Panopticism as a Solution to Student Inattentiveness in online classes

Abstract

This study proposes the use of Panopticism to address inattentiveness, one of the major problems faced by teachers while taking classes in the sudden transition to the virtual classroom during the Covid- 19 pandemic. This small-scale empirical study identifies a few of the reasons for demotivated and inattentive students in online classes and analyzes the possibility of Panopticism as a means of disciplining students from a distance. A survey was conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of questions that provided both quantitative and qualitative data. This was coupled with the researcher's own experience when discussing the data. Thc participants were a unique group of graduate students of a public university in Bangladesh, who had experienced the midway transition of a taught Masters course from being an offline one to an online one due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thc data analysis revealed the students' perspectives on their attentiveness in offline classes and the effect of visibility on their engagement in the online class. Findings suggest the possibility for using the Panoptic Effect as propounded by Foucault to increase student attentiveness in online classes.