Wide Angle View of Hybrid Classroom

Screenshot from AI, ML & Friends Seminar, 

Greetings from the weekly AI, ML and Friends Seminar, at the ANU School of Computing. Last week I was in the room, but this week I am zooming in. As well as the slides, the Zoom session features a wide angle view of the room, from the back. At first I wondered why, as you can't clearly see the speaker, or read what is on the board. But this turns out to be useful for getting an idea of what is going on. At the start of an event you can look at the image and see people are still milling around. 

Delays in Live Streamed Video Can Cause Problems for Clicker Quizzes

Livia Lam, & Tom Worthington,
hosting the Govhack 2022 Trivia, 
still from livestream, 20 August 2022

For months I have been taking part in weekly video conferences, helping prepare Govhack 2022. During that time I managed to avoid taking on more roles that the one I volunteered for: Government & Education Liaison. But during the last meeting before the event my video link stopped, & when I reconnected I discovered I was the co-host, Livia Lam, for the streamed Trivia event. We did this from a classroom at Torrens University's Sydney CDB campus. The format was much as used for live classroom quizzes, as was the technology used. 

Myself and the co-host were on Zoom, which was relayed to a Facebook live stream. The participants used a QR code to get to the software asking the questions. One problem was the delay of several seconds between us speaking, and when we were heard. The application used for the questions did not have the delay, so the questions we were reading out were after the participants had already answered. The delay was longer than just with Zoom, as the video then had to go via Facebook's system. Perhaps the makers of the quiz system could build a delay into it. 

Desktop smartphone holder for webinars

As a backup for my desktop computer during webinars, I put my smartphone in a $10 car-cradle. This has a suction cup I stuck to a CD case, to make a desktop stand. This works remarkably well with Zoom or Microsoft Teams. For additional reliability, the audio for the conference can be via a phone call, rather than the Internet.  

Fluorescent Green Screen Version 3

Unhappy with the finish with fluorescent poster paint on my green screen for a virtual Zoom background, I decided to go back to using wall paint. Previously I did not find anyone in a paint shop in Canberra who knew what "chroma key green" was. But Bunnings Belconnen in Canberra had no problem. They selected "Chroma Key Green" from the Dulux corporate colors library, and made from a 250 ml sample pot of British Paints Extra Deep (tinted DD 0Y 43 SS 0Y 5). For the other side of the screen I used Taubmans "Hi-C Blue" (no mixing required).

Web Camera with Zoom Lens for Zoom

Recently I upgraded my home office with a web camera featuring a zoom lens and manual focus. This allows adjusting the image to just include me, without having to move the camera. I selected one with a 720P HD sensor (although they are also available with full HD). The lens is a modest 2.8-12mm zoom, suitable for use on a desktop. For something like a lecture theater, a higher power zoom might be needed. 

The camera sensor is housed in a very rugged, small black metal box, with a standard camera mount thread on both the top and bottom. The lens has screws to lock the focus and zoom in place once set. This is not a camera for live action, as it is difficult to focus, but one you set up, lock in place and leave. The camera has a USB plug, and operates as any other web camera. Similar products are offered on Amazon.

When the COVID-19 pandemic stuck last year I had to set up my home office for teaching by video-conference. However, I decided I should not have anything out of reach of a typical teacher, or student, as education should be accessible to everyone. So I used a low cost, low speed broadband connection, a modestly priced laptop, and a consumer grade web camera. This worked fine, especially with Zoom. However, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

Fluorescent Green Screen for Virtual Zoom Background

Fluorescent Green Screen

I have repainted my Folding Green Screen with bright green fluorescent paint, for better virtual background contrast. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was unable to get to the hardware store for paint, so used poster paint instead.  

Image added to green screen

The poster paint is half the price, but produced a less smooth finish than the interior water based house paint I used previously. Fortunately the imperfections don't show up when the virtual background is added. The paint looks much brighter, and yellower, than it does in the photograph. Dark lines where the panels of the folding screen join are masked by Zoom's algorithm, but any light shining though the gaps show up. 

Stop Glasses Reflecting Screen During Video Conference

A problem for those of us who wear spectacles is reflections from the screen showing up in a video conference. Three ways I have found to reduce this are: a polarizing filter, custom spectacles, and a dark theme.

