Below is a list of recommendations and tips that Liz Moliski put together to improve your online class experience and student engagement. Start by 1) reviewing all info on this page first and then 2) consider what tips you want to implement. Note, there are many tips you should or could implement. Focus on what you think will bring the most value to your class. If you have questions please direct them to ZoomHelp@mccombs.utexas.edu.
How to avoid issues inside a Zoom Room equipped classroom

1 Zoom Rooms - Instructions on Connecting to McCombs Zoom Rooms
- 1.1 Quick Start
- 1.2 Scheduling Zoom in Canvas
- 1.3 Confidence Monitor
2 Plan to be on camera
3 How to Facilitate classroom control with appropriate Zoom settings
4 Set participation expectations for students before class
5 Zoom Meeting Security
6 Remove a Participant from a Zoom Meeting
7 Admitting Guests and Guest Speakers Without a UT Zoom License
8 Giving Permission to Students to View Zoom Recordings
9 Office Hours in Zoom
10 Establish procedures at the start of the first class
11 Guidelines for larger (i.e., n > 40) classes
12 Zoom Etiquette
13 The Participant Window
14 The Chat Window
15 Breakout Rooms for Group Work
16 Zoom Meeting and Phone Statistics
17 Practice with Zoom controls so that you are comfortable!
18 Zoom Teaching Support
- 18.1 If you have reviewed all the above tips, please MOVE ON TO STEP 4
19 Still need help?

Zoom Rooms - Instructions on Connecting to McCombs Zoom Rooms

We have attempted to make using Zoom in our rooms as simple as possible for Hybrid teaching. This room is equipped with a "Zoom Room" computer. The Zoom Room will use the room's tracking camera, the room's ceiling microphone and/or optional wireless microphone, and any content - the document camera, or your Laptop connected through an HDMI cable or AirMedia - you are sharing on the projector.

Quick Start

Here is the basic set up to launch a Zoom session in a room

There are two options to Launch the meeting;

Schedule the Zoom meeting prior to class and simply select the meeting from the meeting list on the rooms Touch Panel. To set this up follow our Scheduling Instructions below.
Click on "Unscheduled Zoom Meeting" and manually type in your zoom meeting ID. The ID will be eleven numeric digits, Ex: xxx-xxxx-xxxx. If you have not assigned a passcode to the room, you can press "Connect" without typing anything into the passcode field.

Important: There is no reason to additionally launch zoom on your laptop. Your screen and computer audio is being shared with other Zoom participants if it is displayed on the projector.

This will start your Zoom Meeting. If the meeting is set to record, you will hear a voice over the speakers say, "Recording in progress."

If you would like to regularly record classes, we recommend that you use Panopto instead of Zoom. You can use Zoom and Panopto in tandem - so you can have a guest lecturer over Zoom without having to worry about adjusting your Zoom settings. You can learn more about Panopto in the Lecture Capture tab above!

Scheduling Zoom in Canvas

While you may have scheduled Zoom meetings in the past through the Zoom application on your laptop or phone, we encourage that you schedule your Zoom meetings through your course in Canvas. You can find those instructions on our wiki, Zoom/Canvas Integration.

After you schedule your Zoom meeting through Canvas, you will need to follow our Zoom Room Scheduling instructions.

Confidence Monitor

All of our Zoom Rooms are now equiped with a confidence monitor. It could be a TV at the front or back of the room, or an additional small screen at the lectern. The confidence monitor will always show what you are sharing, so you able to teach with confidence.

Once you connnect to a Zoom meeting, a new dialog will show on the room's touch panel, which gives the confidence monitor new sharing options.

Sharing	The default option when you join a Zoom meeting. This will show what you are sharing in Zoom - your laptop over HDMI or AirMedia or the Document Camera.
Speaker	This will show whoever is speaking on the confidence monitor. This may only show the person at the front of the room until someone else in the Zoom meeting speaks.
Participants	This will show the participants on the confidence monitor, in gallery view.
Power On / Off	You can turn the confidence monitor on or off once you connect to Zoom.

If you would like to test the room's functionality prior to your first day of class, we recommend scheduling a Demo with Media Services. These are typically 15-30 minutes, depending on what the room has to offer and how much you would like to know.

Plan to be on camera

Pick an appropriate teaching background, such as a bookcase or office, while hosting
Look at the camera, just as you would look at students in the class
- Zoom is optimized for video communication
- Make sure your audio is on and you use appropriate tone (not too soft or too loud)
Dual screen setups let you share one desktop with students and keep Zoom controls on the other one. You can use your TV or another monitor as the second screen. It works just like plugging into a classroom projector. You have to set this up in your monitor preferences while you are connected to your second screen. Click here to learn more...
Be careful of what you have on your desktop if you plan to share the entire desktop so that students can see multiple applications at once (i.e., slides and Excel) but not things you don’t want them to see (i.e. text message from your friend about lunch)
Slides should be simple, without animations if possible. Connection lags can affect animations and screen shares. Consider PDF format for sharing slides since this taxes bandwidth less.
Monitoring bandwidth usage - If you get slowness check out Slow Internet Connection Tips and be aware that the more you share (i.e. camera on, sharing screens) the more likely latency can occur.
Use a solid network, such as your home internet or a hardwired internet connection.
Consider using a headset (particularly if you are using PC. Macs tend to have fewer issues, in general)

How to Facilitate classroom control with appropriate Zoom settings

Sign in to utexas.zoom.us with your eid and eid password and look under Settings to find your controls
The following are default settings to be aware of and we recommend you consider leaving ON:
1. Have students enter with mics muted and video off.
2. Enable breakout rooms and/or Zoom polling if you plan to use them. Disable if you don't plan to use.
3. Enable multiple hosts if you have a TA or are planning group presentations
4. Allow hosts to remove students - in the cases of large classes possibly or when you have a disruptive student.
Other options you could consider turning ON:
1. Turn on auto record if you are forgetful about recording. Always record your class!
  1. This can be set from each meeting’s controls as well
2. Ability to kick students out permanently - If you have a disruptive student, you can remove them, but they're allowed to rejoin the session. You can disable this default setting so when you remove a student, they are removed permanently and can't rejoin
The following is a default setting we recommend turning OFF:
1. Disable private chats unless you plan to use it for quick group work.
  1. In a large group setting, private chats would allow students to ask you a question that the whole class won't see.
  2. We recommend that private questions are handled through email or whatever communication tool you use in class while chats are open to the group.
One more tip if you have more than 40-50 students
1. Ask your TA to attend the online session to help with answering questions in chat and managing students (i.e. muting, unmuting, noticing questions)