Teaching Online with Zoom - Getting Started

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Last updated: 08 Aug 2023 by Jummain
5 min read


Past Sessions

Preparing your Zoom Session

Although you may have heard of how Zoom just works, it is better that you get familiarized with Zoom and how to teach online with it before starting a LIVE session with your students.

Get Started
Install the Zoom Client:   Win  |  Mac  |  Linux  |  iPhone  |  Android.

  • Learn more about Zoom: Host Control
  • Check your device capabilities:
    • Do a Zoom Test Meeting.
    • Check your internet connection, audio and video.
    • Do you need a headset? How far should the mic be? How about the camera angle? Any light source to light your face? Is there a light source behind? Do you need to pull down the blinds? Do you need to turn off the fan blowing at your mic? Do you know how to share screen?

Schedule your Sessions


 Using Canvas to schedule Zoom meetings with your class

Schedule a Meeting

Instructors can schedule online Zoom meetings within their Canvas course.

To create a Zoom meeting in Canvas:

  1. Click Zoom from your course navigation.
  2. In Canvas Zoom, click Schedule a New Meeting
  3. Fill out the meeting details and settings. 
    • Topic: Title of your meeting
    • Description: Enter your meeting description
    • When: Date and time of the meeting
    • Duration: total amount of time the meeting will run for (you can enter a meeting early)
    • Recurring meeting: meetings that will be used more than once in the course (e.g., weekly lectures/tutorials, no fixed time)
    • Waiting Room
    • Only authenticated users can join meetings: Recommended: Sign in with NUS Zoom account
    • Video Host/Participant: select whether you'd like your/your participants' video to be automatically turned on or off
    • Meeting Options Recommendations: 
      • Unselect Enable join before host
      • Unselect Use Personal Meeting ID
      • If you'd like automatic recordings of the meeting, select Record the meeting automatically and save the recording in the cloud. 
        • All Zoom cloud recordings will be made available to students in Canvas

After scheduling a Zoom meeting in Canvas

  • All meetings will auto-populate on the Canvas Calendar
  • Meetings will also appear in the Zoom web portal of the same account
  • Changing details in the Zoom web portal will reflect in the Canvas Zoom but will not reflect in the Canvas Calendar.
  • Cloud recordings, once processed, will be made available in Canvas Zoom.

Publishing the Cloud Recordings

  • Click on Cloud Recordings tab
  • Look for the appropriate meeting (use date filter or search by ID if necessary)
  • Click on the slider button

Features only on Zoom web portal

Some Zoom features cannot be completed in Zoom tool in Canvas. Once meetings are scheduled in Canvas, go to the nus-sg.zoom.us web portal to do the following:


  1. Manual creation of poll questions . CSV upload option available through Canvas Zoom
  2. Editing the sharing settings of cloud videos (download/authentication access)
  3. Download/Trim cloud recordings

Notes:

  • Import meetings into Canvas

    • Only host can import meetings
    • Meetings using Personal Meeting IDs can not be imported into Canvas Zoom
    • Cannot import Zoom Webinars

  • Create meetings for sections

    • Create meetings on the Zoom web portal
    • Share the Join Links and Recording URLs to announcement, calendar or discussion for each sections

  • Create meetings for groups 

    • Create meetings on the Zoom web portal
    • Share the Join Links and Recording URLs to each group



Replicate the classroom spirit online
One thing we do notice is the online engagement is higher when everyone turns ON their webcam. There is a higher participation rate when students know they are on camera, and it will be easier for you to engage them. When you are done with Sharing Screen and you are at the discussion segment, prompt students to switch the layout to Gallery Mode.

Have a plan and an agenda

  • Be early to check all the audio, webcam and screen sharing are working.
  • Share your agenda with the students ahead of time, so they can better prepare on what is expected of them for the session.

        Enable Live Transcription

  • Students may benefit from having Live transcription. It may help in accessibility and revision.

Record the session
Students may be have a technical issue on the day. You have the option of:

  • Record to the Computer: It records to an MP4 file in My Documents.
  • Record to the Cloud: It records to the cloud. You can then share the link.
  • If you have scheduled the Zoom Meeting in LumiNUS/Canvas and Recorded to the Cloud, you can Publish the recording to students.

Engaging Students

Non-verbal Feedback
Allow students to communicate without interrupting the meeting. Get students to use the "Raise Hand" feature to indicate when they'd like to speak. If it is a big class, get students to use the "Yes/No" button to quickly respond to you.

Chat
Rather than just listening, you may want to encourage students to text chat. It depends on how comfortable you are with checking in the chat comments while delivering the lesson. It can be overwhelming for you to monitor. You may want to prompt them when you want them to type in or not. You can save the text chat as a *.txt at the end of the session, before you end the meeting.

Annotation
Zoom has basic annotation tools (text box, free form draw/pen, shapes, and highlighter) that you can use to guide students or explain a concept.

Poll & Quizzes
Zoom now offers an advanced poll and quiz question types. You can set them up beforehand and launch them during your session. You can also share the results. 

Breakout Room
Probably the most popular engagement tool for tutorials. You can break them up into different rooms for discussion. You have the option of assigning automatically by random or manual assignment. As the host you can also join any breakout room to direct the discussion. You can now Save your Breakout Room assignments for Recurring meetings; not available for Recurring with No Fixed Time. 

Video Share Option
Sharing videos on YouTube and embedded in Powerpoint will often result in lag and loss frames for viewers.
Use the Video Share option instead using a file located on your device.
Click Share Screen > Advanced > Video Files > Select file on device.
If you still need to show the YouTube video, change the YouTube video quality to 360p or 240p. It will reduce the quality, but it will provide smoother viewing experience.


Teaching Scenarios
  • Assignment Review: You can meet with an individual or group of students to review their assignments and project.
  • Brainstorming: Share the whiteboard and annotate. Allow others to annotate on the same board to share ideas and problem solving methods.
  • Consultation: Have a discussion with an individual or group of students. Use the Active Speaker or Gallery View accordingly.
  • Content Mastery: Have a one-on-one session with student. We have lecturers who never get to hear from some students in normal class, but can engage in an online setting.
  • Guest Speaker: Invite an expert to interact with your students.


FAQ
  • My lecture group is bigger than 300.
    We have Large Meeting License available for you to increase participants limit  from 300 to 500 or 1000. Apply here.
    You can also Livestream the Zoom Meeting out to NUS Mediaweb (Internal).