Using Zoom for Class Meetings

Planning on using Zoom for a virtual classroom course? There’s a lot of great documentation out there on Zoom and the Zoom Canvas integration, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to get started. To help you out, we’ve collected some Zoom guides and repackaged them in a way that covers the basics for instructors—scheduling a meeting, sharing the meeting info, things to consider before your first meeting, running a meeting, and recording a meeting.

Scheduling a Meeting

If you’re using Zoom for virtual classroom sessions, we recommend setting up your meetings in Canvas. The Zoom Canvas integration can be accessed from the “Zoom” link at the bottom of your course’s navigation menu on the left side of your screen, and then from there all you need to do is click the “Schedule a New Meeting” button, enter your meeting details, and then click “Save.” For weekly class sessions, you’ll want to make sure that you select the “recurring meeting” checkbox when scheduling your Zoom meeting.

When you schedule a new meeting in Canvas, the Zoom integration automatically creates course calendar events and student To-Do list reminders for each occurrence of the meeting. There are a variety of other meeting settings you can set as well. This Zoom guide can help you learn more about all the meeting setting options.

The "Zoom" link in the Canvas course navigation menu.
The Zoom integration in Canvas is accessed from your course’s navigation menu on the left side of the screen.

Sharing the Meeting Info with Your Students

After you set up your meeting, we recommend sharing the meeting info in the first module of your course so it will be easy for students to find. Simply click on your meeting in the Canvas integration, the Zoom web portal, or the application, click the button or link that says “Copy invitation”, and then paste that information into a page in your first module. Another option is to copy the “join link” and add that link in the first module as an external URL (make sure to check “Load in a new tab” when adding the link). We have a recording of a “Teaching with Zoom” session if you would like to see a video walkthrough of setting up a Zoom meeting in Canvas and posting the link in your course, along with our recommendations on which meeting settings to use.

A sample Zoom meeting link in a Canvas module
Your Zoom link can be added to a module as an external URL. You can also copy the meeting info into a page and put that page in your first module.

Before Your First Meeting

If a student previously registered for a personal Zoom account using their UWGB email address, they may see the error “user does not exist” when they try accessing Zoom through your Canvas course. The way to resolve this issue is to have all your students log into the UW System Zoom web portal once before they start accessing Zoom from Canvas. The Zoom Web Portal is linked on the UWGB homepage, at the bottom of the tab that opens when you click the “Menu & Search” button in the top-right corner of the page.

University of Wisconsin Zoom web portal sign-in page
The landing page for the UW System Zoom web portal. Encourage your students to sign into Zoom here before your class’s first Zoom meeting.

Once logged in, students who previously had an account with their UWGB email will be prompted to switch their account to UW System’s license. This knowledgebase article provides more details and complete instructions that you can send to your students. After a student has completed these steps, it may take a few hours for the update to occur, but once complete, your students should have no issues accessing Zoom through Canvas.

Running Your Zoom Meeting

To start your meeting, simply join with the blue “Start” button next to your meeting listing in Canvas, the Zoom web portal, or the Zoom application. While running your session, the controls will be at the bottom of your screen. Here you can toggle on and off your mic and camera, send and read messages in chat, share your screen, start breakout rooms, and more. This Zoom article details the features of each button on the host controls toolbar.

Zoom toolbar
The host controls of Zoom’s toolbar.

One feature of Zoom that you might consider using for small group discussions and increased interactivity between your students is Zoom breakout rooms. You also might want to look into using Zoom’s polling feature during class as an easy way to keep students engaged and gauge their understanding of the content.

When the meeting is done, click the red “End” button. As host, you will be given two options: “Leave Meeting” or “End Meeting for All”. Leaving the meeting means that the meeting is still “running” and students can continue talking or leave at their own discretion. Zoom meetings need a host, so you will be asked to assign a new host if you leave the meeting in this way (unless there is already a co-host present). Ending the meeting for all will immediately end the meeting for everyone—the host, any co-hosts, and participants.

Recording Your Meeting

If you wish to record your class sessions, you can automatically set up recordings from the meeting’s settings, or you can manually start and end the recording during the session. Meeting recordings can either be saved to the cloud (online storage) or locally (to your computer). We recommend saving your recordings to the cloud as they can easily be accessed and shared in Canvas through the Zoom integration and also prevent the storage on your computer from being quickly depleted.

Zoom Canvas integration
When you set up your Zoom meetings through a Canvas course, you can also view and manage your Zoom cloud recordings for those meetings from the Zoom integration in Canvas.

When you set up your Zoom meetings through a Canvas course, you can also view and manage your Zoom cloud recordings for those meetings from the Zoom integration in Canvas.

Meeting cloud recordings are unpublished by default, which means only you, the instructor, can see them. If you would like your students to be able to view the recordings from within the “Cloud Recordings” tab of the Zoom integration in your Canvas course, you can manually publish your session recordings by clicking the “Publish” toggle next to each one.

