Teaching with Zoom

What is Zoom?
How do I host my class using Zoom?
What equipment do I need to get started?
What do I need to tell my students to get them started?
What if something goes wrong?
What do I do at the beginning of class?
What do I do during a Zoom class?
Whiteboard
Screen Annotation
Polling
Chat as Backchannel
Breakout Rooms
Sample Class Agenda

What is Zoom?

Zoom is ASU's centrally supported, easy-to-use video conferencing platform that provides high definition, interactive collaboration tools, and telephone conferencing to use for communication and collaboration.

Teaching with Zoom you can:

• Share your screen to show slides or other materials and ask students to share their screens to present
• Annotate and mark on the screen, or draw on a whiteboard
• Break your class into groups for discussions or projects using the Breakout Rooms feature
• Use the chat feature to answer questions or share learning resources
• Record your class so students can review materials
• Poll your students to check for understanding
• Host virtual office hours
• Meet with students
• Engage with small groups or project teams

Frequently Asked Questions about Zoom

How do I host my class using Zoom?

Zoom makes holding live (synchronous) classes and meetings online possible. As ASU's centrally supported, easy-to-use video conferencing platform, Zoom provides high-definition, interactive collaboration tools and telephone conferencing to use for hosting your classes.

Access and launch Zoom directly from My ASU: Click on your Zoom personal meeting link (as pictured below), and then enter your ASURITE. For more information, view the Zoom guide for faculty.

In the event of circumstances requiring remote instruction, all faculty and students will be able to quickly access their classes’ Zoom links in My ASU, as shown below. Here are directions for customizing your class Zoom links in My ASU.

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For students, they will be prompted to join class via Zoom through the “Attend via Sync” button that will appear on their own MyASU page.

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If you are also using Canvas to host your class, you can communicate with students and provide them with the Zoom link through the course announcements feature within the Canvas system.

Securing your Personal Meeting Link
It’s recommended that you set your Personal Meeting ID to not allow students to join the class before you and/or to create a waiting room for them. This also will prevent students from accessing your class link while you’re using it for another class. After you’ve tested your link from My ASU, you can log in to asu.zoom.us, select the Meetings > Personal Meeting Room from the menu on the left to disable the “Join before host” setting and “Enable waiting room,” per the below.
 

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What equipment do I need to get started?

At the most basic level, all you and your students need to use Zoom is a telephone, even a landline. However, if you have access to a computer or mobile device you can use the full capabilities of Zoom. 

The following equipment will enhance your experience but is not necessary:

• Web camera (Turn it on!)
  A camera will increase your connection with your students by allowing you to see each other face-to-face. You will still be able to participate in the other features of the Zoom class.
• Headset with a microphone
  This will let you hear and be heard more clearly. This does not need to be fancy equipment, it can be the same as the headphones you might use with your phone.
• Dual monitors
  If you have two monitors you can have your video feed on one screen and your shared screen on the other. If not, it will look similar to picture-in-picture on your TV.
• Charger
  Charging your device during your class will ensure you do not have an unexpected power outage interrupting your instruction.

You can learn more about this topic here: Setting up Zoom Meetings & Hardware Training.
 

What do I need to tell my students to get them started?

Below is a sample message that can be sent to students who contact you directly with questions about accessing the course:

Our class is currently meeting on Zoom at the regularly scheduled time. You can access the Zoom course links in My ASU, under the My Classes tab. Further instructions are available in a student Zoom guide, and help with Zoom is available from the ASU Experience Center.

What if something goes wrong?

It might.
And it’s going to be okay.

Here are the top three problems that make up the majority of Zoom issues and how you can address them before they happen:

• I can’t see.
  • Testing Your Video
• I can’t hear.
  • Testing Your Audio
• There’s background noise or feedback.
  • Solutions for Audio Echo

Your best first stop for tech support? 
Your students.
Let’s put that critical thinking to work.

If you’re still experiencing trouble, The ASU Help Center is available to assist you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You may reach them anytime via:

• The Help button if you are in Canvas
• The Service Center on MyASU
• 1-855-278-5080

When contacting support, please be prepared to provide:

• The full name of this course (ABC 123: Long Name)
• A summary description of the problem
• Detailed, step-by-step instructions to reproduce the problem

Tips:

• Test your audio, video and equipment well before the start of class and do not conduct these tests from a classroom. If you experience a low bandwidth signal, shutting off your video will help. If you experience connectivity issues, you can use the call-in number options (including international).
• Share your screen to show slides or other materials and ask students to share their screens to present.
• Annotate and mark on the screen, or draw on a whiteboard.
• Break your class into groups for discussions or projects using the breakout rooms feature.
• Use the chat feature to answer questions or share learning resources.
• Record your class so students can review materials.
• Poll your students to check for understanding.
• Host virtual office hours. meet with students and engage with small groups/project teams

What do I do at the beginning of class?

