Teaching Remotely with Zoom FAQs

We recommend that you schedule Zoom meetings for remote classes in GauchoSpace.  There is an integration between GauchoSpace and Zoom which allows instructors to schedule meetings directly from a course site, set session settings, and optionally create a grade for participating in a meeting.

The GauchoSpace/Zoom integration also allows students to easily view upcoming meeting times and join any available sessions.

Learn more: How do I use Zoom in my GauchoSpace course site?

During Winter Quarter 2020, your remote class had to be held at the same scheduled time as your class was on campus.

For Spring Quarter 2020, we encourage instructors to shift to asynchronous content for remote instruction.

All class start times and end times will continue to be on Pacific Daylight Time. 
 

Only the person who creates the meeting can edit the meeting details; you can designate others as co-hosts once the meeting starts. However, they cannot edit the meeting details prior to the start of the meeting.

No. Faculty must schedule their own classes via Zoom in GauchoSpace to host. The host starts the meeting. In addition, this allows you maximum meeting editing and viewing control.

You can schedule a Zoom meeting any time you want. However, the meeting does not start until the host signs in. Zoom meetings and webinars begin when the host starts them, and end when the host presses the "End Meeting for All" button. You may want to consider extending the class meeting time by 15 minutes. This allows students to ask questions, "mill about," and still have time to transition to their next class. 

Yes. When you set up your Zoom meeting in GauchoSpace, you can set recurring meetings. Scheduling meetings in Zoom is very similar to scheduling appointments in Gmail.
 

Yes. A standard Zoom session is capped at 300.

If you have a class larger than 300 students, you can request a Zoom Webinar.

UCSB has enough Zoom Webinar licenses to cover all courses with enrollments greater than 100 students.

Remember that regular Zoom meetings have more features (like breakout rooms and conversation) than webinars.

The recommended best practice is to send your Zoom invitation through GauchoSpace. Using GauchoSpace enables you to reach your students directly as a group rather than sending each student an individual email.
 

GauchoSpace doesn’t send notifications. Students will see the Zoom meeting info on the GauchoSpace course site and on their calendar in GauchoSpace. 

Faculty must start their Zoom class meetings from within GauchoSpace to protect student privacy. A recorded class started in GauchoSpace can only be streamed, not downloaded by students who were unable to attend the actual Zoom class.

To access your Zoom meetings on your GauchoSpace page, click “view calendar” on the right-hand side of your course homepage.
 

Enable the dual-screen mode in Zoom.

Once you enable these settings in your Zoom client account, the settings should save for the pre-scheduled GauchoSpace Zoom meetings. 

How to share your screen.

Zoom includes a virtual whiteboard that you can share when a physical chalkboard/whiteboard cannot be used. 

Although you can write on the whiteboard with your mouse, it is much easier to use a tablet. While you do not need any tools to use the whiteboard function, we suggest using a stylus. It’s good practice to test the stylus before using the Zoom whiteboard live in a course.

If you want to be able to share the whiteboard(s) with students later, there is a “Save” button that will let you save it as a PNG file.

Use the Whiteboard feature (as noted above, this often works best on a tablet).

Try the basic Annotation Tools (text box, free form draw/pen, shapes, and highlighter) to guide students or explain a concept.

Create a PowerPoint slide or other simple backdrop file on which you can type notes, and share those notes using Screen Sharing. Note that one advantage of this and other approaches here is that the boards can persist and be distributed to the students after class.

Create a “shared board” — perhaps managed jointly with TAs — using Google Drive.

With the device that you’re using to access Zoom, point the camera at a pad of paper and use Screen Sharing to transmit the image as part of a remote blackboard-style lecture.

Pre-record the illustration as a video, then play it during class.
 

Yes. You can mimic a laser pointer function in Zoom.

Zoom provides the option “Single Monitor with Slide Show in a Window” for students to view two windows simultaneously with one window showing faculty speaking and the other window showing the shared materials.

You can click through slides or scroll through materials as you would normally. 

Follow best practices and test this setting before class.
 

You will have a better end-user experience if you wear headphones or earbuds.

Yes. This will allow time to address any technical difficulties, and when prompted, you can follow the on-screen instructions to test your audio. 

