I’ve observed/experienced 2 things in my online classes, perhaps 3; maybe 4:

1. without exception, when  my classes began 3 weeks ago, students meeting synchronously, in the great majority, used both audio and video; that has almost 100% changed by this week–almost no one uses video, including posting a photo; attendees are now faceless;

2. very few people post to chat and there seems to be significant reluctance to speak out and formerly frequent public “across the room” greetings/shout outs have disappeared;

3. on rare occasion, someone has left their mic on, and their home sounds have penetrated the learning environment. When this occurred when all the videos were on, I experienced a sense of disruption, but shrugged it off. Today, when it happened, and 100% of videos were off, I was quite smitten, listening to the soft murmurings of someone talking–a rather voyeuristic activity on my part, invited by an accident on theirs . . . as the prof’s voice droned in the background. I’m having some trouble articulating the experience, but the prof’s voice went to the background, like anchoring beat, while the (female) voice was foregrounded and rawer, more insistent, yet softer and more melodic–crooning is the word that comes to mind. I felt quite close to this unknown disruptor and was struck at the emotive qualities those few seconds aroused in me, even while I could not distinguish any sense from the sounds. Not sure what it means to online course design, but I thought of it as a way to build community . . . how could allowing one’s home to impinge on the learning environment . . . could that bridge/create/contribute to community? And what does turning the video off suggest? refusal of the community?

4. Most of my online classes have some form of meet up–audio, video, discussions, groups, etc. Only one (actually, 3, but . .. ) has only intermittent, occasional meets throughout the term. The longer I do not meet with this group (and the others) the less connected I feel to the group (community) and to the course of study. Not sure what that means, either . . .