A Report by Vivek Nair

It is well known that Saba Centra has occasional cases of connection lag, audio lapses, and microphone dysfunction. But now, a more serious problem has emerged – spamming. Spamming refers to the act of interfering with class, which may include obliterating, defacing, or altering other students’ work. It is inappropriate and distracts other students’ learning experience. Alex Ruzhinsky, a mathematics instructor, stated his concern.

“Spamming during class is a real problem. I find it very frustrating when some students are taking advantage of having access to their microphones. I am sure that we could spend class time more productively if this immature behavior stops.”

The image shows one example of spamming in class. Identifiable information has been redacted. Image courtesy of Vivek Nair.

Recently, in an OHS physics class, a question was presented to students. In order to answer that question, students needed to drag their “avatar” into one of two boxes that corresponded to the possible answers. One spammer, who had strong opinions about a side of the argument, thought it necessary to delete the icons of all of his classmates who disagreed with him. That way, it appeared that all of the students in the class had the same opinion as he had.

“I don’t think that students spamming are trying [to] intentionally disrupt the class, but I hope it will stop immediately,” Mr. Ruzhinsky suggested.

Regardless of the spammers’ intentions, OHS administrators are aware of the issue and are attempting to put an end to it. There is one issue though: the current version of Saba Centra does not log the history. In other words, administrators cannot review spammers’ actions. One student, Logan Jennings, gave a recommendation: “I believe that if everyone could see [who was spamming], then the spammers would stop.”

Others, like Jad G., suggested that if students had a separate application to draw on, they would not feel the need to spam during class. There is currently no whiteboard area before or after class.

Another form of spamming may come from irrelevant side conversations. “All the unnecessary text chatting during discussion should be considered as spamming,” remarked Mr. Ruzhinsky, referring to frequent off-topic comments that students make during class. Other students agree, noting that irrelevant comments spark irrelevant discussions and end up distracting students.

An effective way to prevent this spam is to reprimand perpetrators of this action. If we can raise awareness of this issue, Saba Centra will be a better learning environment for all.

Categories: School