1. Polarizing Filter

An LCD screen uses polarized light to produce images. So a polarized filter over the web camera can block reflections from the screen. The clip-on lens kit I purchased has a polarizing filter, but this was not designed to be used in conjunction with the zoom lens. So I unscrewed the ring holding the polarizing filter in place and inserted it in under the zoom lens. This greatly reduces reflections. Those using DSLR cameras as web cameras will be able to purchase polarizing filters for these. 

2. Custom Spectacles

My optometrist (Andrew Watkins) is making me a custom pair of multi-focal spectacles for video conferences (computer glasses, or "Zoom-Specs"). The standard ones work reasonably well with a computer screen, but I have to tilt my head up slightly. This becomes uncomfortable, and increases the screen reflections.  It is also not an attractive look. The custom spectacles have the center section of the visual field set for my normal computer screen reading distance, and also an anti-reflective coating, to reduce screen reflections. Being multi-focal, there is still an area at the bottom for seeing close up, and at the top for seeing long distances. So these glasses can be worn around the office, or home, but are not suitable for driving.

3. Dark Theme

In addition, I have found that a dark theme on the computer desktop helps. This has a black background with white text, so the screen emits much less light. How this is set varies between operating systems, and browsers. 

Zoom will go to dark theme, when this is set in the Microsoft Windows, or Apple OS operating systems. However, this doesn't happen with Linux (which I use), or with Android. I have suggested Zoom fix this. It could be rectified by having Zoom follow the operating system theme, or if that is not possible, add a manual setting. Or, Zoom could simply decide to make a dark theme the default for the Android and Linux versions.

Real-time Online Team Formation with 200 Students

Gather Town

Greetings from the Australian National University team formation event, for TechLauncher computer student group projects. Some of the 45 clients are giving one minute pitches to 200 students via Zoom. After that the students can join a client to discuss their project in Gather Town, with support materials in Slack. The list of projects and clients is provided in a shared Google Spreadsheet. The clients include a baker, rocket scientist, doctor, fashionista, financier, insurer, power engineer, and many software entrepreneurs. This is a complex mix of tools and people, but so far it is all going okay.

Before COVID-19 closed the campus in 2020, a large flat floor classroom was used for team formation. The clients would stand around the walls, next to posters. The master of ceremonies would walk up to each client in turn and hand them a microphone. Then students would walk to the client they were interested in and stick a post-it note with their details to the poster. In 2020 this was moved online, first using Zoom and Slack. 

Remo Conference

To emulate the physical room, Remo Conference was used for some Techlauncher events. This time Gather Town is being used. Like Remo, Gather shows a two dimensional floor plan or map. Each participant is represented by an avatar. The topics are represented by tables. Participants move themselves to the topic they are interested in, then can talk to those at the table using video, audio and text chat. 

Gather has a chunky 1980s video game look. You navigate your character around using the keyboard like a video game. I prefer Remo's approach where the mouse can be used to move. For the team-building exercise participants were asked to color code their characters, like the crew on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. As teaching staff, I was yellow (the color reserved for aircraft directors).

With more than one hundred users, it was impressive the application worked. There were repeated "disconnected" messages, but then automatic re-connection. Video and audio worked fine, which is also impressive on my slow, high latency wireless broadband. 

While Gather seemed to work, I found the interface, with avatars continually moving in all directions very distracting. It took several attempts for me to be able to cope with Remo's chaotic layout, and it might be the same with Gather. However I suggest there should be the option of a simplified interface suitable for mobile devices and those on low bandwidth connections, similar to Slack, as an alternative. There may be scope for building these type of interfaces on top of Slack and similar text based systems.

Lighting for Video Conferences

6in. Tabletop Selfie Ring Light

 When using a virtual background with video conferencing, it is important to have even lighting, otherwise part of you may be chopped off, or the real background visible. Any office lamp will do, but there are ring lights available specially for this purpose. The ring lights have a circle of LED lights,and are designed to go around the camera lens.  I find it too distracting to be looking directly into the light, so instead have it at 45% pointing at the wall, behind my computer screen. This reflects a soft light onto the background.

Power-bank with light

Ring lights are available in different sizes with clamps, and stands. Some also have a clamp for a smart phone (and are called "selfie lights). The one I have has a desktop tripod and can be rotated and swiveled. It cost $8 from a local store and plugs into a USB power supply. For portable use, away from mains power, I also have a power-bank, with a built in flood light and USB sockets for ring lights ($19 from a local store). 