Just as in an in-person class, it is important to have procedures to get started and set expectations with your students.

At the beginning of class, remind your students of basic Zoom etiquette:

• ask them to turn on their cameras
• look at the camera in order to make eye contact when they’re talking
• mute their mics when they aren’t contributing
  How to mute all participants at once

Assign students roles to help you host the meeting so you can focus on teaching such as:

• Technology Troubleshooter - Help others with their technology
• Chat Monitor - Monitor the chat window for questions or shared resources
• Note Taker - You can have a student typing closed captions for the class if there are students that need that accommodation. Getting Started with Closed Captioning
• Note Taker’s Note Taker - If you are having a student do live closed captioning, ask another student to share their notes with the Note Taker so they don’t miss out on learning.

Select a Video Layout that is best suited for your class. The more students can see you and each other, the more connected they feel as a class and the more likely they are to stay on task. You can view up to 25 students at a time in Gallery view.

Consider recording your class so that students can rewatch and review what they learned after class. Guide for Recording in Zoom.

What do I do during a Zoom class?

Credit to the University of Minnesota Information Technology Department

No one wants to sit through a straight lecture session for 60 minutes, and in fact, such a class session design doesn’t leverage the fact that you have all your students there and present. You can use the features of Zoom to guide different types of interactive activities. These activities offer variety to break up a long class session, and they offer different means of expression, a universal design principle.

Whiteboard

Draw on the whiteboard, or ask students to contribute to a whiteboard as a means of engaging them differently in the discussion.

Note: whiteboard activity is completely inaccessible to people who use screen readers. If you use this feature, be prepared to read aloud all the contributions so that everyone can see and /or hear them. And, you’ll need to take a screenshot of each whiteboard if you want to save it.

Screen Annotation

Zoom has basic annotation tools (text box, free form draw/pen, shapes, and highlighter) that you can use to guide students around a visual display (such as a website) or explain a concept. Access these from the Share Desktop function.

Note: screen annotations are not accessible for screen reader users. If you use this feature, be sure to use accessible presentation best practices: say exactly what you’re doing while you’re doing it, e.g., “I’m drawing a big red circle around the login button on this web page.”

Polling

Set up polls in advance and launch them at specific times during your class session, the same way you’d use clicker questions to introduce a new section of a lecture.

Chat as Backchannel

Backchanneling refers to having a synchronous conversation while something else is happening. For example, people sometimes live-tweet their reactions to a presidential debate as it is being broadcast. Using the chat tool as a backchannel can give students agency and encourage engagement by allowing more students to interact with the live activity, rather than just listening.

Some uses of backchannel:

• Emulate live-tweeting of guest lectures as a way to collect questions, which you then answer at the end of the session. Elect 1 student to monitor the chat and curate questions as they come in.
• Host a virtual fishbowl, in which a small group of students interact around solving a problem or discussing an issue. The other students react to their classmates’ contributions via the chat backchannel.
• During your lectures, encourage students to log questions as small groups and elect 1 student to bring them forward for group conversation.

Notes:

• Backchannel activities can be overwhelming for some students, and are thus an accessibility concern. Therefore, it is recommended you offer this type of interaction as an option for students who thrive on this level of stimulation, but do not require it from all students.
• Backchannel can also be overwhelming for you to monitor while you’re also trying to teach. Consider deputizing a student or TA to monitor the chat if you use this feature, to make it easier for you to focus on teaching.
• You can download the full chat history at the end of class, if you want to keep this record.

Breakout Rooms

You can use Zoom’s breakout rooms functionality to have students do group work. As the instructor, you can "travel" from one breakout room to the next, broadcast messages to various rooms, and end the breakout sessions when it is time to regroup.

Sample Class Agenda

Plan for a synchronous course session just as you would plan for an in-person class. Here is a sample agenda for a 60-minute synchronous course session. You might want to share your agenda with students ahead of time, so they know what to expect.