Tips for Working With Zoom

Prepare

  • Choose an appropriate quiet space for attending class where you will not be disturbed or need to disturb others
  • Choose optimal internet connection, lighting, and background in case you will use video

Join

Participate

  • You have individual control of your live session experience:
    • Scroll your mouse over the top and bottom areas of the Zoom screen to see two different toolbars that offer you control of your options
    • You can change views using these options and you are not impacting others
    • Please follow along with a presenter’s activities. If someone is screen sharing, be sure you are in the right view to see what is shared. A window displaying the camera views of other participants will also show up along the top of the screen share display and may interfere with your view. You can move this participant window out of the way or minimize it selecting it with your mouse and dragging it into another position on your desktop.
  • Answer questions and add to the class discussion by clicking on Chat
    • https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203650445-In-Meeting-Chat
    • Your meeting chat is personal to you. It will include all chat threads that appeared to EVERYONE, any chat threads you held in PRIVATE, and any chat threads that occurred in Breakouts where you were a member. Click on “More” to Save Chats before each live session ends if you would like to save them.
  • When your instructor has requested that your video be on, be mindful that you are on camera and try to avoid doing other tasks, checking emails, eating, looking at your phone, etc.

Breakout

  • You may be invited to join a Breakout session
  • In Breakout rooms, you will be able to use the Chatbox to take notes with your Breakout room participants. The prompt will say EVERYONE but while you are in Breakouts EVERYONE refers only to your breakout group members. So if you use Chat while in Breakouts, you can be sure that other groups are not seeing your Chat. You will also still have access to those notes when you return to the main room so you can use them to debrief.

Present

  • You may be invited to share your screen during class
  • If you choose to share Desktop, be mindful that everyone can see what is on it.
  • If you decide to limit what you share using the share menu, rather than the entire desktop, keep this in mind:
    • What you want to share has to be fully open on your computer first – not minimized – or it will not show up in the share menu as a choice
    • What other participants are seeing is surrounded by a green box – anything outside of that box is invisible to the rest of the meeting
  • If you want to open another program as part of your share, you will have to start a new share for the rest of the class to be able to see this new program. For example, if you share a Powerpoint and then try to show a YouTube video, others will only be able to see the Powerpoint even if the video is playing fine on your computer; go ahead and start a new share to ensure other participants can see it, too.

Troubleshoot

  • The first step to troubleshooting any IT problem applies here too: Turn it off and turn it back on again. If you are experiencing any kind of technical issue, and it’s not related to your internet connection, more often than not leaving the meeting, closing your browser, and rejoining the meeting will fix it.
  • If you are having trouble hearing or seeing what is happening in the meeting:
    • First check the status of audio and video on your own hardware (Play a YouTube video to see if you can hear it or not).
    • If it is only Zoom audio or video that is not working:
      • You may not have joined Zoom audio. Go to your audio settings in the bottom left-hand corner of the meeting toolbar. Join audio here.
      • You may have selected the wrong audio. Go to your audio settings in the bottom left-hand corner of the meeting toolbar. Click on the arrow (^) next to the mute/unmute option on the Zoom toolbar. From there you can select which microphone or speaker Zoom will use for audio.
    • The same solution works for video issues. Click on the arrow next to the start/stop video button.
  • If the issue seems to be with your Wifi internet connection
    • Move closer to your Wifi router.
    • Shut down any other programs currently running on your computer if you can, particularly any browsers that may be streaming content.
  • Call-in information for Zoom meetings is always available in the meeting option Join Audio

Learn More

Additional Support

IT support for students – whether it be email or computer support – is managed by CUIMC-IT. Resources for students also include email set-up, licensed software, device encryption or printing. Details can be found by visiting the CUIMC-IT webpage or by visiting the student support tech-bar located on the 2nd floor of the Hammer Science Building.