Improve Your Zoom

Scheduled time online goes against the flexibility of a traditional online class.

• Provide a mix of class types in the schedule to give students choices.
• In classes with scheduled times, provide flexibility by recording class sessions and not requiring live attendance.

Spending most of the time in a synchronous online class on one-way instructor lectures is not considered good practice.

• Use synchronous time primarily for student-centered instruction, interaction, group activities, etc. (See below for ideas).
  

Learning to integrate and manage these tools does not come easily to most instructors. It can be overwhelming.

• Be patient; try one new tool/technique at a time.
• Ask students for feedback and ideas.  What have they liked in other classes?
• Involve students in helping to monitor/manage chat.

Not all students have the technology, bandwidth, or physical environment to be able to have cameras on. Also, “Zoom fatigue” is real.

• Invite but do not require cameras to be on.
• Do not read into student choices about this. Do not judge student participation by what is or is not shown on video.

See above. Plus consider the challenges of timed high-stakes assessments for students who have less than ideal environments where they are connecting.

• Rethink assessments.
• Consider project-based and/or open-book/open-note application of learning. 

Students may not fully understand the differences in class types when selecting classes, or may prefer asynchronous but not have that option

• Continue to improve messaging as we head toward spring.
• Contact students before the class begins to let them know what to expect.
• Provide attendance flexibility in synchronous online classes.

If teachers are not meeting during these times, students are not getting what they expect.

• Hold synchronous activities during the times published in the schedule.
  

The times may be too long for Zoom due to Zoom fatigue, changes in communication, etc. 

• Break up class time into sections to meet with small groups.  This can be effective for offering feedback on projects.
• Give students a task to do offline and be available if questions come up.
• Consider "flipping the classroom" by having students do things before the session (watch a video or read an article) and use the Zoom time to interact. You may need to give a pre-meeting quiz to make sure students are prepared.

Engaging students is different in Zoom.

• Encourage students to ask questions. You might even say something like, "At the ten-minute mark I'm going to pause to give everyone a chance to enter a question into the chat."
• Pepper your live online lessons with lots of little check-in questions for the group. Your check-in questions could be as simple as "Who's still with me?" or they might be a little more difficult like "What's the answer to that last problem?"  For responses:
  
  • Call on students, just like you do in class.
  • Ask students to indicate Yes or No in the Participants panel or use reactions. 
  • Ask students to use Chat to ask or answer a question and then pause to read the responses -  acknowledge students by name to help form connections.
  • Use Polls to gauge whether students are getting it.

Zoom breakout groups require some practice and different facilitation skills.

• Commit to trying breakout groups once. You could
  
  • Give students a task to explore.
  • Ask students to "repeat what I just said in your own words." 
  • Have students present or share work. 
  • Have students work collectively on a shared google doc.  To do this, select the file in Google Drive and click Share to generate a URL that you then give to your students in the Chat. You can display the results by sharing that window in Zoom.  
• Before you break out, give instructions and let students know you'll be asking some of them to report back in chat or video.  If the task is complex, give written instructions.