Especially in a flex-hybrid classroom, where writing on the board can be challenging, chat can be very useful for managing logistics.
Here are some ideas:
Post prompts for writing exercises or small-group discussions in the chat.
After you give verbal instructions for a class activity, post them in the chat (this is helpful because in a flex-hybrid classroom you will have a much harder time seeing those confused/quizzical looks that guide you to the students who need help.)
After you give instructions for an in-class activity, ask students who are having trouble to alert you via the chat so that you can answer questions.
Post reminders about upcoming assignments in the chat (you can do this at the beginning of class and again at the end).
You can (re)post reading materials and links to the chat when you’re ready to discuss them so that students don’t have to poke around on their Google Drives or in Canvas to access them.
Even better, you can post links to specific parts of documents to save all that hunting and scrolling and all those “where are we again?” questions.
Have students share documents with each other via the chat.
Here’s how you share a document on the chat:
In a Zoom session, open the chat window.
Click on the “File” icon on the bottom right.
A menu will open showing various locations where you might keep files (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, your local computer, etc.)
Select the appropriate location and navigate to the place where the file you want to post is stored.
Note that the first time you post a file, you’ll need to authorize Zoom to interact with the storage software. This takes a little while, so you’ll want to set it up before the session if possible.
You can also prevent participants from sharing files or restrict the types of files participants share in the chat. Here’s how:
Open up your Zoom account in a browser window.
From the left navigation menu, choose “Settings”.
Click the “Meeting” tab above the menu of security options.
Choose “In Meeting (Basic)”.
Scroll down to “File transfer”.
If you want to prevent files from being transfered in the chat, adjust the slider so that it’s gray to turn off the file transfer functionality.
If you want to limit the types of files that participants can transfer in the chat, check the box next to “Only allow specified file types”, then enter the file extensions that you want to allow, separated by commas.
Here’s how to link to a specific paragraph of a Google Doc:
Move your cursor to the beginning of the paragraph to which you want to link.
Go to the Insert menu in the top navigation and select “Bookmark”.
You’ll see that your cursor has turned into a little blue ribbon icon.
Click the ribbon icon, then right click on the word “link” when it appears.
Choose “Copy link address”.
Paste this link into your Zoom chat.
Here’s how to link to a specific cell in a Google Sheet:
Go to the cell to which you want to link.
Right-click on the cell.
From the menu that appears, choose “Get link to this cell”.
You’ll see a notification that the link was copied to the clipboard.
Paste the link into the Zoom chat.
Here’s how to link to a specific page of a PDF file:
Open the file in a browser window, not in PDF editing software like Adobe.
Copy the link. Paste it into the chat and specify the page number to which you want the file to open by adding the following at the end of the link:
#page=[pagenumber]
Note that when we tested this, it worked much better in some browsers than in others. Some Chrome extensions seem to interfere with this functionality.