How To Reduce Harassment Concerns In Online Classes?

With the wake of Coronavirus, the world has moved online. As we are instructed not to leave our homes and practice social distancing, going online is the only highlight of our days. People are spending a great deal of their time online. Job going people are working from home and students are forced to attend online classes just so their education doesn’t suffer. For the most part, online classes have proven to be greatly successful. Students won’t have to suffer much and continue their education online. However, there have been some cases that are not very much in the favor of online classes. Harassment has come forward as the biggest issue in online classes. If you fear harassment, you can easily ask any reliable service provider to ‘do my online class’ and save yourself from the horrors of harassment.
Harassment in online classes has been more towards the teachers rather than the students. All over the world, cases have come up where students have been involved in harassment cases towards their teachers. Students enjoy the anonymity behind their computer screens and see it as an opportunity to do whatever they want including ridiculing their teachers, disrupting the class, and sharing inappropriate messages and pictures in the class.

Teachers on the Receiving End:

Online classes have become the biggest refuge for students and teachers to continue the exchange of knowledge but due to some students and unrecognized people these classes have become a threat to the mental piece of all participants. Teachers exclusively have been at the receiving end of harassment. They have been made fun of not being tech-savvy and called names like ‘boomers’. These teachers have also been cursed at. Students after changing their names on these platforms say whatever is on their minds and use this opportunity to disrespect their teachers in front of the whole class. The worst part is that these students are often not identified and there is not much the teacher can do at that time other than cutting the class short and ending the online session. This however is certainly not the solution.
In other cases, hackers and outsiders were seen joining classes that were not meant for them. The way these online classes work is by distributing a link to all the concerned parties through emails or What’s App group chats. Students have been involved in giving out these links to outsiders. These outsiders then join the classes and either harass the teacher conducting the class or students attending the online session. There have been numerous cases where these unknown people have shared pornographic content with the class causing a great uproar and an awkward situation for the teacher. It is very difficult to identify an outsider in an online class which is why these cases are very frequent. Many teachers have resorted to taking attendance but that too has not been fruitful.

What Can Be Done?

Now we are aware that the problem exists but the real question is how to solve it. What can be done to reduce harassment in online classes? We have asked a team of experts who have put together some viable suggestions that can help curb such instances from happening again. As #COVID -19 has posed an unforeseeable future, we will have to make do and continue online classes.

Class Recording

Teachers must record every online session they conduct. Why so? Recording an online class will help the teachers and higher school authorities to understand what went down. They can review the recorded lecture, see what happened and which students were involved. Once the culprits are identified it will be a lot easier taking an action against them. Using the video, teachers will have proof of the harassment and the accused students can be held accountable. Strict actions should be taken against these students. They can either be suspended from online classes and if the offense is harsher they can also be held back from giving examinations. This will be a warning for the other students so that they do not indulge in such activities. There are only a handful of applications that have the feature of call recording and only these applications must be used to conduct online classes.

Necessary Video Calling

Most #students switch off their videos when taking online classes which helps them get away with harassment acts. They say that they feel comfortable to do my online class this way. However, It should be mandatory for students to switch on their videos when taking online classes so that the teachers can easily monitor student’s activity and when students are talking. All students should comply with this rule to reduce #harassment concerns.

Muting Students

When the class is not discussing anything teachers should be allowed to mute students so that they can deliver the lecture in peace and not have any students cause disruption. Teachers can also conduct classes where they keep the students muted throughout the lecture and only communicate through the message box. This will prevent students from saying rubbish as the message box shows names and they won’t be able to enjoy the anonymity. Muting will also be a good way to efficiently deliver lectures and then answer questions in real-time where students can type in their questions and the teacher can answer them on call. This can be a great solution.

Strict Action

Lead with an example, if you catch a student misbehaving in your online class then you must take strict action. The schools should come up with a policy beforehand where students are warned beforehand of all the consequences their actions may have. You can either have them suspended from all online classes so that they can reflect on their actions or you can go a bit more extreme and have them sit out examinations so that they suffer at hands of their actions. What happened to them will become an example for the rest of the school and students will think twice before harassing a teacher during online #classes.
It is very disappointing that students are taking the wrong advantage of the situation. These times are tough, the whole world has come to face unfavorable circumstances and everyone has to make do. In such situations, instead of cooperating with their teachers, students all over the world are crossing bounds. They are completely disregarding all the efforts their teachers are making to bring them an education. Many of these teachers are not tech-savvy and have spent countless hours learning technical things in order to appear in front of your screens and deliver their lectures. It is absolutely unfair to teachers for students to treat them this way.
Above all, you should have respect for your #teachers and respect for all their hard work and gratitude for what they convey to the next generation in order to build a better society. Cooperation is the only way we can get out of this situation without having to suffer great losses. Having fun and making fun are two very separate things. Know your boundaries and respect others. Don’t be insensitive to others as they can be in far worse situations than you can imagine. If you still feel that your #online classes are not safe then feel free to contact services who provide online class help. All you have to tell them is ‘do my online class’ and you won’t have to worry about them anymore.