Be sure to close any unnecessary applications and browser windows before joining the class meeting.

There are different viewing options. You can choose the gallery view (checkerboard) or the speaker view (speaker enlarged). You can find this control in the upper right corner of your Zoom screen.

Learn more about displaying participants in Zoom.

You can hide yourself! Your students can still see you.

Deciding whether to see yourself on your screen as you teach is a personal preference. You can hide your image by going to the three dots at the right-hand top corner of your picture and choose the “hide self view” option.
 

No. The order in which the students appear on the page cannot be sorted.
 

No. You will not be able to see all of your students at once as you would in a typical physical classroom. The maximum display is 49 participants per page. You can scroll to additional participants. Learn more about how to change the views of participants. 

If you have two monitors, your students may spill into your second monitor.
 

Students can control their screen preference settings. Students can choose:

Gallery View: See a “checkerboard view” of your classmates on the screen.

Speaker View: See a big view of the speaker and smaller pictures of your classmates, either horizontally or vertically depending on your settings.

No. Class participants can only set their own preferences. Only the instructor (host) can change some of the class participant settings.

Host: the instructor. The host has full permissions to manage the Zoom meeting and participants (the students). The host can perform functions like stop and start the meeting, mute panelists, stop panelists’ video, remove attendees from the meeting, and more.
Co-host: This option is useful for courses with co-teachers, faculty assistants, and administrative support. It allows you to share hosting privileges with another user in a meeting. This can be useful to allow another user to manage the administrative side of the meeting, such as muting participants or starting/stopping the recording. Note: Co-hosts are assigned during a meeting and cannot start a meeting.

Visit the Zoom host and co-host options for more information. 

You should restrict the number of people who are co-hosts for your meetings to people who are either co-teaching or offering forms of administrative support.

Assign teaching assistants or other students to roles to help you host the meeting. These roles could include:

• Technology troubleshooter — help other students with their technology.
• Chat monitor — monitor the chat window for questions or shared resources.

To end a class session, the host needs to click on the button on the bottom right that reads, “End meeting.” After selecting this option you will see the following buttons, “End meeting for all,” “Leave meeting” and “Cancel.” Choose “End meeting for all” to end the meeting completely. If you choose “leave meeting” Zoom usually assigns a random host. We strongly advise against selecting “Leave meeting” during your class session. It is best to always select “End meeting.”

Remind your students of basic Zoom etiquette:

• Ask them to turn on their cameras.
• Look at the camera in order to make eye contact when they’re talking.
• Mute their microphones when they aren’t contributing (see How to mute all participants at once).
• If the class is being recorded, notify the students in advance.

Go to the Participants icon on the bottom of the Zoom page and choose “Raise hand.”

Using the “Raise hand” feature or simply seeing the microphone unmuted will give the group a visual cue when a student wishes to speak. 

When you’re the host of a meeting, you will see “Manage Participants” in the Zoom meeting toolbar. When you open that window, you will see a list of participants and the hand icon next to their name when they raise their hand.

Depending on how you are viewing the meeting participants' windows, you will also notice that a hand appears in the corner of a participant’s video window when they are raising their hand. Note: Raised hands aren’t ordered so you won’t know who raised their hand first. 

As an alternative, you could ask students to share their comments and questions in the chat.
 

You can call on a student as you would in a classroom. Students will be able to hear and see you OR you can use the “Raise hand” function.  

When you call on someone, ask him or her to unmute. The active speaker view will mean that classmates can see the student who is speaking. and their video to the front. That way, classmates can see the student who is speaking. 

When they are done, mute them and ask the next person to unmute himself or herself (Zoom does not allow the host to unmute someone).

You may want to try using "Pin or Spotlight” techniques. 

• Pin video allows you to disable the active speaker view and only view a specific speaker.  Pinning another participant’s video makes them the primary speaker on your device only, not the other participants.
• Spotlight video puts a participant as the primary active speaker for all participants. If you spotlight your student as you begin talking to them, they will be the primary focus on the screen. When they’re done talking, remove the spotlight and you will be the primary speaker once more. This kind of back-and-forth requires some practice, but it creates something approximating a natural conversation.