Questions?

For most technical questions, please contact Zoom support or the GBIT Service Desk. If your questions pertain to the Zoom Canvas integration, your best point of contact is dle@uwgb.edu. Lastly, if you have general questions about how you can use Zoom to support your teaching, we always welcome you to email the CATL inbox (catl@uwgb.edu) or schedule a consultation with a CATL member.

Request a Consultation

A coffee mug and a laptop on a table. On the laptop there is a Zoom meeting with blurred tiles of people's faces.

Zoom vs. Microsoft Teams – Which Should You Use?

One of the decisions many instructors may have to make is which video conferencing platform they will use for virtual sessions, office hours, and other meetings that may take place remotely. UWGB currently supports two platforms for video conferencing—Microsoft Teams and Zoom. A question CATL often gets is, “Which video conferencing platform should I use?” Since the basic features of video calls with Teams and Zoom are nearly identical, it mostly comes down to personal preference, but we’ve still outlined a few considerations below to help you make your decision.

Ease of Use

Zoom and Teams are pretty equitable in terms of the internet bandwidth required, though Zoom also allows attendees to call in by phone if they have problems connecting to a meeting over the internet. With both applications, you can schedule and join meetings through either a desktop application or in your web browser, as well as on mobile through their respective iOS/Android apps. Zoom has an overview of which features are available on each platform, and Teams has a similar comparison chart. For both platforms, the desktop application will usually provide the best performance and the widest range of features.

In terms of interface, Teams and Zoom are similar but have some key distinctions. Teams’ call features are found in a toolbar along the top of your screen that remains fixed. Zoom has a toolbar that is at the bottom of the screen by default, but can be dragged to other locations, such as when sharing your screen. Both toolbars are equipped with features like chat, nonverbal feedback cues (such as virtually raising or lowering your hand to be called on), and breakout rooms. If you would like to explore the features of each of these programs further, check out Microsoft’s help portal for Teams and Zoom’s help center where you can browse thousands of articles, videos, and user threads to find the answers to your questions. You can also contact the UWGB Service Desk for further support or browse the UWGB IT knowledge base.

Canvas Integration

Compared to Teams, Zoom definitely has a more robust Canvas integration. The Teams integration allows you to schedule a meeting with the Rich Content Editor in Canvas, but not much else. With Zoom, you can schedule your class sessions, view upcoming meetings, and review recordings all from within Canvas. Note that there are some advanced meeting settings that can only be adjusted from the Zoom web portal, such as creating polls before the start of the meeting.

If you plan on sharing session recordings with students, the workflow is also much more streamlined with Zoom than with Microsoft Teams. With Zoom, you can publish recordings in Canvas with one click, whereas with Teams, you will need to find the recording in your OneDrive and then copy the share link for the file.

With both Zoom and Teams, we recommend copying the meeting join link and sharing it on a page or linking it in a module near the top of your course home page so students can find it easily inside Canvas.

File Sharing and Collaboration

While Zoom is perhaps the winner when it comes to simple video conferencing, if file sharing and collaboration are integral to your class, that’s where Teams really shines. Microsoft Teams is built for project management and collaboration, so making a Team for your class might be useful if students will need to regularly share and collaborate on documents or projects together. As a Microsoft product, Teams is also integrated with applications like PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, making it very easy to share documents like these inside and outside of video meetings.

Still Undecided?

If you’re still not sure which tool is better for your course, we always welcome you to schedule a consultation with a CATL member. We can discuss how you plan on using video conferencing in your course and help you decide which one might be better suited for meeting the needs of both you and your students.

Request a Consultation

Facilitating Online Student Presentations (Synchronous)

This article contains strategies for preparing your students to give awesome presentations in synchronous online classes over videoconferencing programs. While many of the fundamentals of making strong in-person presentations apply to presenting online, the online element adds an extra layer of technical competencies and media-specific best practices for your students to consider. The aim of this article is to help you prepare your students for success in their presentation projects.

Table of Contents

  1. Teaching Technical Fundamentals
    1. The Best Way to Join Video Meetings
    2. Audio and Video Settings
    3. Screen and Content Sharing
  2. Facilitating Rehearsals
  3. Managing Session Permissions
  4. Audience Engagement Strategies
  5. Appearing Professional in Online Presentations

Teaching Technical Fundamentals

Given that student presentations usually occur well into a semester, by the time these presentations are due, your students may feel some level of comfort with the video meeting program you are using for synchronous sessions, but that comfort may only extend to the program features needed to participate in, but not lead, a class. A few weeks before presentations are due, you should provide your students with resources for teaching them the best way to join a meeting as a presenter, how to ensure their audio and video settings are correct, and how to share their presentation materials over the video meeting.

