Week 9

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Using Zoom

You’ve all used Zoom to attend classes; hosting classes is much the same with just a few more steps:

1. You’ll need to acquire your own Brandeis sponsored Zoom account and a "DUO" app to login. Adjust the settings on your Zoom account. Here are the instructions to do that. Your SGSC liaison can help you get started and the BOLLI administrators are always there for technical backup. Pay particular attention to the correct way to start your Zoom sessions; if you click on the link that you provide your class, you’ll join the session but not as host, so you won’t be able to share your screen or mute any barking dogs.

2. Use a good laptop or desktop, not an iPad. If your machine is more than 5 years old or underpowered it may not be suitable for hosting Zoom sessions. Also you’ll need a good internet connection; spotty internet can cause the session to freeze or you to drop out of the session. The first section in this Zoom 2.0 manual can help you test your connection and diagnose problems.

3. Sharing Screens. During class you might want to show a short Youtube video, some Powerpoint slides or pull up the class website. You do that by pressing the Share Screen button at the bottom of your screen and selecting the application that you want to share, be it a browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge) or Powerpoint, or something else. Take note that the application that you want to share must be up and running before you go to Share Screen. It’s good practice to reboot your computer before a session and only have open the applications that you’ll be using; that will make your Share Screen application easier to find and keep your computer from over taxing itself. If you’re showing a video clip, make sure you click the checkboxes in the lower left hand corner of the Share Screen window, otherwise the audio will be terrible.

4. Muting. You can use the Participants icon to mute people or ask them to unmute; you can do the same if you’re host or co-host by clicking on their video windows. It’s a very good idea to have a co-host in class that will mute offending participants and alert you to someone that you didn’t notice who is raising a hand. Co-hosts can also take attendance by taking a screen shot of the class and emailing to you so you know who was missing and can reach out to them. Let your SGSC liaison know that you'd like a co-host. They will coordinate with BOLLI administration to recommend a potential co-host in your class or you can ask for volunteers on the first day of class.

5. Link to the BOLLI Remote Learning Help Documentation Folder. Link to the SGL Zoom Guide. Don’t be overwhelmed; it’s really quite easy. There haven’t been any SGLs so far who couldn’t handle it. For the few technophobes that were insecure, BOLLI assigned a very experienced co-host to help them through the class. Just start practicing a few weeks before your first class. If you have two computers, or a computer and an iPad, you can practice sessions in order to "see" on the second machine what your participants will see.

6. Note that you can’t play Netflix or Amazon Prime videos over Zoom. You can play DVDs but it’s difficult. If you must show copyrighted materials it is possible to screen capture the video and upload an mp4 to your google drive, but this is only for technically adventurous people. The most convenient way to show a video is using YouTube or an equivalent.

7. There are other Zoom functions like Breakout Rooms and Polling and Chat. They’re all very easy. The Zoom Help Center has good documentation, or your tech buddy can help.

8. You should make a decision on whether and how you want your class to raise hands. The easiest, especially for a small class is for them to just jump in when they have something to say. They’ll quickly learn to take turns and back down if two people start talking at once, and it has the benefit of not making the SGL the center of discussion. If there is a larger class, you might ask people to raise hands by waving their hand in front of the camera. For larger classes and classes like Art where there is a lot of screen sharing going on, you can ask them to raise their hands electronically through the Participants window. That has the advantage of noting the order of the hands raised, but you have to teach the students how to raise hands using the Reactions icon.

Powerpoint

Also known as the Death Ray Machine, Powerpoints are a great way to put your class to sleep, so you should consider using them sparingly. During Zoom sessions, Powerpoints make it hard for the SGL and class to see each other and they can foster some degree of disconnectedness, so if you use them to tee up a subject for discussion, don’t forget to take the slides down so everyone can see each other during discussions.

If you haven’t used Microsoft Powerpoint to make slides, you’ll find that it’s pretty easy. Pictures can be inserted from files, or copy and pasted onto the slides. It’s easy to form bullet lists. It’s considered bad form to read lots of text on a slide because people pay more attention to your voice than the slide text. Better to use graphics or bullet points to highlight what you want to say while you speak in more detail.

If you don’t have a copy of the Powerpoint software, you can use the free Keynote software built into Mac computers, or use Google slides; they all work pretty much the same way.

For instructions on how to use Powerpoint, see the BOLLI Study Group Support Committee site: Using Powerpoint, or google How to Use Powerpoint, and find lots of resources on the Web.