HowTo|
HowTo |
Use Zoom for On-Line Classes | Prof. Bartenstein |
This web page provides information on how to use Zoom teleconferencing in Professor Bartenstein's classes. Other Professors may have different guidelines, so don't automatically apply the information on this page to other classes. Check with your other professors to see if they have different conventions.
I will use Zoom teleconferencing to conduct on-line classes. Zoom teleconferences will be used to deliver lectures, conduct office hours and any other one-to-one telecommunication, and to provide labs if the course has labs.
First, check out the Binghamton University Zoom web page at BU Intro to Zoom.
Before you can use Zoom, you have to install the Zoom client. If you have ever used Zoom before, the client is already installed. You should have a Zoom icon on your desktop.
Note that there are Zoom client apps for almost every device, Windows, Apple PCs, Apple smart phones, and Android smart phones. You will need to install the Zoom client on each device you want to use Zoom from.
If you have never used Zoom before, the easiest way to get started with Zoom is to open up the binghamton.zoom.us, the Binghamton University portal into Zoom. At the bottom of this page there is a "Download Client" button. Click on this button and follow the installation instructions.
arrow_backThere are several ways to connect to a Zoom conference.
The easiest and most effective is to connect using myCourses. Open myCourses, navigate to the course in question, and you will see a screen that looks something like this:
Notice the "Zoom Meetings" link on the bottom left that has been highlighted for you. If you click on this link, that will bring up the Zoom link page, and you will see a screen that looks like the following:
This screen contains a list of all the Zoom teleconferences scheduled for this course, including Office Hours, Lectures, and Labs. At the specified time, click on a "Join" button, such as the one highlighted in the image, to connect to the meeting.
When you click on the "Join" button, Zoom will open a new "Zoom Launch" screen on your browser, which looks like the following:
When you click on the "Open Zoom" button, this will launch the Zoom Client app which will connect you to your lecture, office hours, or lab.
My understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong), is that when you connect using myCourses, the Launch Meeting process not only starts the Zoom client, but also automatically logs you on to Zoom in that Zoom client. If for any reason I'm wrong, and you need to log on to the Zoom client, see Appendix : Logging On to the Zoom Client below.
arrow_backIf I have sent you a Google Calendar invitation for a meeting (a lecture, office hours, or a lab), and you have accepted that invitation, then the meeting will show up on your Google calendar. If you click on the meeting itself, you will get a popup that looks like:
In this pop-up, the most effective way to connect is to click on the "Join Zoom Meeting" button that I have highlighted. When you do so, you will get a launch screen in your web browser that looks like:
On the launch screen, click on "Open Zoom". This will launch the Zoom Client App which will connect you to your lecture, office hours, or lab meeting.
My understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong), is that when you connect using the "Join Zoom Meeting" button from the calendar, the Launch Meeting process not only starts the Zoom client, but also automatically logs you on to Zoom in that Zoom client. If for any reason I'm wrong, and you need to log on to the Zoom client, see Appendix : Logging On to the Zoom Client below.
arrow_backIt is also possible to connect to a meeting using a hyperlink from a web page, email, or calendar invitation. One example is the link I provide on the class web page for office hours, as in:
I have highlighted the hyperlink for the online Zoom office hours meeting on this page. Click on that link, and you will see the Zoom Launch screen as in:
On the launch screen, click on "Open Zoom". This will launch the Zoom Client App which will connect you to your lecture, office hours, or lab meeting.
My understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong), is that when you connect using a hyperlink, the Launch Meeting process not only starts the Zoom client, but also automatically logs you on to Zoom in that Zoom client. If for any reason I'm wrong, and you need to log on to the Zoom client, see Appendix : Logging On to the Zoom Client below.
arrow_backThe most complicated means of connecting to a meeting is to connect using the Meeting ID. You can find the Zoom meeting ID either by using myCourses, looking at a Google Calendar invitation, or from an email that specifies the meeting ID.