Telephoto Lens for Closeup in Zoom Meetings

2x telephoto lens & virtual background in Zoom. 
Tom Worthington, 24 July 2021 CC BY

Web cameras tend to have a wider field of view, than needed for one person attending a video conference. This makes the camera easy to set up, but shows more of the background and less of the speaker. My Logitech C615 webcam has a 74-degree field of view. So I purchased a 2x Telephoto clip on lens.

The clip-on lens is designed for use with a smartphone camera, but works well with the camera in a laptop or stand-alone web camera. The lens is screwed onto what looks like a clothes peg, which is clipped over the camera. It takes some effort to position, but is then held firmly.

198 Degree Fish-eye Lens, 
Tom Worthington,
24 July 2021, CC BY

With Polarizing Filter, 
Tom Worthington
24 July 2021, CC BY

I purchased a kit*, which came with fish-eye, wide, and macro lenses, as well as a polarizing filter. The fish-eye or wide-angle lenses might be of use for showing the general view of a room, but distort the image. The polarizing filter is useful for removing reflections from my glasses, however it can't be used in conjunction with the telephoto lens.

Without telephoto lens.
Tom Worthington,
24 July 2021 CC BY

With 2x Telephoto Lens. 
Tom Worthington
24 July 2021 CC BY

As well as narrowing the view, so less of the room is visible, the telephoto lens also makes the background slightly out of focus. This is useful for concentrating the viewer's attention on you in the foreground. Otherwise they might spend their time reading the titles of the books in your bookcase. ;-)

The narrower view also allows a smaller green screen to be used for a virtual background. In the example shown, I am using a sheet of lime green polyester acoustic pin-board, 1200 mm x 800 mm ($30.50 from a hardware store). 

Most of the clip on lenses sold for smart phone are wide angle. It took me some time to find a telephoto. One online store sent me a wide angle instead of a telephoto. So for the first time, in a long time, I went into a camera store. The kit I purchased is an Apexel 5 in 1 Clip on Lens Kit ($19.95 from Ted's Cameras, Canberra Center). Note that you will only need a 2x telephoto lens and there are higher quality units available separately at a higher price.

Folding Lilac Screen for Virtual Zoom Background

The second hand folding room divider

Lilac folding screen, in Zoom
with virtual background. 
Vertical fold lines visible. 
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 23 July 2021 CC BY

Lilac folding screen,
vertical fold lines visible. 
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 23 July 2021 CC BY

, I painted blue for virtual backgrounds, was too dark to work well with Zoom. So I went back to the paint shop and had a lighter shade made up. This was intended to be a bright blue, and the hex code for the color looks blue on screen (#0061FF). However, the paint looks more Lilac, but works well with Zoom.

QR Code for 
Bright Blue #0061FF 
from 
Taubmans Coloursmith

Folding Blue Screen for Under $20

Blue folding screen,
with vertical fold lines.
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 20 July 2021 CC BY

The second hand folding room divider , I painted green for virtual Zoom backgrounds, works well but what if I want to wear green? The most common alternative to green, as a chroma key background, is blue. So I painted the other side of the divider blue. This did not work as well with Zoom as the green side.

QR Code for blue, from the 
Taubmans Coloursmith application

There appears less standardization on the shade of blue used, compared to green. I chose Hex color #0047BB (close to PANTONE 2728 C), as one of the most common mentioned in the literature. I uploaded an image this color to the Taubmans Coloursmith application. This produced a barcode, which I took this to the local hardware store to have a sample paint pot made up (less than $10 for 250 ml).

Blue

Blue folding screen, in Zoom
with virtual background. 
Vertical fold lines visible. 
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 20 July 2021 CC BY

Zoom was not able to delineate the dark blue background as well as the lighter green. Also the joins in the screen showed more than with green. The paint looked darker, and more purple than blue, when painted on the screen. 

QR Code for 
Bright Blue #0061FF 
from 
Taubmans Coloursmith

The literature points out that a blue screen will need more light than a green screen. But it may be that a less dark shade of blue would work better in an office, where studio lighting is not available. The lightest possible shade of this would be #0061FF. Another option would be the "Hi C Blue" (#0174b3) which is one of the standard colors of the Taubmans range.

Green

QR Code for green, from the 
Taubmans Coloursmith application

I also used the Colorsmith application to make Chroma Key Green. This looks almost identical to the Dulux Zatar Leaf color I had made previously.