A student will unmute their audio and then answer as they normally would.

Note: Zoom does not allow the host to unmute someone.

Yes.
For large lectures, call on a student by reviewing the participant list (which will be brought up when you view “Manage Participants”) and then choose a student by audibly saying “Susan, what do you think about…?”

For smaller classes/seminars, you can either use the participant list or view the screen in Gallery View (checkerboard), which will show you the students.
 

Consider your class format to determine the best strategy for calling on students. For large lectures, it will be easier to use the “Raise hand” feature. For seminars, you may be able to manage the classroom just by audibly calling on students. Allow students to unmute themselves.

You may want to consider calling on students in alphabetical order, based on your class roster. That way, the students know when they will appear and can be prepared to unmute.

Yes. Students are displayed in your participant list in the order that they raised their hands. Students that raised their hand first are displayed at the top.

Zoom has several options for chat including turning off the chat function completely, chatting directly and only with the host, and everyone publicly and privately. You can manage the chat settings while you’re in a meeting by clicking Chat in the meeting controls, and then clicking More to display the in-meeting chat settings:

• Save Chat: save all chat messages in a TXT file.
• Share a file in the meeting: send a file in the chat window.
• Allow attendees to chat with: control who participants can chat with
  • No one: disables in-meeting chat.
  • Host only: only the host can send messages to everyone. Participants can still privately message the host.
  • Everyone publicly: participants can only send public messages. Public messages are visible to all participants. Participants can still privately message the host.
  • Everyone publicly and privately: Participants can send public or private messages. Public messages are visible to all participants. Private messages are sent to a specific participant.

You can stop students from chatting by changing your Profile Settings in the web portal. Choose whether you want to prevent all chatting or just private chatting. The Chat option will no longer appear in the Meeting Controls. To do this:

• Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
• Click Settings.
• Click the Chat and Private Chat toggles to disable in-meeting chat.
• Click Save Changes
• You can re-enable this at any time by going back through the web portal to change your settings.

There is a pull-down menu in the chat pane that lists all participants. If you select "Everyone" from the menu, everyone in the session will see the comments you post. If you are in a breakout room, only the people in the breakout room will see your comments. If you select a specific participant from the menu, only that person will see your comments.

No. Anyone participating in a meeting can share if the host has selected "All Participants" in the Advanced Sharing Options. A host can configure sharing options in a meeting, as well. 

Note: As of March 26, 2020, Zoom released an update to the default screen sharing settings for Education accounts to increase security and privacy for meetings. This update changed the default sharing setting to "Host Only" at the account level. This setting gives hosts the sole permission to share content within their meetings. 

The polling feature for meetings allows you to create multiple choice questions to ask your meeting attendees. During the meeting, you can launch the poll and request responses from the attendees. Learn more about Polling in Zoom.

You can create up to 25 polls in advance for any scheduled meeting. Note: this can only be done using the Zoom Web Portal, not the Zoom app.

• TBD
• TBD

During the meeting, the host can edit or add polls, but co-hosts can only launch polls that have already been created.

Only the original host can create polls.  

A co-host can launch pre-created polls but cannot create new ones.

Learn more about co-host capabilities on the Zoom Support pages.

Yes, you can put students into small groups by using the Breakout Room function, which also allows you to choose the small group size. You have two options:

Manually pre-assign students to specific groups. Once a meeting starts, you cannot move students around. Use this option if you have the same small groups meeting over multiple classes.

Let Zoom automatically split your students into multiple breakout groups, with the same number of students in each breakout room.

Note that students need to access your Zoom session via the Zoom app (either on their desktop or via the mobile version) in order to participate in breakout rooms.
 

Yes. As the host, the instructor can join any breakout room at any time (i.e., you can move in and out of breakout rooms). 

When you enter a Breakout Room students “see” you.

Yes. You can broadcast a message to all groups simultaneously in Zoom (e.g., we will return to class in five minutes)

Unfortunately, when you move to a breakout room you don’t see the shared screen anymore. 

One option: Post a PDF of “reference slides” before class. Then students review the PDF when they are in the breakout room. One person in each breakout room could even share their PDF viewer window.
 