The first step is to start the Zoom client. After you have installed the Zoom client, it should appear on your Desktop and in your Start menu. Start the Zoom client using either one of these. Then log on to Zoom using the process describe in Appendix : Logging On to the Zoom Client below.
Once you are logged on, click on the "Join Meeting" button in the Zoom client app, and type in or paste the Meeting ID. This will connect you to your meeting.
arrow_back arrow_backI will deliver lectures using Zoom teleconfernces. These Zoom teleconferences will be limited to only students in the class, so you must be logged on in your Zoom client in order to join a lecture teleconference.
You are expected to attend every lecture teleconference associated with the course unless you send me an email before the teleconference starts. Furthermore, I expect you to attend the complete teleconference. Since Zoom enables me to get a list of all students who accessed the lecture Teleconference, including start and stop connection times, I can use this data to track attendance. Attendance will affect your grade for the course.
By default, lectures will be recorded. If you would like access to a lecture recording, let me know and I can provide it to you.
I have set up Lecture Teleconferences to start out with all students on mute. It is considered courteous during large teleconferences, unless you are speaking, to mute your microphone to avoid extra background noise.
I would appreciate it if you leave your video on during the lecture. Being able to see you gives me non-verbal feedback on how the lecture is going, which is very useful to me. If everybody starts texting in the middle of my lecture, I know it's getting boring.
As you are well aware, I very much prefer it if students take an active part in the lectures, ask questions, make comments or suggestions, etc. There are several ways to handle this in a Zoom Teleconference
When you first connect to a meeting, the Zoom app does not start in "full-screen" mode. You will see a "gallery" which contains video feeds from the host, yourself, and the other participants in the Zoom conference. You can switch to "Speaker Mode", which has small pictures of participants at the top of the window, and a larger picture of the current speaker's video feed in the main part of the screen.
If you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen, you should see the "Participants" icon. Click on this icon to bring up a side window (on the right) that has a list of all participants in the meeting. This also has icons at the bottom to give feedback to me.
At the bottom of the window is also a "Chat" option to add the chat panel to your Zoom window.
When I start sharing my screen to display, for instance, my powerpoint slides, then Zoom automatically switches to Full-Screen mode. Now, you see my shared screen taking up your entire monitor. The "Participants" panel and the "Chat" panel, if you had them open, will disappear, and now you will get a secondary window with small participant video feeds in a scrollable column.
If you are in full screen mode, you can return to a window within the full screen by hitting the "Esc" key on your keyboard. This will return to a screen that has my shared powerpoint slides in the middle, but now you have the participants video feeds on top, and you get the participants and chat panels on the right again.
Another option in full screen mode is to go to the bottom of the screen, and click on Participants and/or Chat to bring up separate Participants and Chat windows. If I exit screen sharing mode, and start sharing a different screen, and you stay in full screen mode, then you will need to restart the Participants and Chat windows.
arrow_backOffice hourse are designed for one-to-one assistance with any problems you have during the course. For on-line courses, I have set up a recurring Zoom teleconference to handle office hours. I have set up this teleconference so that no authentication is required... anyone can connect.
I have also added a "Waiting Room" for office hours. When you join, you will start out in the waiting room, and not be connected until I move you from the waiting room into the conference itself. This allows me to finish with a previous student's questions, before moving you from the waiting room into the office hours meeting.
Each semester, I publish at least two hours a week where I commit to being available for office hours. You may join the office hours teleconference without an appointment and with no prior notice during those times. For the 2020 Spring Semester, those times are Monday and Tuesday between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM.
During scheduled office hour times, just join my Office Hours meeting at https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/583864881. Clicking on that link is all you need to do. Feel free to connect or disconnect from the office hours Zoom conference any time during normal office hours.
If you try to use this link outside of normal office hours, you will get a message that says that Zoom is waiting for the host to start the meeting. If this is the case, try contacting me using e-mail, and it's possible I will be available and can help you. If not, I will eventually respond to your email and we can negotiate a time when we are both available to work on the problem. In either case, I will still use the same Office Hours Zoom Meeting ID. I will just start that meeting up outside of normal office hours, and close it up when we are done.
