Your  Account:

Frequently Asked Questions for Teaching

Tips for teaching with Zoom.

  • How many people can attend a Zoom meeting?
    Our CSUSM Zoom Pro Account allows for 300 simultaneous users in a single meeting. Not that we suggesting hosting hundreds of people in Zoom meetings, which would be difficult to manage.
  • How can I take attendance?

    The easiest way to take attendance is to have the students send a message over chat. The chat is saved in a text file automatically after you meeting has ended. The default location for your Zoom folder is in your Documents folder.

  • Can students listen in, view presenters and their materials without a camera?

    Yes. All the students can listen and view presenters and their materials. At minimum everyone would need a microphone to speak. The default meeting setting is for everyone to be able to share their screen, so when each person presents they would share their presentation (powerpoint, google slides, web pages, images, etc). from their device (computer/laptop/phone/tablet). They would only need a camera if they need to be seen. If they are presenting without a camera, you could hear them and would be able to see a shared screen.

    Many students may choose to interact using Zoom on a smartphone or other mobile device. Zoom works well on mobile devices. Student would need to go to the app store and download the Zoom Cloud app.

     

  • Recording a sessions and posting a link?

    There are 2 methods of recording to the cloud and on your local computer. The benefits of recording to the cloud are that it does not impact the use of your computer, it creates a transcript, and creates a sharable link to share/view. Once the video is processed it can be downloaded and edited and republished elsewhere (YouTube, Microsoft SharePoint/OneDrive). Overall cloud recording is the recommended method.

    Recording to the local computer allows you to edit without waiting for the cloud but you would have to publish to YouTube, Microsoft SharePoint/OneDrive, or other publishing point. Could be preferable if you want to edit your recordings before publishing.

    Only hosts and co-hosts can start a cloud recording. If you want a participant to start a recording, you can make them a co-host or use local recording. Recordings started by co-hosts will still appear in the host's recordings in the Zoom web portal. For instructions on how to record, have a look at the bottom of this page: 

    https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203741855-Cloud-recording

  • Do I need to share host priviledges for students to present?

     No. The default setting is for anyone to share screen. So unless you change your settings, students can share their screen a present.

    Here is a helpful video on screen sharing: 

    https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362153-Sharing-your-screen

  • Can I mute everyone while I am speaking?

    Yes.  As the meeting host, you can mute all. You can access the Mute All/Unmute All buttons by selecting the Manage Participants icon in the Zoom toolbar. It will open the Participant window and Participant Controls are there.

    There is also a control where you can either allow or deny the participants to unmute themselves.

     https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115005759423-Managing-participants-in-a-meeting

  • How should I control the flow of the meeting?

    Establish some rules of etiqutte for your meetings. Here are some features you can use to help control the flow.

    • You can set the meeting to mute participants on entry, this avoids late attendees to not disturb the meeting when joining.
    • There are non-verbal responses such as raise hand, chat, yes, no, for example, that can be used to get feedback from students without having microphones on.
    • If a participant is not cooperating, you have the ability to remove them from the meeting. You should set rules that work for your method of teaching.

    This page has useful information on the controls you have as a host: 

    https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115005759423-Managing-participants-in-a-meeting

  • Can I use Zoom for office hours?

    Yes, Zoom works well for virtual office hours.

    • Create the Zoom meeting using the online Zoom interface (https://csusm.zoom.us).
    • When you create the meeting make sure you check the box at the bottom for "Allow waiting room".
    • Communicate the time for office hours to the students.
    • Run Zoom as usual at the specified time.
    • Use waiting rooms to take student into your session one at a time:

    https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000332726-Waiting-Room

    Using waiting rooms is explained at the bottom of the page above.