The Best Way to Join Video Meetings

While video meeting programs may support multiple ways to join a meeting, not all methods are created equal. The inequality between join methods is more pronounced when the user is expected to present in the meeting, as the non-ideal join methods often have limited content sharing functionality. To ensure that student presenters have access to the widest array of meeting features, recommend that they join the meeting via the best method. For Microsoft Teams and Zoom, for example, this means downloading the app and logging in with their UWGB accounts. Joining on mobile devices can limit the features that user can access, so recommend that students join the meeting on a desktop or laptop computer (if able).

Audio and Video Settings

If a student has been camera shy and mostly participating in class via text chat, they may not be fully confident that their microphone and camera are properly set up in the software settings. Share resources with your students to help them check and test their device settings.

Screen and Content Sharing

If your presentation assignment involves the sharing of a visual aid, make sure your students know how to use the screen or content sharing features of the video meeting program you are using. Some video meeting programs provide multiple ways to share content with the audience. In both Microsoft Teams Meetings and Zoom, presenters can share content by either sharing their entire screen or uploading presentation files—most commonly PowerPoint presentations—to the meeting. Both of these sharing methods have strengths and weaknesses:

When sharing the entire screen:

  • ✅ Presenters can easily share multiple programs and documents during their presentation by opening different windows on the shared screen. If a student’s presentation has any links they wish to follow during the presentation, sharing their entire screen would be the best strategy for ensuring a smooth transition between presentation slides, website content, and other documents.
  • ❌ Unless the presenting student has multiple monitors hooked up to their computer, sharing the entire screen can leave the presenter blind to raised hands and chat messages as the meeting window will be minimized. A presenter sharing their entire screen may have to delegate chat monitoring duties to another member of their group or defer all questions to dedicated Q&A breaks where they can stop sharing and pull up the meeting window.
  • ❌ For student presenters with aging computer hardware, screen sharing will tax and slow down their computer more than the file upload sharing methods. Screen sharing also requires more internet bandwidth, so student presenters with limited internet connections may have an easier time with the file upload sharing methods.

For group presentations, the presentation may run most smoothly if one member of the group is in charge of sharing all presentation content. The flow of the presentation can be stifled if each individual student needs to start sharing content before beginning their part of the presentation.

Facilitating Rehearsals

Rehearsal is a BIG part of preparing for successful presentations, and, for online presentations, effective rehearsals extend beyond practicing in front of the bathroom mirror or a trusted friend or family member. In addition to rehearsing their presentation content, students should also rehearse working with the technology. It’s important for students to become comfortable with the logistics of sharing their content and navigating raised hands and chat messages before giving their presentation. It is easier to navigate the technology in a rehearsal setting without the pressure of the spotlight and the resulting jitters. A proper tech rehearsal will help students identify and avoid potentially derailing technical snags.

For group presentations, groups should be able to effectively rehearse together as a unit, but you could also consider pairing groups together if you wanted to incorporate peer review into the development of the final presentations. For individual presentations, consider pairing your students with a rehearsal buddy or creating a Canvas discussion for students who need to seek out a rehearsal partner. To facilitate these presentation rehearsals, you will have to help your students find or create virtual rehearsal spaces.

Managing Session Permissions

Video meeting attendees can hold different roles in the meeting, and these roles dictate how much control the user has over the meeting and whether they can share their screen or other presentation content. To ensure your student presentations go smoothly, make sure you understand what each role can do in the meeting and that you understand at least one of the two methods for assigning meeting roles to your students:

  1. You can edit the meeting settings so that students automatically join the meeting with elevated presentation privileges.
  2. During the meeting, you can manually promote individual users to the presenter role.

Audience Engagement Strategies

While presenting online, it is important to think about how to keep your audience engaged through participation opportunities. At the most basic level, this can entail building in Q&A breaks throughout the presentation, but students should give thought as to how they will handle the Q&A. Would they like the audience to type questions in the chat as they come up with them? Would they like the audience to use the raise hand feature to indicate that they have a question? To keep the audience engaged, students should consider spreading Q&A opportunities throughout the presentation instead of leaving all questions for the end. Beyond Q&A breaks, students can use their video meeting’s polling tool to survey audience knowledge and opinions.

Appearing Professional in Online Presentations

It is not uncommon to see the odd student walking down a crowded hallway of campus in business attire, looking like a shining beacon of professionalism adrift among an ocean of sweatpants. It’s a telltale sign: it must be student presentation day! Presenting online over a videoconference can carry the same expectation of formal dress as an in-person presentation (at least from the waist up), but there are a few additional online-presentation-specific tips available in this guide you can give your students to help them present themselves professionally.

Please remember that your students have different living circumstances and remote-work environments, and that an ask for students to remotely present from a professional setting may not be equitable. Express compassion and understanding for those students who may not have control over the environment from which they can attend class and give their presentation.