ONLINE EDUCATION DURING A PANDEMIC: TEACHING
AND LEARNING IN HOME SPACES
Daniel Sykes
Kanda University of International Studies
INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused vast disruptions in teaching and learning at all levels ofacademia. According to UNESCO (2020), as many as 1.5 billion students in nearly 200 countries
have been affected by school closures at the local or national level, representing approximately
90% of the global student population. Students and teachers in many countries have been
forced to undergo a hasty migration from traditional classrooms to online lessons without anadequate amount of time to adjust to these changes.
The adjustment to learning from a home environment has not been an easy one. Many teachers
have little to no experience teaching from home, and even for those teachers who havepreviously taught online courses, it has undoubtedly been a challenge to make the transition toa fully online teaching load. Likewise, many students may be experiencing online learning forthe first time and are also likely to experience difficulties making this adjustment. With this rapidchange, it has been necessary to make a strong effort to establish a satisfactory level of comfort
on both sides. This paper explores some possible approaches to creating a classroom-likeenvironment, and to avoiding discomfort and distraction while teaching or learning at home.
A WINDOW INTO EACH OTHER’S LIVESAn important part of the shift to online classes is the unavoidable prospect of teachers andstudents seeing into each other’s lives in real time; teachers are often able to directly see
students’ living spaces and vice versa. This has the potential to cause uneasiness, as not all
participants are comfortable sharing their personal lives in this manner. This may be
exacerbated when the teacher or students have family members who are present in the homeduring class time. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most people encouraged to avoid
unnecessary trips out, many teachers and students with families are likely to fall under thiscategory.
ISSUES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONSWith schools closed and travel discouraged, I have needed to adjust my teaching style not only
to a new method of delivery but also to the presence of family members one or two rooms awayfrom my “classroom.” With a spouse and a two-year-old child in my home, there have been twomain factors to consider: first, the disruption to my family members’ daily routines; second, thepotential disruption to my classes.
22.	  Online	  Education	  During	  a	  Pandemic:	  Teaching	  and	  Learning	  in	  Home	  Spaces.	  Daniel	  Sykes.	  Pages	  86-­‐88.	  Literacies	  &	  Language	  Education:	  Research	  &	  Practice,	  2020	  Special	  Section:	  Teaching	  During	  a	  Pandemic.	  English	  Language	  Institute,	  KUIS.

The first has not been a great concern as my presence in the home (even while teaching a class)is not particularly disruptive; indeed, it has, at times, been beneficial. My child’s linguistic
development has been impressive during this period of home teaching; she has made rapid
progress in her English proficiency, perhaps partly due to the frequency with which she is able
to interact with both parents rather than one. This has perhaps been the greatest benefit myfamily has enjoyed from the shift to online teaching.
However, the possibility of disruption to my classes has been and remains an issue. As with mostchildren of this age, my daughter has a great deal of curiosity, and she has shown great interestin the sounds emanating from her bedroom (my makeshift office). It has been necessary to go
to great lengths to prevent her from entering the room and appearing on camera during classtime. Fortunately, on the few occasions where she has successfully evaded all attempts to block
her entry, the students have been occupied with classwork or group discussions and did not
notice the intrusion.
Having anticipated the possibility of such disruptions, at the beginning of the semester I
informed each of my classes that, due to the nature of working from home, there was a chancethat my family members might appear on camera. I asked for their patience and understanding
if this occurred. This also provided me with an opportunity to engage the students in a discussion
about what they should do if they have similar problems. Many students live with their parents
and/or siblings, and not all of them have private spaces in their home in which to study. As aresult, it seemed likely that students would at times have to deal with family members disrupting
their learning. Therefore, I decided to explicitly tell the students that I expected such disruptions
and gave them some guidance as to what to do if this situation arose.
I instructed students to remain calm and simply excuse themselves (if they happened to beworking in groups with other students), mute their microphones and turn off their cameras until
the disruption ended. My rationale was that, even if the student’s microphone were muted(which is generally the case during teacher-led sections of a lesson) the student would likely feel
uncomfortable having their family member(s) on camera. Furthermore, the presence of anotherperson could distract me if I noticed it happening. As many students will at times turn off theircameras while I am speaking (for various reasons), I expected this would be the easiest way to
avoid distractions.
This suggestion has had mixed results. Some students will turn off their cameras when a family
member is nearby, even if that person is not saying or doing anything. Other students, however,appear to be unfazed by such intrusions. In some cases students also attended class in less thanideal circumstances, such as in public places. This suggests students may not have always been
comfortable in attending online classes from their home environments, and have therefore
needed to find spaces elsewhere.
My efforts to separate my own home and work lives have been aided immensely by the use of avirtual background: a function built into some video conferencing applications which projects animage of the user’s choice behind him or her, obscuring the true background. Rather thanshowing students the inside of my home, I instead selected an image of a university classroom.
While any photo can be used as a virtual background, I hoped that the sight of one of ouruniversity’s distinctive classrooms would help promote the idea that the online classroom wasto be treated as similarly as possible to the physical classroom.
Students were also able to use a virtual background, provided they were using a device which
supported this functionality. It is interesting to note that only a small number of students choseto do so. There are several possible reasons why. First, as suggested above, some students may
have been using devices which are incompatible with this function. Second, it is likely that somestudents disliked the background images available by default in the program and were unawareof the ability to select an image of their choice (or were uninterested in searching for a suitableimage). Third, they may have felt that it was inappropriate to use a virtual background. This
seems unlikely given that I have used one in every lesson, as have several students. Fourth, it ispossible that they may have had difficulty using a virtual background, as its effectiveness islargely dependent on the physical characteristics of the user’s room. Finally, and perhaps mostlikely, the students may simply have had no desire to use a virtual background.
I did not specifically address the use of virtual backgrounds during the orientation period, which
was an oversight on my part. It might have been better to explicitly tell the students that it isacceptable to use a virtual background, provided the image was appropriate for a classroom
setting - though it is possible that this would have created further confusion as to theappropriateness of a given image. However, I feel in hindsight that the benefits of doing sowould have outweighed the drawbacks. It might have allowed the students to feel more
comfortable learning in their homes and alleviated the need to turn off their cameras if a family
member entered the room. I believe that, for learners to feel completely comfortable attendingclasses from their home environment, these issues must be addressed directly and thoroughly
at the beginning of a course.
CONCLUSIONAs the global pandemic continues, it has become clear that, in addition to the many otheradjustments needed during this time, it is necessary for both students and teachers to possessa great deal of patience and understanding. Having procedures in place to help establish a goodlevel of comfort with the online classroom, while setting clear rules and boundaries for homelearning, will continue to be essential to creating a satisfactory online learning experience.
REFERENCES
UNESCO.
(2020,June15).
Education:
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse.

From

disruption

torecovery.