Abstract

Digital learning and virtual backgrounds have been there for years but started to gain evident popularity after the Covid-19 pandemic. Now video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have become the new normal in almost every individual’s life. This study emphasizes how students experience the use of backgrounds in a digital learning context. In an online survey conducted among students enrolled in higher education institutions in Norway, we look at the effects of real (non-virtual) backgrounds versus virtual backgrounds. Findings show that virtual background is not strongly preferred by students in a learning context, few students change background in digital lectures and some attention is paid to the use of backgrounds by lectures and fellow students. To some extent, the use of backgrounds is perceived as distracting, and changing backgrounds is linked, among other things, to doing so for fun. Grounded in our findings, we conclude with some practical recommendations concerning the use of backgrounds in digital a learning context and call for further research.

Full Text
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