Can I wear my pajamas? How to dress in the online classroom as a Global Launch student

Imagine you are late for your first day of class. You keep your head down as you quietly enter the classroom. The professor is giving a lecture, so you get your laptop out and begin taking notes as fast as you can. When another student asks a question, you look up, but you can’t believe your eyes. The teacher is wearing fuzzy pajamas! 

Just the idea of your professor wearing fuzzy pajamas is hilarious. Those pajamas would be very distracting and would make it difficult to take their lecture seriously. Now, apply this same scenario to an online class, where you interact with your instructor and classmates on Zoom. It’s still distracting, right? 

This silly anecdote is useful for deciding on what clothing is appropriate for an online class.

ASU has students from over 150 different countries. We have an environment that embraces everyone’s unique culture, taste and style. That means you have a lot of freedom to choose clothing that represents you well and that you feel comfortable and confident in. It’s normal to see a variety of head coverings such as hijabs, baseball caps, skull caps, turbans, and more. 

Clothing styles are also varied. Some people keep their arms covered while others do not. This is true in face-to-face classes as well as in online classes. Even though you might dress differently, it’s okay because it’s expected. This means it’s not distracting like the fuzzy pajamas.

Wearing appropriate clothing shows that you respect yourself, your classmates and your instructor and that you take the course and everyone’s time seriously. Not wearing distracting clothing means you are helping everyone to use your time wisely and focus on the coursework and material, rather than trying to attract attention to yourself.

What other types of clothing would be distracting? A bathrobe? A t-shirt with something offensive written on it? A blanket from your bed wrapped around your shoulders? A good rule to follow is: if it’s appropriate for the in-person class, it’s appropriate for the online class. If you wouldn’t wear it to a face-to-face class, don’t wear it to the online class.

There’s one obvious exception to this rule. Since your camera doesn’t show what you’re wearing on the lower half of your body, you can probably wear your comfy pajama pants. You could even wear fuzzy ones and no one would be distracted.