Zoom Online Conferencing Tool

If you have a desktop computer, a laptop, or a mobile device (either Android or iOS), it is likely that you are already equipped to take full advantage of Zoom's features. It is possible to join a Zoom meeting with nothing more than a landline phone. For the best meeting experience, we recommend the following hardware equipment:

• An Internet connection is needed. If possible use a wired internet connection as it will provide a more stable, consistent connection.
• A web camera: Many laptops and mobile devices come with a built-in camera. For desktop setups, you may need to purchase a webcam in order to fully participate in the meeting experience. Without a webcam, you are not able to transmit video.
• A headset with a microphone: A headset with a microphone allows you to hear and be heard more clearly.

Recommended Software

You are strongly encouraged to download the Zoom Desktop Client.  Doing so gives you access to many features, as well as the following browsers:

• Windows: IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Safari5+
• Mac: Safari5+, Firefox, Chrome
• Linux: Firefox, Chrome

If you do not download the Zoom Desktop Client, you will be able to access most (but not all) of Zoom's features - only on Chrome.

Watch a 3-minute video about the Zoom Desktop Client

 

Basic account – can host:

• unlimited “one” to “one" connection conference meetings (this can be many participants in one room to one participant in another room
• 40 minute limit on three or more participants (up to 100 participants)
• Our students have basic accounts by default

Licensed (Pro) account – can host: (note – this type of account must be setup by Technology Services)

• Unlimited meeting duration for all meeting size
• Can host meeting with up to 100 participants
• unlimited one-to-one conference meetings
• Can delegate a person to schedule for another person

• To have a licensed account you must login at go.lawrence.edu/zoom

• If you have downloaded the app make sure to sign in with the SSO of lawrence.zoom.us

Ideas for Using Zoom in Your Course

• Bring participants at multiple home locations, classroom sites or field sites together via video/audio conferencing
• Invite guest lecturers to your course/meeting for interviews, presentations and conversations. Record these sessions for further use as instructional content.
• Provide visual meeting space for participants outside of regular class time and for online courses.
• Provide virtual office hours for online courses.

Tips for Using Zoom in a Course

• Require Self-Identification - It is not always possible for the instructor/host or the participants to see who is talking. Knowing who is speaking sometimes provides clues regarding the best response and provides the instructor/host opportunity for later follow up with the participant. Consider having participants first say their name  i.e., “This is John Doe”, before sharing or asking a question. Until individuals in the class get used to this the instructor/host, as well as other classmates, may need to prompt each other to state their names before speaking until everyone is used to this protocol.
• Use Microphone Awareness - When teaching a course via Zoom ask participants to mute their microphones or mute all from the host side. Participants must use the Chat feature to request that they be unmuted in order to speak. Almost all sounds from different locations can be heard in other locations. Sounds that can be heard include whispering, side commenting, eating food, sneezing, pencil tapping, page-turning, etc. Explain this to your participants and encourage them to use restraint by being cognizant of what others can hear and limiting unnecessary noise.
• Set a Standard of Etiquette - Some items to consider for inclusion are:
  • Avoid side conversations, shuffling paper, tapping pens, non-essential noise of any kind. This can be picked up very easily on microphones and make it hard for the remote locations to hear the main conversation.
  • Refrain from chewing gum, eating and drinking.
  • Make eye contact with individuals you are speaking to at the remote site by looking into the camera, not at the projection screen.
  • Find your light! Make sure there is a light source in front of you, not behind
  • Speak in a conversational tone - you won’t need to raise your voice
  • Show that you are listening to others at the remote site by nodding your head and looking into the camera.
  • Direct questions or comments to a particular person at the remote site, by stating their name to gain their attention.
  •  Encourage a sense of community through the Gallery view (which emulates the "Brandy Bunch-tile" view. Up to 25 participants can be seen at a time.
• Prepare for technical issues
  • Host a low-stakes introductory online meeting, with the sole purpose of having everyone log in, troubleshoot technical issues, and get used to the Zoom interface.
  • Arrive early enough to work out technical difficulties.
  • Have a backup plan in case of unexpected issues or difficulties (i.e. phone conference, using Canvas to facilitate the class, group discussions, or independent learning activities.). Inform participants of the backup plan ahead of time so they can remain on task if technical issues occur.
  • If showing a presentation review how to share your screen with your PowerPoint presentation.
• Deliver accessible online class sessions
  • If you have someone designated to take notes (an accessibility best practice), you can enable closed captions, which allows your notetaker to transcribe what’s being said in real time.
  • If you require live captioning, Zoom easily integrates with providers such as 3Play Media. Note: the cost for this service is not covered centrally.
  • All students may not see or make sense of the visual display as you intend. Get in the habit of describing whatever is happening visually on the screen.
• Host office hours or small group discussions
  • Code review: You can use screen sharing to meet with an individual or group of students to review code. Authorizing remote screen control enables one to take control of the other's shared application and allows for navigation, text entry, etc on the remote computer.
  • Collaborative problem solving and brainstorming: Use the shared whiteboard feature to digitally annotate a whiteboard. Allow others in the session to annotate on the same board to share ideas and problem solving methods. A tablet is useful for handwriting.
  • Consultation: You can use Zoom's high-quality audio and video to simply have a discussion with an individual or group of students. Easily share documents or anything else on your computer via screen sharing. The waiting room allows you to provide a single Zoom session ID and the ability to invite only selected individuals into the discussion.
• Write on the board
  • If you usually do "board work" as part of a class session, you have a number of options.
  • Try the basic Annotation Tools (text box, free form draw/pen, shapes, and highlighter) to guide students or explain a concept.
  • Screen share a camera input so that two cameras can be used at once during a Zoom meeting, with one focused on your writing.
  • Create a PowerPoint slide or other simple backdrop file on which you can type notes, and share those notes using Screen Sharing.
  • Create a "shared board" -- perhaps managed jointly with teaching fellows -- using OneDrive.
  • Prerecord the illustration as a video, then play it during class.
  • Use the Whiteboard feature (we've found that this can be tricky to make useful - if you do go this route, it often works best on a tablet computer rather than a trackpad).