Folding Green Screen for Under $20

Green folding screen,
with two vertical fold lines.
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 17 July 2021 CC BY

The low cost photographic backdrop sheet I purchased, for making virtual Zoom backgrounds, works well but takes time to hang. I found a folding room divider screen at a charity store for $5. These type of screens are available online for under $100. I decided to paint it chroma key green. I tried the local hardware store, but they had never heard of chroma key.  The friendly staff at the I inquired via the Dulux website advised that the closest color in their consumer range was Zatar Leaf, or if I wanted the exact color it could be mixed at their trade store. So I went back to the hardware store and asked for a sample pot of Zatar Leaf (less than $10 for 250 ml).

Green folding screen,
with virtual background.
Fold lines are hidden by Zoom.
Photo by Tom Worthington,
 17 July 2021 CC BY

The screen is covered with canvas having a large photo mural on it. I painted over one side of the screen with a small roller. I also painted the sides of the screen. For the screen to stand it has to have the panels hinged in slightly. I placed the screen just behind my chair. As you can see in the photo, the joins in the screen are clearly visible as two vertical lines. I thought I would have to cover these with green tape. However, when Zoom's virtual background is switched on the lines disappear. 

This screen is only 1200 mm wide and has to be so close to fill the view, it is a bit cramped in front. I could use a camera with a narrower field of view, but a screen with four, rather than three 400 mm panels would be more practical.

I am considering painting the other side of the screen with chroma key blue. An alternative is to leave it with a decorative pattern, so I can put the screen in front of the desk when not in use so the room looks less like an office.

Virtual Graduation Cermonies

CECS graduates contest (video), ANU 2021

Last week I was asked to stand in front of a green screen in academic regalia, and go though the motions of congratulating the students I have been teaching at ANU. The invitation came from Eric Byler, an award winning American film director, now working at ANU videoed me in front of a green screen (with a version for students in China also produced). 

Standing in front of green screen

Mine was not exactly an academy award performance, but I stood there, shaking hands with no one, handing over certificates and giving a speech. The idea is that a student who can't get to gradation due to COVID-19, can video or photograph themselves and then can be inserted into the photo, with the university digitally inserted in the background, for a digital ceremony. Graduates of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science have been offered $100 for their best selfie.

There are, of course, reputation risks with virtual graduations. If the video was made widely available, Eric worried some student would paste me into a war zone or zombie attack. But then when working at the Department of Defence I helped prepare for the end of the world on 1 January 2000, not unlike a zombie attack. Also in a borrowed uniform I went on an exercise with the US Navy and so would not look out of place in a war zone.

What worried me more is the possibility of a non-graduate using the video to help build evidence around a fake degree. The ANU is one of a few universities which now issue digital certificates to graduates and has an online facility to check if someone actually graduated.

There are technical ways to counter fake photos, for example, applying a digital signature to the images and video. As it happens Dr Sabrina Caldwell, is an expert in detecting fake photographs and is on the JPEG committee.

Universities should be cautious about using "security by obscurity". Placing a photo online and then telling hundreds of people the web address is not a good form of security. 

$13 Green Screen for Video Conferences

To get a better Zoom virtual background, I purchased a 2 x 3 m photographic backdrop sheet, online for $12.99 (including postage). This is chroma key green colored, almost the same as the $4 sheet of apple green cloth I purchased from a local store. The professional cloth has the advantage that it is twice the width and so when hung landscape mode is the right size for a video conference backdrop.

The sheet came with four clips and wall anchors to hang it. I used the clips to secure the sheet over a freestanding folding room divider. about 150 mm behind my chair. With the ends of the screen curved in slightly on each side, this fills the view from my screen mounted web camera.

The sheet requires even soft light. Direct sunlight, or a spotlight will cause bright patches, and shadows which the virtual background setting can't handle. I was a little disappointed that the sheet did not have a loop sewn in one side so a pole could be passed though it, as depicted in advertisement. A bed sheet with a sewn edge, which a pole can be threaded through to hang it, might be a better option.

There are many types of Chroma key color cloth offered for sale online. Check the size, as these tend to be advertised showing the larger 2 x 3 m sheet I purchased, but with the price of a smaller 1 x 1.6 m option. Also the sheets are shown on specially designed stands held with clips. However the stands are not normally included in the price and the clips may not be either.

