I’ve been finding the 7Sage live Zoom classes extremely helpful and engaging. I really appreciate the instructors and how interactive the classes are, and I've found the live format to be very beneficial to my learning.
I wanted to bring up a small issue I’ve noticed and see if anyone else has experienced the same thing. When someone turns on their camera, Zoom automatically brings their video forward and places it prominently right beside the instructor's video. Of course, this makes complete sense when someone is speaking, since it allows everyone to see who is talking. However, when the person isn’t speaking, having their video displayed prominently beside the instructor can make it difficult to keep attention on the instructor and the screen being shared.
I find myself noticing things like someone playing with their hair, making facial expressions, talking to someone else in their setting, or getting up from/fidgeting in their seat. I’m sure none of this is intentionally meant to be distracting, but because their video is positioned right beside the instructor's, it’s difficult not to notice.
I’m wondering if there’s a Zoom setting I might be missing that could help with this, similar to turning off the chat preview. I’ve tried pinning the instructor’s video and playing around with the arrow/Zoom view settings, but unfortunately I haven’t found a way to keep other participants’ videos from popping up beside the instructor.
Alternatively, I wonder if it might be helpful for students who aren’t speaking to consider keeping their cameras off and then turning them on when they’re unmuted and speaking. I completely understand, though, that people may have different preferences and reasons for keeping their cameras on.
If I’m the only one being thrown off by this, I completely accept that it may just be a “me problem,” and I’ll continue trying to figure out how to work around it! I’d genuinely love to hear what others think and whether anyone else has experienced the same thing. 💗
7 comments
Simple fix. When hovering over the instructor's video, select the one-rectangle option. It will only show the person actively speaking.
Someone else mentioned this as well! Thank you for taking the time to comment and help, I really appreciate it.
As a work around, I recommend selecting the "Show active speaker video" (one rectangle) option versus the "Show thumbnail video" (two rectangles) option. These options pop up above the instructor's head when hovering above the video of the instructor. That should only show the instructor and his computer screen during the parts when the instructor is, in fact, sharing his screen (which is most of the lesson). I hope that helps!
Thank you! This solves exactly what I was having trouble with! Simply pinning the instructor's video didn't work, and I figured there had to be some kind of setting or simple workaround that existed! I appreciate it!!
You're welcome! I'm glad I could help :) Good luck with the LSAT!
Maybe putting a post it on your screen might help!
Lol, post-its are translucent, but thank you for trying to help!