How do I use Zoom in a classroom with remote students?

The Zoom conferencing tool can be used to attend virtual meetings with colleagues, hold remote office hour sessions with students, and deliver a live online classroom experience. You may have already used Zoom to capture your screen, webcam, document camera, and voice for recorded sessions.  You can also teach face to face in a classroom and include your students attending remotely by having them join your Zoom session in real time (also called a concurrent classroom or hy-flex). You can even record the session and share it through Canvas. Follow the steps below to setup, record, and publish your classroom recording.

Table of Contents

  1. Setup your Zoom Meetings in advance
  2. Learn about connections in the classroom
  3. Start recording in your classroom
  4. Publish recordings for students

Setup Zoom Meetings

  • Schedule a new recurring meeting in the Zoom Web Portal that matches your course meeting schedule. If you have sessions that have alternating meeting patterns in a classroom and online, you can use the same Zoom meeting for all sessions. (Learn more by viewing out video on Scheduling Meetings in Zoom for a Course).
  • Automatic recording: You can choose to enable automatic recording for your Zoom meeting by editing your meeting settings.
    • Create a new meeting or locate an existing meting and click the title of the meeting in the Meetings Tab of your UD Zoom Profile. Scroll down the page and click the Edit this Meeting button. Ensure these settings listed below.
    • Uncheck Enable join before host
    • Check Enable waiting room
    • Check Only authenticated users can join (udel.edu appear automatically)
    • Check
    • Click the Save button at the bottom.
  • Recording storage: When you begin recording a class session, you’ll have the option to record locally or in the cloud.
    • Cloud recording (preferred): This stores the recording automatically in your My Media in Canvas or UD Capture Space. This requires a good network connection for the entire recording.
    • Local recording: This stores the recording on your computer. To share each recording, you’ll need to upload it to your My Media in Canvas or UD Capture Space.
  • What’s recorded:
    • Important! Make sure to consider FERPA guidelines when considering the settings for your Zoom recording, especially if you plan to share the recordings with those outside of the section being recorded.
    • You can choose a variety of video layouts for your recording including Active Speaker, Gallery View, or Shared Screen with Active Speaker. To change the recording layout for all of your meetings, select the desired recording view in your Zoom Meeting Settings. Recording more than one type of video will result in a single media item that has a multi-stream playback experience.
    • A date and time stamp is visible by default. To turn it off, uncheck Add a timestamp to the recording in your Cloud Recording Settings.
    • Student names on video windows do not show in local recordings but are visible on cloud recordings. Student names can be turned off on cloud recordings by unchecking Display participants’ names in the recording in your Cloud Recording Settings.
  • Tell your students: If you intend to record sessions, tell your students:
    • What is being recorded (i.e. what is visible, voice, shared screens, etc.)
    • Why you are recording.
    • How you will use the recording and who can see it.
    • How long you will retain the recording.
    • Allow students to contact you off-line should they feel uncomfortable with a recording and allow them to opt out.
  • Remote students:
    • If you plan to have students attend remotely, add the link to the Zoom Meeting to your Canvas Site so students know how to join the live online meeting.
    • Important! Be clear with all of your students about where you expect them to attend (face to face vs. online). A Zoom link by itself implies it’s fine for students to attend remotely.

Get Connected in the Classroom

  • Plan an orientation: Get to know your classroom by scheduling an in-person classroom orientation with University Media Services Classroom Technology.
  • Adapters and dongles: Make sure you have the right adapters to connect your laptop to your classroom. Connections include:
    • VGA or HDMI adapters for projection
    • 1/8″ (headphone) plug for sound
    • USB for document camera (including USB-C to USB adapters you may need)
    • Your laptop AC adapter to plug in for power
  • Get help: If you need immediate help in a classroom, you can contact University Media Services Classroom Technology by using the classroom assistance telephone (dial ‘0’) in a central classroom or dial 302-831-3546.
  • Microphone: Configure Zoom to use the microphone on your laptop; this will pick up your voice during class. To ensure the best audio quality, you should stay close to your laptop and not walk around. If you need to use in room microphones to amplify your voice for in class students, you can contact University Media Services Classroom Technology.
  • Polling and iClicker: iClicker can still be used to support all in class students but not with remote students. To support both, you should consider switching to Poll Everywhere.
  • Document camera: You can use the in-classroom document camera by connecting it to your computer via USB and selecting it as a source in Zoom. The document camera can also be used as a secondary camera in the classroom by tilting the camera up. Quality will vary depending on light available in the room so test this ahead of time.
  • Secondary camera: You use your mobile device like a phone or tablet to connect to the same Zoom meeting and share the camera from that device (make sure to mute the mic and the sound). Purchase an inexpensive tripod to position the camera where you need it. Bring your AC adapter so you’re not running on just battery power.
  • Showing older media: VHS or DVD players in a classroom will not connect to Zoom so they can’t be used in a Zoom recording or to support live synchronous students. Contact the UD Library Film & Video Collection about availability of your title via a streaming service.
  • Projector Display: The projector for the in-class students will show everything on your computer screen, including your Zoom text chat.  Be sure to let your Zoom students know they should not use the text chat for private conversations with you.
  • Dual projectors: If your classroom has multiple projectors or smart touch displays, you can only project to one main display with Zoom with your laptop.
  • Writing on the board: You cannot use the blackboard with Zoom. Here are three ways to integrate alternative whiteboards into Zoom.
  • Test ahead of time: Perform a Zoom test meeting in the classroom to ensure that everything is working. In your syllabus, encourage your students attending remotely to also test their computer and connection using the UD Zoom Student Guide.