The TA's and CA's may also be holding office hours using Zoom. If so, I will try to publish the TA's office hour times and Zoom links on the class web page. Similar rules apply for TA and CA office hour Zoom conferences. They will only be available during scheduled office hours unless you have negotiated with the TA or CA for outside help.
When connected to an Office Hours Zoom teleconference, one of the really powerful features of Zoom is that you can share your screen with me - I can look at what you are doing and (hopefully) see exactly what the problem is. When joining an office hours conference, be prepared by opening screens that you may wish to share with me during the meeting before connecting to the conference. Some limited screen sharing is available if you are using a smart phone or a tablet, but these aren't as easy to use or as useful as screen sharing from a laptop or desktop computer.
I also appreciate it if you provide me with both video and audio input during Office Hours teleconferences. Two-way communication is vital, and being able to see your body language, as well as hear any comments or questions is vital to optimize communication bandwidth. If there are technical reasons this is not possible, we will work around it, but turn on your video camera and microphone by default.
If multiple people are attending office hours, but you would like extra privacy, let me know. It is possible to create a "break-out" room in a Zoom teleconference, where you and I are the only participants.
My policy is not to record Office Hours Zoom teleconferences, and not to monitor attendance at office hour teleconferences. You should feel comfortable sharing whatever you like at office hours.
arrow_backI will leave it up to the TA running the lab to define most of the protocols for using Zoom in the lab, but here's how I imagine things will go. The TA may start out the lab by giving some explicit instructions, but most of the lab will consist of students working on the problem at hand. When they run into problems, go to the Zoom teleconference, click on Participants, and Raise you Hand. The TA will then go to the students who have raised their hands, and use the share screen to identify the problem and solve the problem. It's up to the students and the TA whether you think it's useful to take individual students into a break-out room, so that not everyone needs to be aware of a specific student's problem.
arrow_backWhen the Zoom client app starts, depending on how it was started, you may or may not be "logged on" to Zoom. If you are logged on, then you will go straight to the Zoom meeting you are connecting to. If not, you will see a window that looks like:
This indicates that however the Zoom Client app was started, but you are not yet logged on to Zoom. In this case, you can try the "Join a Meeting" button, and if the meeting does not require you to log on to Zoom, you will be connected to your meeting.
⚠ Warning: If you click on the "Join a Meeting" button in the Zoom client without logging on first, you will join anonymously. Some meetings allow you to join anonymously, but others (such as my lecture meetings) require you to sign on with your Binghamton Zoom userid in order to work. I recommend that you always click on the "Sign In" button first!
When you click on the "Sign In" button, you will get a sign-in screen that looks like this:
⚠ On the Sign In screen click on the "Sign in with SSO" button. In this case, SSO stands for "Single Sign On", which is the only way to sign on to a Binghamton University Zoom userid.
When you click on the "Sign in with SSO" button, you will get the following screen:
Type in "binghamton" in the space labeled "Enter your company domain". You only have to type this once. From now on, Zoom will remember this. Then hit the "Continue" button. This will cause the Zoom app to attempt to open a page on your web browser to authenticate your Zoom userid.
If you typed "binghamton" wrong, you will get a screen in your web browser that looks something like:
(This is what it looks like in my Chrome browser. If you use a different browser, this may look different.) In any case, all you need to do is close this window, go back to the Zoom client, fix the typo, and click on the "Continue" button again
If you typed the "binghamton" domain name correctly, and if your are not logged on to BU in your browser, you will get the Binghamton University portal web page that prompts for your BU userid and password. Once you type that in, (or if you were already connected) you will get a screen that looks like the following:
The text on the popup is a little misleading. It's asking if you want to "Open Zoom?", but the Zoom client is already open. Really, this messages should say "Authenticate Zoom?", because, when you click on the "Open Zoom" button, the Zoom client login process should complete, and your Zoom client window should now looks something like:
Once you are logged on, if you connect to a meeting, it will use your Binghamton User ID, and things should work better.
Note that you can close the "Launch" window in your web browser. It is no longer needed.
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