• Getting Started on Windows and Macs
• Testing computer or device audio
• Scheduling a meeting
• How do I Start or Join a Scheduled Meeting as the Host?
• Sharing your screen
• Breakout rooms
• Using polling in your meeting
• Improve Your Virtual Presentation Skills
• Using the In-Meeting Chat Function
• 3 Ways to Use Polls in Meetings
• Check out University of Minnesota's Zoom:Teach Online Class Sessions

From the Zoom app click on your profile image and roll down to Check for Updates which is 5.2.2. This will automatically update if need be or tell you that you are at the most recent version.

1. Go to http://go.lawrence.edu/zoom
2. Login with your Lawrence username and regular network password.
3. From the left panel click Meetings
4. Click the blue button, “Schedule a Meeting” from the right panel.
5. In the scheduling meeting window enter the following

• Enter a Topic or subject line for the meeting
• Set the date and time for the meeting
• Set the duration of the meeting
• Check Reoccuring meeting if applicable
• Set or adjust the time zone if necessary
• In the Video section turn on video for both the host and the participant
• Set the Audio to Both
• Check the “enable join before host” box.
• Note, a required password is generated automatically for each meeting
• Note, the waiting room is enabled automatically.
• The following features are enabled (turned on) automatically
  • a required meeting password
  •  Waiting room (located under Advanced Options)
  • Join before host (located under Advanced Options)
  • Only authenticated users can join

1. Click Save/Schedule.
2. Click the “Copy the invitation” link. A gray popup will appear.
3. Click Copy invitation.
4. Switch to your Outlook email.
5. In Outlook click New Email icon
6. In the body of the email message paste in ALL the text from the gray popup in Zoom. It is important to give participants all the options for connecting. Connecting via the computer is FREE. If people call in using the phone numbers (any of numbers) it costs Lawrence a per/minute/participant charge.
7. Address your message to the student you will be meeting with.
8. Add a subject in the subject line
9. Send email to your participant(s)/attendees.

