Student impressions of instructors based on Zoom backgrounds: investigating perceived technology skills of instructors and affective learning of students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify how Zoom backgrounds affect students’ affective learning and perceptions of an instructor’s technology use skills in online learning experiences. Data collected from undergraduate students in the U.S. indicate that with certain Zoom backgrounds, male students perceive the instructor having lower technology skills and experience less affective learning towards the instructor and course content than do female students. Overall, the study’s findings provide meaningful contributions to instructional communication research and suggest recommendations for strategic use of Zoom backgrounds to cultivate the best impression of an instructor and positive learning experiences.

How appropriateness and enjoyment of instructors' virtual backgrounds affect students' perceptions of learning

“…Schrodt and Turman (2005) found that female students perceive instructors who infused a moderate amount of technology into their teaching practices to be more competent than instructors who used no technology, while male students found instructors to be most competent when they used no technology. More germane to the present study's context, Kelly et al (2023Kelly et al ( , 2024 noted that male and female students respond differently to instructors' virtual background choices. As such, to further address the potential effects of student sex in learning experiences, the following research question is raised:…”

“…In a pandemic education investigation, Goethe et al (2022) found that some students become distracted by instructors' virtual backgrounds and in these cases prefer to see the instructors' real environment instead of a virtual background. Finally, Kelly et al (2024) found that male students experienced less affective learning than female students when online instructors used a blurry virtual background filter compared to an uploaded virtual background or allowed students to see their actual environment.…”

“…The second study was a pilot test of the FocalSpace video conferencing software, which found that blurry backgrounds can be less distracting for users than the authentic background (Yao et al, 2013). This research was somewhat contradicted by Kelly et al (2024) in the educational context, who found male learners responded negatively to instructors' use of blurry background filters.…”

“…Yet, the existing literature is not enough to generate evidence-based best practices for online teaching. Despite the arguments for why using a virtual background is a best practice (Barchas, 2020;Ohnigian et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2023), there is still uncertainty about which backgrounds are the best choices for learning (c.f., Goethe et al, 2022;Kelly et al, 2023Kelly et al, , 2024. To address this gap, this study aims to advance the extant literature by examining the how perceived appropriateness and enjoyment of an instructor's virtual background affects learning.…”

Table_2.docx

“…In a pandemic education investigation, Goethe et al (2022) found that some students become distracted by instructors' virtual backgrounds and in these cases prefer to see the instructors' real environment instead of a virtual background. Finally, Kelly et al (2024) found that male students experienced less affective learning than female students when online instructors used a blurry virtual background filter compared to an uploaded virtual background or allowed students to see their actual environment.…”