A $4 Green Screen for Zoom Background

Tom Worthington
in chroma key body suit,
without hood, so just face shows

For the last year and a half I have been giving workshops from home, via Zoom, for students in Australia, also presenting a series of seminars for educators in North America. The background in my lounge/office is a wall, with a couple of posters, must be getting very familiar to people. Zoom has the option to replace the background with a photo, or even your presentation slides, but this works best with a uniformly colored background. Zoom recommends a green background. 

Tom Worthington in
chroma key body in front of green screen

This techniques is called Chroma key, where a specific color in an image is replaced with another image. While any color works, there are two standard ones used in the video industry, a bright green and a bright blue. If you use the standard colors, you can use props which match and will disappear into the background. An extreme example is having a person disappear.

Tom Worthington
in chroma key body suit
with hood covering face

Chroma key color cloth is commonly available for sale online. Recently I found a green chromakey bodysuit at a secondhand store. This is used for special effects. Covering the entire body, including hands and face, with the matching background, the wearer disappears. This could be used by assistants who need to walk on set or to make objects appear to move on their own. Those running online invigilated exams need to keep in mind the suit could be used to hide someone helping the student.

Tom Worthington
using the green screen
in normal clothes

Apple colored
Top Pop Poplin cloth,
from Spotlight

Being impatient to try out a green screen, I went to a local haberdashery store and purchased some green cloth (2 m of Apple colored Top Pop Poplin, from Spotlight, at $2 per m). I then clipped this to my room screen.  With a width of just under 2m and a height of 1.16 m this was enough to fill the background for the camera. This cloth is a little darker than the usual chroma key green, but worked well.

Stanford University Computer Science Zoom Class a Quantum Leap Backwards

Stanford University's large scale Zoom class

I had to check twice to see Stanford University's large scale Zoom class was not a spoof. With this setup the lecturer stands at a lectern in an otherwise empty room. In front of them is a wall of video screens, showing the students, each in their Zoom window. It is not the first time that this idea of replicating the large lecture has been attempted, but is perhaps the worst one. Previous examples were using hybrid mode. This had a small number of students in the classroom, with video screens at the back to make it appear they were in the room.

CSU College of Business collaborative classroom.
Photo by CSU Photography

In 2019, Colorado State University’s College of Business installed 27 high-video screens on the back wall of a classroom. The room also had seating for 37 students, in a semicircle, to give an intimate environment. This is a much better design than that at Stanford. 

There have been video studios for teaching, for at least the last 50 years, with the advent of the Open University. The best of these look like TV studios. That format may be distracting for academics unused to it. However, for those of us who have put in the hours and done the training in how to produce educational video, this is just part of the job.

The Internet provides new and different ways to provide education. Some of these can be used to reproduce features from older education format, such as the lecture. However, we should try to incorporate the good features, not bad ones. 

Education should be designed to cater to the needs of the students, not to make up for inadequacies of the teaching staff. Academics who see themselves as orators to crowds need to be given help to retrain and also overcome the sense of loss of part of their identity. Taking a poor educational format (the large lecture) and making it even poorer online is not an acceptable alternative to good learning design delivered by trained qualified educators.

ps: I suggest this is a quantum leap backwards in education. But in the technical sense of the term quantum: the smallest possible change. ;-)

Microsoft Teams Meetings on the Move

For the last year and a half Zoom has been my go-to video conferencing application. But some organisations prefer Microsoft Teams. The biggest problem I have found with Teams is security: it is too good. For those who use Teams with just one organisation that is fine, but I have difficulty moving from one Microsoft account to another. I log out of the Microsoft account at one organisation to log into another, but Microsoft logs me straight back into the same one. So far I have found no solution to this problem.

Something which does work well is Teams on a smart phone, but this takes a little more effort than Zoom. In Zoom, you can activate "Safe Driving Mode", which mutes the microphone and video, so you will not be distracted. This has the added benefit of greatly reducing the data use, as video is not transmitted to the phone. I haven't found a similar mode in Teams, but outgoing audio and video is muted by default (remember to provide a profile photo, to give people something to look at). There is also an option to turn off incoming video (something I have not found on Zoom).

Even with incoming video turned off, you will still see presentation slides in Teams. I found this reduces bandwidth use to about 90 kbps. But for driving you don't want this distraction. What I do is put the text chat on screen. That is usually less dynamic and after a minute my phone blanks the screen anyway, just leaving the audio. This also reduces the data use to about 7 kbps. It also helps to put the audio through the car speakers, so the sound is not coming from the phone.