1. Launch Zoom from go.lawrence.edu/zoom or click on the previous downloaded app. Login with your network username/password if necessary
2. Locate your meeting in the Meeting list (Meetings-Upcoming Meetings) and click Start.
3.  At the Zoom launch application prompt click OK/ Save File. If necessary download the Zoom launcher or zoom.exe plug-in.
4. At the Audio Conference options pop-up click Test Computer Mic & Speakers to test sound. Close pop-up window when testing is completed.
5. Click the Test Speaker to adjust volume as needed. If using an external webcam or headset supplied by Technology Services set the speaker to:

• Headset: Headset Earphone (Logitech Mono H650e)
• Logitech webcam with builtin mic/speaker: Speakers (Conexant HD Audio)

1. Click Test Mic to adjust Mic as needed. This should be set to Same as System or If using an external webcam or headset supplied by Technology Services set the mic to:

• Headset: Headset Earphone (Logitech Mono H650e)
• Logitech webcam with builtin mic/speaker: Speakers (Conexant HD Audio)

1. Back at the Conference options window click the green “Join Audio Conference by Computer” button to connect to the conference.

• Video will likely be on but to double check, there should be a Stop Video icon.
• Turn video off/on by clicking on the Stop/Start Video icon
• If video is on but quality is poor you can adjust it by enabling HD. Note, this may cause video latency if an attendee has a slow connection.
• To enable HD imaging click the Up arrow next to the Stop Video icon, then click Video Settings.  Check the Enable HD option.

1. If you haven’t already invited participants click Invite from the zoom bar to invite additional participants, then click the Email tab and then click Default Email - Outlook should open with a Message window. Address who the email should be sent to and click Send.
2. To end the Meeting: Click End Meeting from the lower right corner

There are 4 video layout options in Zoom:

Active Speaker - (default layout)

• Switches the large video window to the current speaker
• available regardless of screen sharing

 

 

 

 

 

Gallery View

• shows up to 25 participants at a time, use the arrow to scroll through remaining participants
• available regardless of screen sharing
• you can hide non-video participants so that those who do not have webcams or who have their video turned off do not appear

 

 

 

 

 

Mini

• shrinks the Zoom video, but keeps it on top of other applications you have open on your computer
• you can move the window around your screen or hide the video entirely
• only available when no one in the meeting or webinar is sharing their screen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side-by-Side mode

• allows you to see a shared screen along with either the Speaker View or Gallery View simultaneously
• you can move the separator between the shared screen and video to change the relative size of each portion
• does not work if using dual monitors/displays or a projector

 

The polling feature for meetings allows you to create single choice or multiple choice polling questions for your meetings. You will be able to launch the poll during your meeting and gather the responses from your attendees. You also have the ability to download a report of polling after the meeting. Polls can also be conducted anonymously, if you do not wish to collect participant information with the poll results.

Creating a Poll in Advance of the Meeting:

1. Login to Zoom at http://go.lawrence.edu/zoom
2. Go to the Meetings page and click on your scheduled meeting.
3. From the meeting management page, scroll to the bottom to find the Poll option.
4. Click Add to begin creating the poll.
5. Enter a title and your first question.

• (Optional) Check the box to make the poll anonymous, which will keep the participant's polling information anonymous in the meeting and in the reports.
• Select whether you want the question to be single choice(participants can only choose one answer) or multiple choice question(participants can choose multiple answers).

1. Type in the answers to your question and click Save at the bottom.
2. If you would like to add a new question, click Add a Question to create a new question for that particular poll. You can add more polls by repeating Step 2.

Creating a Poll During a Meeting

You can also create a poll by clicking Polling during the meeting. This will open up your default web browser where you can add additional polls or questions. Note: You can only create a max of 25 polls for a single meeting.

Launching a Poll

1. Start the scheduled Zoom meeting that has polling enabled.
2. Select the Polling option in the menu bar.
3. Select the poll you would like to launch.
4. Click Launch Poll.
5. The participants in the meeting will now be prompted to answer the polling questions. The host will be able to see the results live. Once you would like to stop the poll, click End Poll.
6. If you would like to share the results to the participants in the meeting, click Share Results. Participants will then see the results of the polling questions.

Downloading Poll Results

You can download a report of the poll results after the meeting. If registration was turned on and the poll was not anonymous, it will list the participants' names and email addresses. If registration was not on, it will show the results, but list the users as "Guest". If the poll was anonymous, it will show "anonymous" for the participants' names and email addresses

check out Zooms guide on this. It is simple to do.

