Photovoice Study

About the study

In the fall of 2024 and winter of 2025, 31 Oregon State University Ecampus students participated in a photovoice study about what it means to be an online student.

Participants in this study were asked to take pictures of their lived experiences in response to three prompts:

  1. What does being an online student mean to you?
  2. What is a barrier you encounter as an online student?
  3. What does online education allow you to do or be?

Students wrote captions for each photo and participated in an interview, providing more information about each image and what it meant to them.

About the methodology

Photovoice is an innovative form of participatory research that was developed in the 1990s. Participants submit photos in response to prompts. Those images, combined with interviews, give the researcher a rich, nuanced understanding of a particular experience.

Photovoice is a qualitative research method, and it’s also a form of participatory research. Participants are active collaborators in the research, empowering (or "giving voice to") those who might be marginalized by traditional research methods.

Featured study results

The following themes emerged in response to the prompt: “What does online education allow you to do or be?”

THEME: Pursue my career or work

This picture depicts Bill, a white man with long blond hair, wearing a high visibility vest, a ball cap, and a head light because this picture was taken at night. In his gloved hands, he holds a baby owl. Bill is smiling widely.

I wouldn't be able to do this if I was tied down to an in-person schedule because I wouldn't be able to have this job. They wouldn't have hired me if I was like, “Oh, sorry, I can't work like, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.” I wouldn’t have this job…. that's a huge benefit. That's why I'm doing [online education] basically. So I can just do this.

— Bill, Degree: Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation

This is a picture of Kate's workspace as a Reading Corps Tutor. She has a small desk with chairs for her and 2 children. She has decorated the walls with posters of the alphabet and motivational messages for her young students.

…definitely a positive since I am able to [work] full time… If I had like, you know, [an in-person] class scheduled at this time maybe two days a week or whatever, even then still it wouldn't really work for me to be Reading Corps Tutor because you have to have a certain amount of hours by the end of the year.

— Kate, German

THEME: Support my family

This picture shows us Veronica B’s view looking down at her feet as she walks across cement. We see her right leg in denim, her right foot in a light brown slipper, and she’s holding a black bag close to her red shirt.

So this was on my way out the door for [my children’s dental] appointment. I forgot I'm wearing my slippers because to me, like I'm an online student. I can be whoever I want to be… So I'm like, okay, this is just who I am right now. And I'm mom like, [online education] allows me to be mom.

— Veronica B., Sociology

Sarah Smith submitted this picture of her infant daughter crawling aways from the viewer. All we see is her daughter’s light pink denim legs and tiny white feet.

I feel like it does give me like a little bit of freedom and control to really create my own schedule … my schooling right now is really around my child's needs, not the other way around. I'm not planning her needs based on what I need to do for school…. I mean, definitely they weren't lying like being a parent just changes you and it has changed my priorities. School still matters to me...but I also don't feel like I'm quite the same student as I was before…. I can let little things go and I don't have to have perfect grades all the time…. I do what I can to be a good student, but honestly the time and being with my daughter is far more important to me at this time.

— Sarah Smith, Horticulture

THEME: Engage in meaningful hobbies and activities

Quinn submitted this picture of a blue heron in a shallow pool of water surrounded by tall grass.

So that right there is a blue heron…. me and my family, we took a day and we went to this um this nature preserve near where we live. And they have like this driving, drive-thru area and everything. And that was one of the few animals we saw…. And it was really cool. I was excited.

— Quinn, Zoology

Vivianna submitted this picture to demonstrate her fiber arts work. Her white hand holds light blue yarn and a crochet hook.

I get to explore my creativity…. when I was in-person, I didn't have as much opportunity to like dive into hobbies and stuff. But now, yeah, with my online education, I've had a lot more opportunity to. I was doing embroidery for a while. I started trying to do knitting and now I'm doing crochet. And just all types of little hobbies like my gaming or reading, stuff that like. I think if I was in-person I would have not even, just less time to do but like maybe less interest because with in-person stuff, I had just more, in general, I had more obligations that took my like my focus away from doing things like this.

— Vivianna, Applied Humanities

THEME: Live out my values

This is a picture of a gray-scale painting done by Brian’s sister. It depicts an elderly white man with a black hat, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

…figuring out the problems or like crunching on issues and coming up with my own opinion…. I think this is the part about education that I like. It's the puzzle solving.… the more esoteric and the more open-ended it is, the better for me…. I love learning and I love, I have always loved going to libraries finding things to read and skim and whatever. And so the continuation of that like the enjoyment…. into like the college level. I mean, it was pretty much destroyed the first time I went and saw the reality of what like education was like at a university level. But there was still a kernel of it.… And you can feel it and you can almost touch it when you talk with instructors who are passionate about teaching …. And to me, that's one of the more important aspects of being a human.

— Brian, Applied Ecology

This photo depicts a close up of pole of a bridge. It’s brown, rusted, with a silver plaque that give the hiker information about how much weight the bridge can hold, the serial number, etc.. On the brown, rusted part of the pole, someone has written in bright white lettering, “Let nature be your guide.” The white lettering pops out from the rusted pole and connects with the snowy background.

So I took this picture when I was just out on a hike with a friend and I thought it was really sweet and kind of represents like my own personal, like just who I am as a person and also like my major [of environmental sciences].

— Mackenzie, Environmental Sciences

For press inquiries, please contact Tyler Hansen.