You can use a variety of tools for online small group discussions. We have outlined solutions, rated them for the effort required, and identified key considerations.
You can use a variety of tools for online small group discussions. We have outlined solutions, rated them for the effort required, and identified key considerations.
Instructors can create course sites that are both usable and accessible to the widest range of students possible by organizing their course site with a landing page, modules, and a limited menu, plus following other
Challenge
Working in small groups on activities and assignments can be beneficial even for "routine" tasks, as students have the opportunity to learn from and help one another.
Instructors often use classroom discussions to promote sharing and ideas about a subject matter. Sometimes, discussions can become rote and tedious, or engage only one or a few students and the instructor.
Instructors often spend a majority of classroom time on lectures, leaving little time for other learning opportunities such as group discussion. Capturing content is one method to address this challenge.
Instructors often spend a majority of classroom time on lectures, leaving little time for other learning opportunities such as group discussion. Capturing content is one method to address this challenge.
If you plan to use online exams with Proctorio settings to assess and evaluate student learning, please be aware that the Proctorio tool may cause problems for international users.
Challenge
Creating videos for courses is time intensive and the process of creating, publishing and sharing your media with students can be overwhelming.
Challenge
When using pre-assigned breakout rooms, specific guidelines must be followed to ensure students are routed to their designated Zoom breakout rooms.
The Zoom for Canvas Integration allows you to start and join Zoom meetings from within Canvas. This article is for UMN faculty and staff who would like to use Zoom together with Canvas.
There are multiple video layout options available for you as a host, co-host, and participant in Zoom.
Layout Options
There are 4 video layout options in Zoom:
Zoom provides several ways for meeting hosts to set up audio and for participants to join audio.
As a host, use this article to inform your meeting setup.
The HCC, or Health Care Component, is a group of faculty, students, or staff who work closely with private health information and are subject to a Business Associates Agreement (BAA) with Zoom to ensure HIPAA complian
As a meeting host, you can split your meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting. This can be useful if you already know how you want to split up your participants.
Use this feature if you want to let someone else host a meeting or webinar that you have scheduled. This may be helpful if you are out of the office or late to your meeting or webinar.
You do not need a webcam in order to join a Zoom meeting or webinar.
Without a webcam, you will not be able to transmit video. Things you will be able to do include:
Zoom can change the way you teach and interact with learners, by giving you the ability to hold online office hours with learners anywhere in the world on a one-time or recurring basis.
Host controls allow you as the host or co-host to control various aspects of the Zoom Meeting or Webinar, such as managing the participants.
Host controls include but are not limited to:
The host key is a 6-digit PIN tied to your Zoom account. It is not meeting-specific. You can use your host key to claim host privileges in the following circumstances:
Zoom has international dial-in numbers available for an extensive and growing list of countries throughout the world. Participants from abroad can join UMN-hosted Zoom meetings or webinars via telephone if they canno
You can use Zoom on a computer through a web browser. This lets you use some of Zoom's features without downloading plug-ins or software. However, the web client has limited features.
Breakout Rooms allow you to seamlessly split your Zoom meeting into separate sessions for small group discussion, and then bring those sessions back together to resume the large group meeting. As the meeting host, yo
Zoom offers optimized screen sharing of a full screen video clip. This setting increases the frame rate of the screen share while playing the clip, so that the playback appears more smooth for remote participants. T
Your Personal Meeting Room is the virtual meeting room that is permanently reserved for you. You can start an instant meeting there at any time, or schedule it for future use.
If you are hosting a webinar and want attendees to take a survey or be taken to a specific webpage afterward, you can specify a Post Webinar Survey URL. Webinar participants will be prompted to take a
If your camera is displaying upside down or sideways in Zoom on your Windows PC, you can rotate the camera in your settings until it is oriented correctly.
Synchronous class sessions, in which everyone logs in to a web conferencing system at a pre-scheduled time, are one way to create engagement and foster community in your fully online courses.
Content chunking, for instructional design, is the strategy of breaking up content into shorter, bite-size pieces that are more manageable and easier to remember.
Good audio is critical to your elearning success. You might be a great instructional designer and create the most engaging courses possible. But it all falls apart if the audio quality in your course is not ve
In a recent study, researchers identified the design factors that were most valued by participants in terms of promoting an engaging online learning experience.
The best discussions keep everyone active, either by sharing or thinking. Even those students who rarely, if ever, contribute can still participate in other ways.
This LinkedIn Learning video covers foundational concepts of lighting, such as why light is important, what kinds of lights to look for, and where to put lights relative to a subject.
Short article from 9to5 Google on how the use of Google Drive app within a hangout has been removed. Now users are to use the chat box for sharing any Google Driv items.
Web page from Google with information on how to start a Google Video Call (Hangout), including how to set up your computer and computer browser in advance.
You can easily communicate with your family and friends through Hangouts in Gmail. You can make phone calls, have face-to-face video calls, and share photos.
The key is to design tasks that are truly collaborative, meaning the students will benefit more from doing the activity as a group than doing it alone.
To be effective, online curricula illustrating communication behaviors need face-to-face interaction, individual role play with feedback and discussion.
Library Media Services provides comprehensive course support for the integration of media assignments into teaching and publishes related case studies.
The use of discussion forums as a vehicle for learning is based on the pedagogical tenets of collaborative learning theory, which call for collaboration between participants, experimentation, and open inquiry.
Student media assignments engage students in course content and provide opportunities for reflection and deeper learning. See examples from the College of Education + Human Development.
This LinkedIn Learning video shows how to use the calendar to invite others to the meeting, and activate video chat to see each other along with other features.
The Office of Information Technology’s (OIT) role for the University of Minnesota’s video conferencing environment will be to provide best practices to nurture this technology.
We recommend all room installations at the University of Minnesota conform to our standard technology architectural model which provides encryption and standardized hardware and room controls.
To ensure the safety of our staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not offer onsite AV support for events during Fall Semester 2020. We will re-evaluate this decision for Spring Semester 2021.
This LinkedIn Learning video will show you how to set up mixers, wireless mics, and booms, and make sure your camera is correctly set up to capture audio.
This LinkedIn Learning video teaches the fundamentals of portrait lighting, including standard three-point lighting setups, how to light for specific subjects, and how to deal with the challenges of location sho
Before Your Meeting or Webinar
Set up Registration.
For public events, set up a Zoom registration page. People with a valid email will receive an email with the link to the event.
This self-help guide will help anyone who presents at, schedules, or supports online meetings and webinars through Zoom. To learn more about using Zoom for online office hours or smaller meetings, check out