This article provides tips for designing Zoom sessions for teaching, group work, and office hours with students, based on the features available in Zoom. Technical setup guidance is included separately. You can also find how-to pages on various Zoom features here. 

 The goal here is to provide an engaging learning opportunity for students, create an environment to facilitate discussions, and manage a diverse group of learners. Here are “how to” and design/application considerations.  

Key Setup Considerations 

The following Zoom features to consider when setting up an instructional session. 

 

Scheduling Zoom Sessions / Recurring Class Sessions 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Link recurring Zoom sessions directly in Moodle courses for easy student access and efficient attendance tracking. Use a unique, clearly labeled link for each course section to provide a consistent access point and resolve connection issues.  
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Scheduling Zoom Sessions for Instruction". 


Live Auto-Captions / Setting up Transcripts 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Enable live captions for accessibility for students with hearing impairments or those who prefer visual text. Cloud recordings also generate automatic transcripts, which should be reviewed for accuracy and then shared via Moodle for review. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Live Auto-Captions". 


Co-Host Functionality 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: If you are co-teaching and has the need to assign your colleagues to co-host, seek support from reliable students as co-hosts to help manage chat, admit students from the waiting room, or manage breakout rooms, especially in larger instructional sessions, use the co-host functionality. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Co-Host Functionality". 


Recording Instructional Sessions 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Record instructional sessions to the cloud for students to review later, particularly beneficial for those with connectivity issues or needing to revisit complex topics. Share recordings securely via Moodle. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Recording Sessions". 


Zoom Features for Engaged Learning  

Zoom offers several tools that instructors can use to facilitate interactive learning sessions. Here are some.  

Screen Sharing 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Screen sharing is essential for delivering instructional components, demonstrating software (e.g., CAD for engineering, medical imaging for health sciences, live coding for computer science), showing presentation slides, or reviewing documents. Remember to select "Share computer sound" when sharing videos. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Screen Sharing". 

 

Whiteboard: 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: The white board feature is a helpful feature for impromptu explanations, brainstorming sessions, or solving problems collaboratively. For a math class, an instructor could solve equations; in a design class, sketch ideas; in a trades program, diagram a process flow. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Whiteboard". 

 

Chat 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Use for students to ask questions without interrupting, share links, or respond to prompts. Instructors can designate a co-host or pause periodically to review. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Chat". 

 

Breakout Rooms / Group Breakout Rooms 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Breakout rooms are crucial for facilitating small group discussion, problem-solving, or collaborative tasks. This directly addresses the "building breakout rooms" and "online collaboration" challenges. Instructors can pre-assign students (for ongoing project groups), randomly assign (for spontaneous discussions), or manually assign. Use the "Managing breakout rooms (setting the number of rooms, student choice vs random filtering)" feature as mentioned in your document. Instructors can broadcast messages to all rooms and visit rooms to check on progress. 

 

Polling 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas: Create multiple-choice or true/false polls beforehand or on-the-fly to gauge comprehension, gather opinions, or start a discussion (e.g., "Which safety procedure is most critical in this scenario?"). This enhances engagement in large classes. 
  • How to Set Up: Use the provided Freshdesk link for "Polling". 


Tracking Attendance 

  • Design Consideration / Application Ideas:  Zoom's attendance tracking features can be used especially when integrated with Moodle, to monitor and encourage student engagement and participation. 



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This work by Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.