Zoom for Instruction

Teaching with Zoom: an instructional guide

Zoom videoconferencing is a solution for reaching remote learners with effective instructional practices. During live stream sessions, instructors and students can collaborate, share materials, and create knowledge. The information below begins with an overview and extends to more detailed instructions and resources for teaching with Zoom and supplemental digital tools. ASU has also developed a set of resources available at Teaching and learning remotely.

Last Updated 3/11/2020

A) Visit this ASU’s guide to teaching remotely for information about Zoom and using it to hold class sessions. More ASU Zoom resources are also available here.

Note: The suggested browsers for using Zoom are Chrome and Firefox.

B) Test your microphone, camera, and prepare your online instructional materials.

C) Provide your students with Zoom resources and class procedures so they are aware of your expectations for participation using Zoom. ASU’s Student Guide for Learning with Zoom includes details and information students need for joining and participating in Zoom classes. ASU’s guide to learning remotely is also useful. Items of particular interest include:

  • Telling students to join class at start time and not before if you have back-to-back classes (to avoid students joining in at the end of a previous live stream session).
  • Requiring students test audio and video before class begins.
  • Directing students to pause video if they have distracting backgrounds or need to step away.
  • Asking students to mute their microphones when others are guiding discussion.
  • Asking students to have required documents, presentations, or other resources ready to share virtually when class begins.

D) Visit Teaching with Zoom to view the ASU faculty guide and prepare for teaching using Zoom. The faculty guide includes an overview of all considerations and is a thorough resource.

Note: During a class meeting session, as the host, you can control participants. This video provides a quick overview. One such reason you may wish to use these controls is to mute a student’s microphone if noise from that student is distracting others.

E) Click on the Zoom URL link provided in ASU.edu under My Classes to begin a course meeting.

F) Use some of Zoom’s features to enhance class engagement if appropriate. More information is here.

G) To complete a session, click on End Meeting and End Meeting for All.

3/11/2020

Helpful Resources

Professional Development Opportunities

3/11/2020

You can incorporate many of your pedagogical practices using Zoom. Review the options below to engage your students, share materials, and facilitate group collaboration.

Note: The suggested browsers for using Zoom are Chrome and Firefox.

A) Share content with your students using the Share Screen feature. If students are presenting work or sharing materials for class discussion, they are also able to use this function. 

B) If you would like to share copies of files or documents or create online assignments to share with students before, during, or after class sessions, Canvas and Google Drive are useful options.

  • Canvas Options
  • Google Drive Options
    • Create a Shared Drive and invite all of your students if you would like to have a collective online space for transferring content among students. This may be especially useful if you do not use the LMS.
    • Use a shared Google Folder for your students if you would like most of the control and ownership of the documents to reside with you.
    • A shared Google document or presentation allows all students to view, edit, and contribute to produce notes, complete an assignment, or collaborate on learning outcomes.

C) Use breakout rooms in Zoom to structure and manage group collaboration opportunities.

  • Zoom will randomly assign groups or you can manually assign participants to specific rooms.
  • You can determine how many students to assign to each room and can use this for think-pair-share.
  • As the host, you can move from group to group to participate or check on student discussions.
  • You can send messages using the Broadcast button to share information or directions to all groups at once.
  • You can close the rooms, which provides 60 seconds for groups to finish conversation, and return all students to the larger session.
  • After larger class discussion, you can reopen the same breakout rooms to return students to small groups or pairs.

D) Use the polling feature to ask students questions, engage them in discussion, and review responses.

3/11/2020

All courses have the added option of a Slack workspace. All students will be part of the workspace, and the instructor has the ability to create channels, post resources, communicate with individuals or the entire class roster. Slack is a useful solution for supporting remote teaching using Zoom.

Note: The suggested browsers for using Zoom are Chrome and Firefox.

A) If you need to request a Slack workspace for your courses, visit this link, choose Other and type your request. Include the SLN of your course(s) and ask that UTO add Slack workspaces.

B) Visit the ASU Slack Enterprise Overview for information about using Slack and links to helpful resources. View this video to learn how to use Slack with your courses.

  • You may wish to create channels for specific purposes in your courses. For example, a channel called #shared_resources could be a place for you and students to collaborate. Another idea is a channel called #shared_presentations. Students could paste links to Google files or upload other files that would then be immediately accessible to all.

C) Share this course with students to prepare them to use Slack.

D) You may choose to integrate Slack to supplement course delivery through Zoom in the following ways.

  • Require students log in to Slack and participate during course sessions. Use asu.edu/slack to access workspaces.
  • Share links to instructional materials, assignments, or other resources in a designated channel. 
  • Suggest students share Google documents or other links in a designated channel.
  • If presentations or other content is available in a Slack channel, students can present or discuss using Zoom while other students and the instructor view the content.

E) Read how other instructors have incorporated Slack as a pedagogical tool and consider other possibilities and benefits with its use.

3/11/2020

Instructors and students in MLFTC and at ASU have premium Pear Deck accounts. Pear Deck allows instructors to engage students with active learning methods, share online resources, gather real-time student data, and supplement instruction during live stream courses and for record and upload courses.

Note: The suggested browsers for using Zoom are Chrome and Firefox.

A) Log in to Pear Deck using your ASU credentials. You may choose to use Google or Microsoft services. You will need to allow Pear Deck permission to access your ASU accounts for either service. Once logged in, you will be able to create presentations.

B) Choose the platform you would like to use with Pear Deck.

C) Review the question types and other interactions available with Pear Deck.

D) Visit Pear Deck’s Knowledge Base to learn how to present and engage students during a live Zoom session.

E) Ask students to view a Pear Deck and respond outside of course sessions using Student-Paced mode.

F) Publish Pear Deck Takeaways after you end a session to provide students with their published responses from the session.

G) Review student responses after you have ended a Pear Deck session.

H) Read this instructor’s discussion of using Pear Deck with Zoom. This video provides a sample of her course instruction with Pear Deck during a Zoom session.

I) Follow these suggestions to integrate Pear Deck within a live stream Zoom course session.

  • Prepare your Pear Deck.
  • Launch your Pear Deck presentation.
  • Launch Zoom.
  • Open the projector view of Pear Deck in a separate window and share that with students using Zoom.
  • Ask students to type joinpd.com in their browsers and enter the session code.

3/11/2020

Students who have short-term, temporary absences may attend course sessions virtually by using Zoom. The instructions below provide some suggestions for these situations. By having a face-to-face student assist with an extra device (laptop, tablet, or phone), instructors will be able to teach class without losing instructional time attending to the virtual student.

Note: The suggested browsers for using Zoom are Chrome and Firefox.

A) You will need to schedule or start a Zoom meeting session to make the class session available to students.

  • If you are using Canvas, you can activate the Zoom integration and schedule meetings for course sessions, which will make the Zoom link available to students.
  • You can also use your personal Zoom meeting room link available in MyASU.

B) Consider best options for managing the Zoom session. You will likely want a face-to-face student to assist with the virtual student.

  • A face-to-face student can also use the meeting link to access the Zoom session on a device that is not her primary device (eg. phone or tablet).
  • The student assisting can:
    • monitor the virtual student’s participation.
    • ensure the virtual student can hear and participate in class.
    • monitor the chat for questions or comments from the virtual student.
    • share the virtual student’s questions or comments with the class.

C) Record class meetings using Zoom and share them in Canvas, Slack, or email if students are unable to attend the live Zoom session.

3/11/2020