You have three options for how others see you in a Zoom meeting:
- just your name,
- your name + profile photo or
- your name + the image from your webcam
It’s up to you to decide what you want to show. If you log in to our Zoom, your name information will automatically include your name in the First Name, Last Name format. After joining a meeting, you can edit your name (e.g., remove your last name). However, please note that if you are a student and it is distance learning, the teacher should be able to identify you by your name.
If the meeting settings for a certain session allow you to join without signing in, and you do that, then give your name when you join the meeting.
When you are using Zoom as a logged-in user, you can display a photo of yourself in your Zoom profile and display it in Zoom when your webcam is not on. See Zoom’s own instructions on how to put your own image in Zoom. (Your profile page is at https://oulu.zoom.us/profile or at https://oamk.zoom.us/profile.)
If you’re showing your webcam image in Zoom, please check out the tips for high-quality footage on The Verge. It’s a good idea to set the camera in such a way that the background is calm. Of you can, make sure there is no unnecessary movement in the background.
The pros of showing your own face online
Teacher: the students will follow the lecture better if they see you
If, in addition to screen sharing, a teacher shows webcam footage in an online lecture, it engages viewers to follow the lecture better than just screen sharing. (Read e.g. A 2014 article by the edX blog How MOOC Video Production Affects Student Engagement, which summarizes the results of an empirical study by Philip J. Guo, Juho Kim, and Rob Rubin on how to engage students in watching videos.)
Student: you will be more committed to attending remote learning if your camera is on
In online meetings, also students can benefit if they use their cameras: If you are participating as a student, seeing others will not only teach you to recognize your fellow students, it will also create a better atmosphere for discussion. You will also notice that you will follow the instruction better when your camera is on, because then you will not be as easily deceived into doing something completely different during distance learning, such as playing or browsing social media. The human brain is not able to process several things at the same time, but rather just one thing at a time: If you are attending a lecture, then it is worth focusing on it.