Start Class

  • Start your Zoom meeting: Always launch your session from your Meetings list from your UD Zoom Account. This ensures you are recognized as the host and not a participant. Students must be logged into the Zoom app to ensure they are authenticated to the udel.edu domain properly.
  • Begin recording: If your meeting is set to record automatically, it will begin when you start the meeting. If you are recording manually, click the Record button on the Zoom window toolbar and choose to record either locally or to the cloud.
  • Ground rules: As with any new class, be sure to set guidelines and expectations for how you will conduct class.
    • On the first day, introduce your students to their real and virtual environments and classmates.
    • Inform the students your preferred way for them to ask a question (raise their hand, use the Zoom chat, etc)
    • Inform the students of any other classroom engagement tools and management techniques and how these operate in classroom and remotely.
  • What gets recorded: Depending on the recording layout you’ve chosen, it may change dynamically as you share your screen or use Zoom tools like the whiteboard.
  • Share your screen:  Be sure your students can see your screen both in the classroom (check that your computer is connected to the projector in the classroom) and through Zoom (use the Share Screen button on the Zoom window toolbar).
  • Computer sound: If you plan to play sound (through a YouTube or other video, or audio/music file), make sure to check the box for Share Computer Sound at the bottom left of the Share Screen window.
  • Telephone option: If your remote students have difficulty joining, they can join your Zoom meeting via phone.
  • Mute their mics: Advise your in class students if they join your live zoom session from the classroom to make sure their microphones and speakers are muted during instruction. If you use Zoom breakout rooms as part of a group activity, students can then unmute their mics.
  • Repeat questions: Be sure to repeat in classroom student questions so they can be heard on Zoom.
  • Use your webcam: You can choose to enable your built in laptop webcam and make it part of your recording. This helps with instructor presence, an important component for successful student engagement. In an online course, this means a visual presence best delivered through videos of you speaking with your students.
  • Be inclusive: If you have remote students attending your classroom synchronously via Zoom, make sure they are part of your classroom.
    • Include reflection break points in your slides to allow students to ask questions, alternating your focus each time from in person to remote students.
    • Assign alternating student Zoom assistants to monitor the chat for questions.
    • Consider “flipping the classroom” by prerecording lecture material as homework and use class time for discussion or learning activities.
    • Anything handed out on paper in class should be made available to all students in Canvas.
  • Be adaptable: Be prepared to be flexible with learning activities or assessments if you have a mixture of students in the classroom or remote via Zoom. Maximize the time in the classroom with appropriate activities that work better face to face.
  • Pause and stop: If recording, you can pause the recording and resume at any time. You can also stop the recording at any time. If you start recording again, it will create a new recording file.
  • Wrap it up: When finished with the class session, make sure to choose End Meeting for All to ensure the meeting has ended.
  • Stick around: If you need to leave the Zoom meeting early but allow the remote students to remain, you can assign the host role to someone else and choose Leave Meeting.  Be sure the new host knows to End Meeting for All when they are finished.

Publish Recordings for Students

  • Be patient: When your recording is finished, it needs to be processed first. Processing is usually completed in a few hours but please allow up to 24 hours.
  • Cloud recording: If you recorded to the Zoom cloud:
    • Your recording is first processed by Zoom then by UD Capture before it appears in your My Media. You’ll receive an email from Zoom half way through this process. Do not share the link to your video from the Zoom Cloud as there are better access controls available Canvas to protect your video.
    • If there is a problem with the automatic delivery, you can manually upload your cloud recording.
    • The video in My Media will be titled the name of the Zoom meeting.
  • Local recording: If you recorded locally:
    • Your recording is processed by the Zoom app on your computer. Don’t close the Zoom app until your Zoom recording is finished processing. Once finished, you can access the recordings by clicking the Meetings icon at the top of the Zoom app window, then the Recorded tab on the left. Locate the meeting title in the list and click it. Details about the recording appear on the right. Click the Open button to reveal the location of the recordings on your computer.
    • You can also access your local recordings in the documents folder on your computer.  Zoom will create a Folder called “Zoom” with additional folders inside that are date and time stamped.  The video files will be called “Zoom_0.mp4”, “Zoom_1.mp4”, etc.
    • Once you’ve located the video, you can upload the MP4 of the recording to your My Media.
  • Give your videos a title: Once your videos are uploaded to My Media, you should give your videos a good title and description. This will allow your students to locate recordings easily based on topics later. Go to your My Media tool in Canvas and click the pencil icon to the right of the video. Make the changes and click save.
  • Closed captions: Your videos will have machine closed captions and transcriptions created automatically. Although machine captioning has improved over the years, it’s still a good idea to edit and make improvements. Learn how to edit closed captions in My Media.
  • Make an edit: If you need to make an edit to a recording to remove the beginning or end, you can learn how to edit a video for length.
  • Delete a recording: If you need to remove a recording from your My Media, you can learn how to delete a recording.
  • Publish it: Finally, to publish the video for your students, you have two options.