Virtual Inclusion in Study Abroad Advising:
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Zoom Waiting Room
How can we communicate solutions to the most common barriers underrepresented students face to go abroad— in a virtual 2D image?
How can virtual space be used to be more inclusive?
A lot goes into inclusive interior design in higher education, but ever since the pandemic forced us to embrace a new (and long-term) trend of virtual learning and communication, educators should start thinking critically on how a virtual space can communicate equity and inclusion.
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Remote advising has become a necessity during COVID, but it also comes with challenges, such as the physical distance between the advisor and student, the lack of an immersive space for the student to physically be included in the room, the possible technical difficulties that make a message harder to communicate, and the simple fact that a student is talking to a screen the size of their notebook.
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An environment that is less personable and intimate would increase a student's affect, which makes them feel less secure and comfortable.
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But what about education abroad advising? Even before the pandemic, participation by underrepresented students has remained a challenge, with only modest and insignificant growth each year. According to the Open Doors Data, we see turnout for underrepresented students studying abroad during the previous years: 30.9% in 2018/2019, 30% in 2019/2020, 31.2% in 2020/2021, and 32% in 2021/2022. Every year, black and multiracial students are the lowest participating minority.
The "F-Word" Barriers Facing Underrepresented Students
This list was taken from the presentation, "The New F Words", presented at the Forum on Education Abroad conference on March 30, 2006. Presenters Eduardo Contreras, Trixie Cordova, and Sara Spielger reinvented Johnnetta B. Cole's "Four F's" that originally described the barriers facing Black American students studying abroad.
Download presentation here (pdf)
The Inclusive Zoom Design: Waiting room
DISCLAIMER: This was designed on Canva. The images of the students and international locations were taken from other organizations' websites/blogs. The posters are also individually designed by me, but the information is fake. In a realistic scenario, I would only use images of students that represent the institute I would work at as well as financial aid information that is currently available at the institute. This design is to model what types of elements educators could use to best represent the resources and opportunities their institutes can provide their students.
As remote advising becomes more popular, it's essential that education abroad advisers get creative in ways to communicate solutions to the most common barriers to underrepresented students that discourage them from going abroad.
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Every Zoom user ('Zoomer') can enable a 'waiting room' for their meetings, which allows attendees to be placed in a virtual room where they either see a text greeting or video until the host is ready to start the meeting.
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Why did I choose a waiting room instead of a Zoom background?
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1. The waiting room is the first thing a new student will see— it has the potential to set the entire mood if used to its potential.
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2. A Zoom background can be distracting in the middle of a live meeting— plus, the host's face is covering the majority of it anyways! Nothing will interrupt the Zoom waiting room.
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What are the biggest challenges in designing a virtual "waiting room" setting?
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1. Quality vs. quantity: How can you appeal to a diverse group of students and offer different solutions to their problems without overwhelming the SMALL virtual space you have?
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2. How can you communicate without verbal communication?
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3. What if I left out a group? This goes back to the first note on quality vs. quantity.
Solutions Depicted in Zoom Design:
How to use the "video" feature to set up the waiting room
The secret to preserving the quality of your design when rendering it to a video on Zoom is NOT to save your design as a .mp4/.mov file on the platform you're using (I'm using Canva). What happens is that Canva will download your file into lower quality. Zoom also renders the video and further lowers the quality, so at the end, you have a blurry video-image.
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The key: SCREEN RECORD. (I use Quicktime Player on my Mac).
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Open Quicktime and screen record. While recording, go to your design on Canva and click 'present'. Simply screen record this still image for about 30 seconds. Trim the start and end of the video to remove the distracting parts pre-and-post recording.
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Make sure the size of the file is less than 30MB, as Zoom only accepts such.
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You're ready to upload this "video" to Zoom. Please watch my quick run through if needed on how to set up a waiting room feature.