of direct eye contact reduces the ability to formulate quicker responses, impairs facial recognition, and negatively impacts empathy. On video, one’s gaze must be directed at the camera, which makes it extremely difficult to establish eye contact even between two people.**

Confining the classroom to a small screen presents few obvious distractions. It’s worth remembering that we communicate even when we’re silent. During a conversation, the brain focuses partly on the words being spoken, but it also derives additional meaning from dozens of nonverbal cues, such as whether someone is facing you or turned slightly away, whether they’re fidgeting while you speak, or whether they take a quick breath in preparation to interrupt.

These cues help paint a more comprehensive picture of what is being perceived and what is expected as a response from the listener. Picking up on these cues comes naturally to most of us; analyzing them requires little conscious effort, and they can lay the foundation for greater emotional closeness.

However, a typical video call undermines these ingrained skills, as it requires continuous and intense attention to words. If a person is shown only from the shoulders up, the possibility of seeing hand gestures or other body language is eliminated. If the video quality is poor, any hope of gleaning anything from subtle facial expressions is dashed.

Screens showing multiple people exacerbate this overwhelming problem. The gallery view, where all class participants appear, challenges the brain’s central vision, forcing it to process so many people at once that no one—not even the teacher—can truly perceive the others in a meaningful way.

What seems to be on the rise is what’s known as “continuous partial attention,” a phenomenon that applies to both online and in-person environments. This leads to problems where group video chats become less collaborative and more like isolated panels, in which only two people speak at a time while the rest listen. 

Since each participant is using a single audio stream and is aware of all the other voices, side conversations are impossible. If you see only one speaker at a time, you can’t tell how the inactive participants are behaving—something you would normally notice with your peripheral vision.

For some people, prolonged divided attention creates a disconcerting feeling of being exhausted without having accomplished anything. The brain becomes overwhelmed by an excess of unfamiliar stimuli while remaining overly focused on searching for nonverbal cues it cannot find.

Overall, video chat has allowed human connections to flourish in ways that would have been impossible just a few years ago. These tools enable us to maintain long-distance relationships, connect schools remotely, and—even now, despite the mental exhaustion they can cause—foster a sense of unity during a pandemic. Using them creatively, critically, and in conjunction with active learning methodologies can reduce the stress that has accompanied the start of the school year, which is still taking place entirely or partially through screens. The figure illustrating this text highlights some of the psychological principles of a student-centered teaching and learning practice.

 

* A teacher taught a class on Zoom for 2 hours before realizing he was on mute. Available at https://www.uol.com.br/tilt/noticias/redacao/2021/02/11/professor-da-aula-pelo-zoom-por-2-horas-ate-perceber-que-estava-no-mudo.htm, accessed on February 13, 2021.

** LEE, Jena. A neuropsychological exploration of Zoom fatigue. Available at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychological-exploration-zoom-fatigue; accessed February 13, 2021.

 

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