Only the actual host can create breakout rooms. Co-hosts can join breakout rooms and move between them.
Learn more about Host and Co-Host Control.

The host can close all Breakout Rooms simultaneously. Zoom will give the students a one-minute grace period to finish discussions.

Yes. See Pre-Assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms for detailed instructions. 

Note: Everyone must be logged in to Zoom to be automatically moved to their assigned breakout room. 

• If you linked your Zoom room to your course in GauchoSpace, students following that link will automatically be logged in via GauchoSpace. 
• If you only gave students a link to your room, they need to log in at the Zoom portal before following that link to be automatically placed in their assigned breakout room. 

You can manually add students that arrive in your Zoom meeting room without being logged in to the proper breakout room. 

Instructors may NOT require attendance at a set time except during assigned course meeting times.

Since classes are still in session, you can set expectations for assigned course meeting times. Students are expected to be involved synchronously, e.g., during the normal course schedule. However, recognize that there are enormous extenuating circumstances that may prevent a student from attending live sessions.

If a live session is important to your class, explain attendance expectations and understand that for reasons related to illness or technology problems, students can not always attend. Using flexibility in those cases and preparing for alternatives will help (see Accessing Remote Teaching/Learning Technology above).

Log into the Zoom web portal.

Click “Reports” from the left menu options.

Click either “Usage” or “Meeting.”

Usage: information on meetings, participants, meeting minutes.

Meeting: registration reports, poll reports.

Set from the From and To date range by clicking the calendar icons.

Click “Search.”

From the list of meetings, click the number listed under the Participants column for the meeting on which you need information.

A pop-up will appear with the various participants’ information. Then, select the option to export the data or copy/paste the information.

Learn more: View Attendance Report from Zoom Meetings.

As much as possible, try to keep in touch with your students. If you have concerns about a student's wellbeing, consider submitting the concern to Student Mental Health Coordination Services, who can try to contact the student, check on their wellbeing, and connect them with resources as appropriate. 

For some students, their class may be their only source of stability, and being involved in the course may be a source of comfort. Others will find themselves distracted and struggling to engage, or frustrated with the changes. These are valid perspectives and should be validated. Even for students who don’t feel anxious, they may respond differently. 

Consider a flexible participation policy that allows students from varying circumstances to engage in the course. If your course requires participation for credit or a grade, be clear about how your expectations have shifted now that you are teaching remotely, what policy changes you are making (if any), and why.
 

Webcams can drain bandwidth and slow performance of the web conferencing system, especially for large meetings (more than 10 people). Every participant using video can distract from the topic. Also, some students may not feel well. Encourage students to turn on their cameras and microphones when speaking and during small group meetings. Otherwise, it is recommended that students turn them off.
 

Students can only refuse to use the video for a legal reason (e.g. FERPA). In this case, they inform the instructor of their status in advance. Otherwise, as the instructor, you can require students to use the video option. However, you could inquire about why a student feels uncomfortable with the video function.
 

You can record a Zoom session, but you need to notify your students beforehand and provide the option to not be recorded (by them muting their mic and turning off their video).

To begin recording your meeting, select the “Record” option from the Zoom taskbar along the bottom. Note: you must be logged in as the host in order to record a meeting.

If you are sharing your screen at the time you start recording, click “More” along the top navigation to view the recording options (Record on this Computer, Record to the Cloud).

While your Zoom meeting records, you will see “Recording” in the top left corner of the Zoom meeting.

You may pause/resume recording during the meeting.

Make sure to stop (end) the recording at the end of your class session.
 

You should upload the Zoom recording to GauchoCast. GauchoCast is the recommended platform for incorporating video into your GauchoSpace course site.

You can add a GauchoCast block to your course site so that students can view a Zoom class recording. 

Additional information for instructors can be found on the GauchoCast support site.

Zoom will offer the choice of recording to the desktop or to the cloud, depending on the type of license you have.  

You need to have a Zoom Pro license in order to record to the cloud. If you choose this option, you will receive an email once the recording is available that will contain a link that can be shared.

If you choose “Record to this Computer”, the Zoom recording will be stored on your local hard drive.
 

First and foremost, inform your students that the class will be recorded and explain why you are recording, and how the recordings may be used.

