COTE NOTE
The Center for Online Teaching Excellence What I know about Virtual Meetings and Recordings Using Zoom
Lorette Pellettiere Calix
Lorette Pellettiere Calix is an instructor and director of SUNY/Empire State College Programs in Latin America. She was principal investigator for the 2012 Tier 2 IIT grant for the project “Virtual Study Abroad” Using Meeting and Mobile Tools to Promote Student Engagement & International Interaction. She has made numerous presentations on her experiences with the blended learning programs in Latin America. She has published two articles related to the IITG project. She is now collaborating on a 2014 IITG Tier III project. Patrice Torcivia Prusko, PhD. Is an Instructional Designer with Cornell University, formerly with International Programs at SUNY/ESC. She has participated in two IITG projects and was co-author on the two articles on Virtual Study Abroad. She is frequently invited to present at numerous conferences.
“Instructors and
students were more satisfied with the courses with virtual interactions.”
I would like to share what I know about Zoom As part of the 2012 IIT grant for the project ““Virtual Study Abroad” Using Meeting and Mobile Tools to Promote Student Engagement & International Interaction,” virtual meeting tools were used to conduct synchronous sessions connecting students in various countries. After testing various virtual meeting tools for the grant, researchers found the virtual meeting tool Zoom to be the most user friendly and effective in promoting student interaction and engagement.
What is it Zoom displays HD video, can provide IP Hosted solutions for selected teleconferencing equipment and also offers voice conferencing services. There can be up to 25 connections, which serves most of our class groups. Another useful function provided by Zoom is the ability to record sessions. By default the recordings are placed on the local drive or designated network drive of the host after it has been packaged. Some instructors have used this function to record lectures and interviews which they post in their online courses. Screen sharing is very simple, there is a chat box and a whiteboard function. Participants do not need to set up an account. There are free accounts for up to 40 minute meetings, and a yearlong subscription is only $100, allowing for unlimited meeting lengths.
How it works The meeting organizer sends a link to participants. To join the Zoom session, participants click on a link (or paste the URL into their browser), or can phone into the meeting. They do not need an account, license, nor do they need any special software. Participants can connect from a computer or from mobile devices. The connection is fast, and very stable with excellent audio and video quality. Once in the meeting all participants have simultaneous access to all of the functions except record, unless the host blocks them. Even our most techphobic instructors have found it easy to use.
What I did We have used zoom for: • Synchronous meetings (course, individual, small group) • Lecture capture • Recorded introductions • Academic advising • Student collaborations • Faculty collaborations • Student presentations • “how-tos”
How I did it We discovered Zoom while doing a search for video conferencing tools to experiment as part of our IIT grant “Virtual Study Abroad” Using Meeting and Mobile Tools to Promote Student Engagement & International Interaction. We simply signed up for free accounts,
The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence
December 17,2014 • Volume 2 • Issue 4
COTE NOTE Staff The COTE Community Team: Alexandra M. Pickett, Associate Director, Open SUNY; Martie Dixon, Assistant Academic Dean, Distance Learning & Alternate Programs, Erie Community College; Patricia Aceves, Director of the Faculty Center in Teaching, Learning & Technology, Stony Brook University; Lisa Dubuc, Coordinator of Electronic Learning, Niagara County Community College; Christine Kroll, Assistant Dean for Online Education, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo; Deborah Spiro, Assistant Vice President for Distance Education, Nassau Community College; Vicky Sloan, Distance Learning Coordinator, Clinton Community College; Erin Maney, Senior Instructional Designer, Open SUNY; Lisa Raposo, Assistant Director, SUNY Center for Professional Development This publication is produced by the Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence under the SUNY Office of the Provost.
which we later converted to the $99 per year option to have meetings with up to 25 connections with no time limits. We tested the tool internationally with groups of students in two different classrooms (in different countries); one group of students in a classroom with individual students connected from various places around the world; all students connected individually from wherever they were; in one-on-one and in small group meetings; and for recording. We tested both hosting and participating in the sessions using smart phones and tablets, as well as computers. We tested with a variety of internet capabilities.
Why I did it To connect students and faculty in different countries to try to provide some sort of international interaction for students unlikely to be able to travel.
What happened when I did it We found Zoom to be the most user friendly and have the best audio-visual quality of all the tools we tested (including stand-bys like Skype and Google Hang Outs). Students started talking to one another and the instructor rather than just using the chat box. There was broader participation than in other types of virtual meetings because students couldn’t hide or multi-task as easily. Instructors and students were more satisfied with the courses with virtual interactions.
What I learned
Contact/Questions
• Visual matters! Students interacted more when they could see and hear one another. Otherwise they hide in the chat box.
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• The importance of using mobile-friendly tools. When there were internet problems, smartphones saved the day!
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• Students and faculty felt more connected and part of a learning community. • Students stay more engaged and on-schedule. • Virtual meetings obtained some of the benefits of a face-to-face international experience.
How others can use it 1. Go to https://www.zoom.us 2. To host meetings, sign up for a free account, or click on the link to join an existing meeting. 3. Start a meeting with or without video, join or schedule a meeting. 4. Invite participants from inside the meeting or click on schedule to program meetings in advance or create a link for recurring meetings. 5. When in a meeting, run your mouse across the bottom of the screen to see: turn on or off audio or video; set up (testing); invite; manage participants (controls, raised hands); share screen; record; end/leave meeting. 6. At the top right corner you can change to gallery view or make the meeting full screen. 7. When in screen share you can see stop share and tools for annotate, highlight, etc. in a tool bar at the top of the screen.
This publication is disseminated under the creative commons license AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
8. Recordings will download to the host computer. You can share the recording or upload into YouTube.
The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence
December 17, 2014 • Volume 2 • Issue 4