It may seem odd, to want to attend a video conference with no video, no presentation visuals, and only one way audio, but it can be  liberating. Because you can't see anything and can't respond, you have to listen to what is being said. You have to make a mental note of anything to respond to later.

ps: Another option for an audio only conference is to dial in by phone. Zoom supports this, with the app able to dial your phone for you, and insert the meeting, access code, and password. Teams goes one further and will call you. However, those organizing the conference have to enable these features. The last Zoom conference I attended did not have the password included for dial-in and the last Teams meeting would not call Australian phone numbers.

The Best way to Avoid Zoom Fatigue is Not Have a Meeting

Jeremy N. Bailenson has written a thought provoking commentary on the causes of fatigue from using video conferencing (2021). He suggested Zoom, and similar video conference systems, cause the user to be tired due to: Eye Gaze at a Close Distance, Cognitive Load, An All Day Mirror, and Reduced Mobility. 

As Professor Bailenson notes, "... being on video-conference all day seems particularly exhausting ...". He suggests this is an area for research by social scientists and technologists.

However, I suggest the primary cause of the exhaustion may simply be from spending so much time in video conferencing. In a typical day pre-COVID19, I might attend a couple of face to face meetings. In between the meetings there was at least some break walking from one meeting to another. When I occasionally have had to attend, or chair, all day meetings, I have found this exhausting. Because it is so easy to schedule and attend video meetings, I have found some days in 2020 I go from meeting to meeting without a break. Some conferences which transitioned to online last year acknowledged this and scheduled breaks.

Eye Gaze at a Close Distance

Professor Bailenson identifies Eye Gaze at a Close Distance as a problem, with a video conferencing like staring at a group of people. I haven't noticed this as a problem, perhaps because I frequently have the screen set to display only the speaker, in a small "thumbnail" window. I do this to save on computer CPU and networking resources, but perhaps it also has benefits for the user. 

There are other video conference systems which try to mimic a meeting more closely. Remo displays a floor plan with people represented by small icons around tables. When you join a table, you see the video from just the few people around the table. Some systems attempt to provide a perspective view, showing people near you larger than those further away.

Cognitive Load

Professor Bailenson suggests that having to consciously attend to one's visual communication creates extra workload. However, in a face to face meeting I am conscious of the need to be visible to others and appear to be paying attention. This has been a problem when I am taking notes on a computer, but those around me think I am not paying attention and are using the computer for an unrelated task.

An All Day Mirror

As Professor Bailenson notes, Zoom's default option is to display the speaker on screen. I find this reassuring, but he suggests it is stressful. Perhaps one reason it doesn't bother me is that most of the time I have the video camera turned off and a stock image (taken from the same perspective, wearing the same clothes, displayed. I do this to reduce bandwidth use and also enable me to take notes without distracting other participants.

Reduced Mobility

Professor Bailenson suggest video conferencing reduces mobility because the participants need to stay in view of the camera. This is not the case. Video conferencing is available on phones as well as laptops and so can be mobile. It may be that we need features in the video system to encourage people to use this feature, or explicitly encourage them to do so.

Avoid Zoom Fatigue: Don't Have a Meeting

It may be that I suffer less Zoom fatigue because I was a user of low bandwidth video conferencing before 2020. As such I treat the video as an adjunct to the audio, and the audio as an adjunct to the text chat, and the text chat as an adjunct to asynchronous communication. 

Those who are used to working primarily via face to face meetings, including those used to teaching this way, find video conferencing the closest alternative available. However, this is not necessarily the best way of working. My approach is to try to get the work done asynchronously, as that save the time and trouble of having a "meeting". 

For ten years I was able to run online courses for university students which had no video or audio. Students never saw or spoke to me face to face or online, but were still able to learn and gave good ratings for my teaching. In decades of helping to run the Australian Computer Society I avoided meetings wherever possible, making decisions out of session.

The best way to avoid Zoom fatigue is not through better software design, but by not having fewer meetings.

References

Bailenson, J. N. (2021). Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000030

Mobile Learning Special Interest Group

The ASCILITE Mobile Learning Special Interest Group has produced an eight minute video to explain what they do for the ASCILITE 2020 Conference next week. This was made in one take via Zoom. It is a bit more lively that the version I made by pasting the text from the website into a text to speech system: