Privacy Concerns Over the Use of Webcams in Online Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The emergence of the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has transformed traditional classroom education to online learning worldwide. Challenges to this sudden transformation include protecting student privacy while using online medical education services. Consequently, dealing with challenges to online medical education became a heated debate at Alfaisal University. This study aimed to determine the challenges of using webcams during online classes and the ensuing implications for medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the 2020-2021 academic year. The study investigators developed and validated a self-administered online questionnaire that targeted preclinical and clinical medical students at Alfaisal University, which is a private not-for-profit academic institution that was founded in 2008. Alfaisal University consists of five colleges: Medicine, Business, Engineering, Pharmacy, and Science. A total of 319 medical students completed the study questionnaire, with a response rate of 25%. The median age of the study sample was 21 years, with 63.3% females; 78.1% were in preclinical (first to third) years and 21.9% were in clinical (fourth to fifth) years. Of the respondents, 76.5% reported not using webcams when communicating via social media and 64.3% preferred blended learning, i.e., a combination of face-to-face and online learning. An overwhelming majority (91.5%) of study respondents were against using webcams in online classes for reasons including privacy (88.4%) and anxiety (64.4%). Privacy was the main concern of study respondents. Information about online privacy, including information being collected and how it will be used, should be provided to the students. Effective strategies to improve online learning experiences and protect the privacy of students should be explored.

Seeing self and others on-screen does not negatively impact learning in virtual classrooms.

“…Survey research performed during this time supported arguments that some students may be sensitive to exposing their learning context to classmates on camera, in addition to encouraging feelings of self-consciousness (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021;Rajab & Soheib, 2021). At the same time, students in these same studies report that cameras-on increases engagement and learning, encourages feeling more actively connected to their classmates (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021), and yields an increased sense of accountability (Rajab & Soheib, 2021), which again, are argued to increase learning (Terada, 2021). Thus, selfreport findings can be leveraged to support either side of the argument.…”

The webcam and student engagement in synchronous online learning: visually or verbally?

“…Suggestions as to how students can be encouraged to better participate in online courses are outlined by our findings on H2. These show that reasons given for keeping the webcam turned off are manifold and go beyond general concerns regarding technical equipment (Händel et al, 2020a ; Naveh & Shelef, 2021 ) or privacy concerns (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021 ; Rajab & Soheib, 2021 ; Sobaih et al, 2020 ). To achieve high student engagement in video conferencing, interactive courses should be of a rather small size.…”

Medical Students Perception About Implementation of Video-Assisted Blended Learning in Ophthalmology Clinical Clerkship During COVID-19 Pandemic Period

“…Content can be delivered to students using two different approaches: self-directed and instructor-led learning. Self-directed e-learning allows the learner to manage his activity independently [10][11][12] . In this study, most students stated that they could understand their learning objective through online learning.…”