Instructor’s Checklist for Zoom

Will Styler (with input from Beth Simon)

Before Class:

Include key student expectations on your first slide
Discuss/Document your plans with IAs
- Make sure that your IAs have a way to reach you (Text, Email, Google Chat, etc)
Open your materials, and decide what desktop or window you’ll want to share
Set up any polls that you want to use
Make sure you have a reliable internet connection for the session
Pause automatic backups or large downloads/uploads
Minimize distractions and background noise
Warn other household members that you’re teaching, and minimize distractions
- Some background noises carry surprisingly well through microphones (e.g. trash trucks)
Close websites and apps you don’t need open
- Running other processes can slow down Zoom
- Also remember that when you screenshare, there’s a chance that your desktop and any of your windows, bookmarks, open tabs, etc will be visible to everybody
Check the view of your webcam
- Remove anything distracting or embarrassing

During Class:

Make your IAs into ‘Co-Hosts’ in the Zoom call
Hit ‘Record’ if you’re planning to record! (record to cloud for Canvas)
If you’re recording the session, please be sure to announce this at the start of each session
- It’s better if this is done during the recorded portion of the session
- Also add a note to this effect to your syllabi
Unmute your microphone and turn on your camera
Make any connections needed to capture computer audio
Open chat if you’re planning to monitor it yourself
Use Keystrokes to make your work more efficient
- Check out Craig Ball’s Cheat Sheet
Go for it! Have a great class!

To work with breakout groups:

Hit the ‘Breakout’ button, and choose the number of participants
Before breaking up into separate rooms, provide some guidance on room discussions, e.g., assign a leader, assign a notetaker, define the objectives and deliverables
Join rooms, send mass chat announcements when you need to
When you’re ready to end the breakout, just summon everybody back to chat

After Class:

You’ll receive any cloud-based recordings in 20-30 minutes
You can also add them directly to Canvas through Kaltura
You can find your class attendance at Canvas -> Zoom LTI Pro -> Previous Meetings
- Then click ’Report” to get a list of participants

Troubleshooting

Make sure you’ve downloaded zoom from ucsd.zoom.us
Make sure you’re logging in with your UCSD AD credentials, rather than a personal username/pass
SSCF’s Guide to Common Zoom Problems

Setting up Zoom for the first time:

Computer Hardware

You’ll want to run Zoom lessons from your laptop, rather than a tablet, as not all features are available
You’ll need a webcam
- Good quality USB webcams are available for ~$25 now, and will make a major difference
- (Mind you, they’re now all sold out. Thanks, Coronavirus)
- Remember that the Webcam needs to face you, if you’re on a multi-monitor setup
Make sure you have both headphones and a good quality microphone
- You’ll need to use earphones and a good quality microphone, as your computer’s built in units will probably not work, and you’ll want to avoid feedback and echoes
- Any quality of headphone will do, but the microphone is more important
- Combined headphone/microphone USB headsets are also available in the $50-200+ range
Connect your computer reliably to the internet
- Ethernet connections are always going to be more reliable than Wifi

Getting the Software

Go to ucsd.zoom.us
- Download Zoom, Login with your UCSD SSO
- You should have a ‘Pro’ account automatically by being Faculty, Instructor, or IA

Settings you’ll (probably) want to check and adjust

Open Zoom, then go to ‘Settings’
Under ‘Video’ make sure you’re able to see your webcam
Under ‘Audio’, you can choose the audio input device in Zoom, and the default may not be what you want it to be.
Under ‘Virtual Background’, you can set a background to mask the surroundings
- This is cute and fun, but beware, it masks hand movements and gestures, and can be distracting
- Also note that not all laptops support it
- Under ‘Profile’, click ‘Edit my Profile’
- You’ll be asked to log into their website for some reason or another, but then, in your browser can set a ‘personal link’, which gives you https://ucsd.zoom.us/my/yourname instead of an ugly number to remember.
Under ‘Profile’, also click ‘View Advanced Features’
- Again, a browser window will open, but you can select…
- ‘Mute Participants upon Entry’ which is good when you have 100+ students joining
- ‘File Transfer’ which allows participants to send files (e.g. images, data, documents, pdfs) back and forth. This is off by default.
- ‘Screen Sharing’ - ‘Who can start sharing when someone else is sharing’: You’ll probably want ‘Host only’, so that students can’t interrupt the presentation accidentally.
- ‘Attention Tracking’ - This way, you can see if students have the Zoom app focused. BUT, be cautious, because a student who’s typing notes in another window will show as ‘inattentive’ by this metric.
Under ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’, you can configure specific keystrokes for common tasks (e.g. muting)

First Run

Before you have students, you’ll want to open Screensharing for a studentless meeting, and once you’re there, use the ‘Spotlight’ command
- On MacOS ‘Catalina’ (and perhaps other operating systems), both of these actions trigger a ‘Give Permissions’ dialog requiring you to restart Zoom or your machine. So it’s good to have this set up
Try and share computer audio as well
- On MacOS Catalina (and likely others), you’ll need to install a helper app the first time you do this
Play some with the interface in an empty meeting. There’s no harm in trying many of the ‘meeting’ tasks on your own, and it’s a good approach to learning the annotation tools, etc.

Canvas Integration

Open Canvas, go to Settings -> Navigation
Then drag ‘Zoom LTI Pro’ above the ‘Hide from Students’ line, then click save.
Now click “Zoom LTI Pro’ in the Sidebar and you can set up meetings
This allows you to schedule meetings and make them accessible from your account

Other Resources

Will Styler’s Guide to Moving Courses Online - http://savethevowels.org/online
Will Styler’s Guide for Students in Online Courses - http://savethevowels.org/onlinestudents