Tell them their options. If they do not want to be identifiable in the recording, let them know they can turn off their webcam and they can discuss with you possibly changing their display name. If they do that, then they should tell you what their display name is and you should remember to use it when referring to them during the recording. One way to think about the display name is to picture how students use name placards in class.

In addition, explicitly state to your teaching assistants and students that they are not to share the recording links or copies of recordings with anyone outside of the class. For more information, consult this guidance on the Keep Teaching website. 

The instructor and course staff are the only ones authorized to initiate a class recording. UCSB set its Zoom settings University-wide to default to a host-only recording session. The instructor should notify student participants that they are prohibited from recording of any kind. 

No. Only the instructor (the host) can start a class recording. The instructor should notify student participants that they are prohibited from any kind of recording. Only the instructor is permitted to record. 

No. The recorded class content can only be streamed. Downloading is disabled for all students.

A recorded class started in GauchoSpace can only be streamed, not downloaded by students who were unable to attend the actual Zoom class.

Your students will be able to see class recordings. However, please set expectations and remind students that due to heavy Zoom usage, recording processing times will take longer than usual. For example, students should not expect to view a recorded class immediately after recording. It may take a few hours after the class is held for the recording to become available. Zoom is aware of this issue.
 

Captioning is only needed if you have students with a letter of accommodation (LOA) requiring captions. In this case, the Disabled Students Program (DSP) provides instructions and resources for captioning.

Do not record anything that you do not need.

Pause your recording when you need to take a class break.

Make sure to end meeting recordings.

Don’t let recorded meetings run unnecessarily in the background, as this will contribute to slowing down the processing queue.

Remember that shorter recordings require less space and therefore process faster.
 

We recommend faculty members who are recording their Zoom sessions upload them to GauchoCast for distribution from the cloud. You can also request captioning if you have a student who needs that accommodation. Once you have seen that the recording has successfully processed and is available in GauchoCast, you can just delete the original from your hard drive.

More information on GauchoCast and Zoom is available at keepteaching.id.ucsb.edu/.

Faculty can also either complete a help ticket at help.lsit.ucsb.edu/hc/en-us/requests/new or via email to help@id.ucsb.edu for information on getting set up with GauchoCast and working with Zoom for teaching. If you submit via email, please put Zoom or GauchoCast in the subject line so we can triage it faster to the right group.

Set up a Zoom meeting in GauchoSpace called “Office Hours.” When you schedule this meeting, select “Allow Waiting Room” (in the same area where you allow the participants to enter the meeting before you).  

Learn more about setting up and using the Waiting Room feature.

The Waiting Room function allows you to meet privately with individuals or small groups of students. The Waiting Room will list students in the order they entered, with the first to enter at the top of the list, and the last to enter at the bottom.

Holding virtual office hours is a good way to keep in touch with students, especially as not all students can attend your live remote class.

Zoom has features that enable those with disabilities to schedule, attend, and participate in Zoom meetings and webinars. See Zoom Accessibility Features to learn more.

In a Zoom meeting that you are hosting, click Closed Caption.

• You can assign a participant to type, or you (as the host) can type the closed captions.
• You can use a third-party CC service. Note: UCSB does not have this feature turned on.
• See Getting Started with Closed Captioning for more information.

You can use the Audio Transcript option (under Cloud Recording) to automatically transcribe the audio of a meeting or webinar that you record to the cloud. See Automatically Transcribe Cloud Recordings for more information.

You may wish to use Google Slides and enable the live captioning feature within Google Slides. If you share your screen using Google Slides, your voice will be captured and live captions will appear.

Another option is to export the recording to YouTube, which will auto caption the recording. You will then need to proof and correct the captions.

UCSB has a contract with Verbit.ai for captioning course content. Any recordings uploaded to GauchoCast can be captioned on request. 

If you have students who have documented learning disabilities, we encourage you to contact DSP to ensure that your students receive the support they need and deserve.

You can also reach out to DSP for captioning and interpretation assistance.

In these challenging times and with the immediate need to convert to remote instruction, faculty should prioritize addressing known accessibility needs for students enrolled in their classes.  