1. Launch Zoom app and click the gear icon on the top right hand corner of the screen
2. Click the Audio tab, then click the Advanced button at the bottom
3. There are two new checkboxes - High Fidelity Music Mode and Disable Echo Cancellation. You must have the Enable Original Sound box checked in order to see these new features
4. In a meeting, simply click the ‘Turn On Original Sound’ button to enable or disable High Fidelity Music Mode. Participants should notice an immediate difference in sound quality.

The Waiting Room feature allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting. As the meeting host, you can admit attendees one by one or hold all attendees in the waiting room and admit them all at once. Participants are sent automatically to the waiting room when joining the meeting unless waiting room feature was turned off when the meeting was created.

Waiting Room Feature Enabled by Default

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.

2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.

3. On the Meeting tab, navigate to the Waiting Room option under In-Meeting (Advanced options) and verify that the setting is enabled.

Using the Waiting Room Enabling or disabling Waiting Room during a meeting

1. As the meeting host, click Security - Waiting Room.

2. Click More at the bottom of the participants' window and choose Put Attendee in Waiting Room on Entry to enable or disable the feature.

Admitting participants during the meeting

1. As the meeting host, click Manage Participants.
2. Click Admit to have the participant join the meeting or click Admit all to admit everyone.

Sending participants to the waiting room during a meeting

1. As the meeting host, click Manage Participants.

2. Click More next to the participant's name and choose Put in Waiting Room.

Breakout Rooms

Enable Breakout Rooms in your meeting settings

Launch Breakout Rooms from the host controls  located at the bottom of the screen during a meeting

The basics

• There can be up to 50 Breakout Rooms per meeting, with up to 200 participants per breakout room
• Breakout Room participants have full audio, video and screen share capabilities
• Hosts can move between Breakout Rooms
• Participants can request help from a host while in a Breakout Room

Note: Participants must be using the Zoom application to join Breakout Rooms, it is not possible to join via a web browser or in-room video conferencing system. As a workaround, these participants can use the main meeting room as their breakout session space.

Breakout rooms and recording

• If the meeting is being recorded to the cloud, the recording will only record the main room, regardless of what room the meeting host is in
• If the meeting is being recorded to a computer, the recording will include whatever breakout room the person recording participates in. Multiple people can record locally if allowed by the host. The host can designate one person in each Breakout Room to record locally and then share that file with the host after the meeting. This way, the host can have a record of what transpired in each room.

Preassigning Breakout Rooms

1. Go to your meeting in the Zoom Web Portal. In the Edit Settings menu, scroll down to the Meeting Options area and check both the Enable join before host box and the Breakout Room pre-assign box.
2. There are two options for pre-assigning meeting participants to Breakout Rooms:

• If you have less than 20 students in your class, we recommend pre-assigning participants using the web portal.
• If you have more than 20 students in your class, and/or you will be using Breakout Rooms several times through the term and wish your students to be assigned to the same breakout group each time, we recommend you pre-assign breakout rooms with a .csv file via Excel to assign them to Breakout Rooms.
  • Once you have created a .csv file with students' official email addresses, you can pre-assign breakout rooms with a .csv file upload.

Tips for using Breakout Rooms

• Practice using Breakout Rooms before trying it for the first time as a meeting host.
• Plan ahead:
  • How many Breakout Rooms do you want to have?
  • How many participants do you want in each room?
  • Do you prefer to manually assign participants to rooms, or have Zoom randomly assign the rooms?

Troubleshooting Tips

• Mute and Unmute your audio by clicking the Mute/UnMute icon in lower left corner.
• Access the Microphone and Speaker options by clicking the up arrow next to Mute. This allows you to change your computer’s microphone and speaker choices. You can also access the Audio Settings.
• From Audio Options you can access the Join by Phone, Computer Audio, or the Call Me tabs.
• Click the Invite icon to add more participants.
• Manage Participants, including mute/unmute, lock screen share so only the host can screen share, play enter/exit chime for participants, and lock the meeting.
• Share Screen lets you share your screen with meeting participants. A screen will open where you select the window or application that you want to share.
• Chat lets you start a private or group chat.
• End Meeting lets you end or leave the meeting. Select End Meeting for All to end a meeting for which you are the host.