If you learn of any additional student accommodation needs as the semester resumes, refer those students to DSP. 

Work closely with DSP to support students who may need accommodations for remote learning, including additional time or support to complete classwork or examinations for the spring 2020 quarter.
 

Zoom has basic annotation tools (text box, free form draw/pen, shapes, and highlighter) that you can use to guide students around a visual display (such as a website) or explain a concept.

Note: Screen annotations are not accessible for screen reader users. If you use this feature, use accessible presentation best practices: say exactly what you’re doing while you’re doing it, e.g., “I’m drawing a big red circle around the login button on this web page.”
 

Familiarize yourself with Zoom’s settings and features (see Securing Your Zoom Meetings above) and understand how to protect your virtual space when you need to.

Consider restricting the meeting to only allow signed-in users to join.  This means that if a participant tries to join the meeting or webinar and is not logged into Zoom, or logging in without the specified email domain, they will receive a message saying that “This meeting is for authorized attendees only,” and they will be prompted to sign into Zoom or switch to an authorized email account. Learn more about this feature.

Consider turning off “Chat,” “Whiteboard,” and the "Annotation" functions if you don’t need them.

• Go into the Zoom Web Portal. 
• In the navigation panel, click Settings. 
• Click the Meeting tab, then find In Meeting (Basic).
• Check the toggles for "Chat," "Whiteboard," and "Annotation."
• If the setting is enabled, click the toggle to disable it. If a verification dialogue displays, click Turn On to make the change. 

Access your settings page and switch on “Require a password when scheduling new meetings.” Note: you can also require a numeric code for people who phone in.

Turn on “Waiting Room:” This will place all participants in the waiting room until you (the host) start the meeting. If you also allow participants to join before the host, the participants will see a screen that asks them to wait until the host starts the meeting.

Turn off participant video on entry.

Mute participant audio on entry.

Only share Zoom URLs on GauchoSpace or via email. Do not share them publicly.

Do not use your Personal Meeting ID for class sessions; it’s intended for instant meetings.
 

Go to “Manage Participants” in the Zoom control bar and click “More.”  

Uncheck the option for putting all participants in the Waiting Room when they join (this way you don’t have to admit late-comers when they join late).

Under the “Share” advanced settings, only allow the Host to share the screen.

When you are ready, in the “Manage Participants” settings, “Admit All” from the waiting room.

Lock the meeting when all your participants arrive to prevent new participants from joining, even if they have the meeting ID and password (if required). See Host and Co-Host Controls in a Meeting for more information.

If you see an error when accessing Zoom, first try navigating away from the tool and returning in a minute. If the error persists, visit ucsb.zoom.us/ and use your UCSBnetID and password to sign in to your host account.
Please download Zoom software for your device at ucsb.zoom.us/download.

Test Meeting lets you test your audio and video before entering a real meeting.

Use the phone number listed in the Zoom invitation when you set up a Zoom call. 

Use your phone as the microphone and audio source for your call rather than your computer’s built-in microphone if necessary. 
 

Consider temporarily turning off your video stream and only maintaining the audio stream.

You can also save some bandwidth by reducing video quality. Enter Video Settings and uncheck “Enable HD.”

Running the web camera on your computer may use enough bandwidth to make communication challenging.

Turning off the video should improve communication quality and consistency. 

Inform students of the procedure in advance in case of technological issues. For example, if you (the instructor) are removed from the live meeting, students can check their emails for an update from you until you are able to resolve the issue.

If you have a TA, allow them to take over to keep class moving until you can return. 
 

You can direct students to the LSIT Help Center or they can send an email to help@collaborate.ucsb.edu to get help outside of the class.

Try checking this troubleshooting guide for solutions for audio echo.

Near the microphone icon, there is a caret (^) to access the audio menu.

Ask the student to check if they have joined with computer audio.

The students can also use that menu to “Switch to Phone Audio,” or “Test Speaker.” 

There are several ways to troubleshoot this concern based on the precise problem being encountered. First, confirm that your students can access the Zoom meeting via the Zoom app (and not just copying and pasting the meeting link into their browser without having installed the application first). 
You can also view this resource on “Sharing computer sound during screen sharing.”