Strategies for Teaching on Zoom

Zoom Strategies

Before you decide to use Zoom for live lectures, we ask that you think about the following:

Time considerations. Are your students able to attend live lectures? Instructors might expect students to be available at the originally scheduled class time, however, some students are encountering job changes and childcare challenges and might not be able to attend a live lecture.
Equity issues around data usage. Live Zoom sessions use a lot of bandwidth because of the use of video. Some students might have data limitations, making it a burden to attend a live Zoom session.
Pedagogical concerns. Whereas a 60-minute lecture works well in a face-to-face environment, the online environment invites many more distractions that do not captivate a student's attention. In fact, research suggests that mini or micro-lectures of 6 minutes or less are ideal in online environments.
Technical issues. As the whole world moves to online work/learning, there are more and more internet dropouts.

Be sure to open up each expandable accordion tab below.

Planning Live Online Sessions

Just like an in-person lecture, we recommend planning your live online session with clear learning objectives, an ice breaker, and appropriate chunking of direct instruction and active learning.

Each live online session should have a clear theme or topic so that students know what to expect. Creating a theme can also entice students to join.

We recommend to chunk content in 15 minute segments to keep students actively engaged. You might lecture for 15 minutes and then ask students to work in breakout rooms or participate in Zoom polls. We will share more specific engagement strategies later in this module.

Use the following template to plan your live online session.

Make a copy of the Live Online Session Lesson Template

Consider making live sessions optional for students to address any equity or time constraints.

Recording Live Online Sessions

The Office of Online Learning and Educational Technology (OLET) and CCSF's Academic Senate strongly recommend to record live online sessions for students to view at a later time.

Make sure to follow FERPA using the recommendations below and setup your recording settings in Zoom to make recording smooth and easy for you and your students.

7 Recommendations for FERPA-compliant Live Sessions

FERPA must be followed when recording live online sessions. We strongly recommend getting consent from your students before recording live online sessions. However, you may follow these recommendations for your live courses without written consent from your students.

Give students the option to enable their webcam in instances when it is not essential to achieving the course outcomes.
Inform students in your syllabus if you plan to record your sessions and explain who the recordings will be shared with.
If you plan to have a guest speaker present in a live session, inform students prior to the session.
In your live session, verbally inform students prior to starting the recording.
If you record a session, share the link in the Canvas course for that section. Only students enrolled in that particular course should have access to the archive.
Before you schedule your live session(s), log into your Zoom account and apply the Recommendations for Zoom Recording Settings listed below.
If your plan is to re-use an archive for a future course, ensure there is no way to identify any student in the recording. If one or more students can be identified in the archive, the video file must be downloaded and edited (in a program like Camtasia, iMovie) to remove student identities.

During Live Online Sessions

Best Practices During a Live Zoom Session
1. Arrive early (10-15 minutes). Turn on your audio and video; make announcements often, welcome early arrivers, and let them know how long before the presentation begins. Encourage an interactive environment; invite attendees to enter questions and requests in chat before the presentation starts.
2. Avoid "death by PowerPoint". Zoom is incredibly visual and so make use of this screentime by limiting text and using appropriate images, diagrams, or even just your face to describe course material. Too much text will encourage students to listen less and read more (or vice versa).
3. Encourage participation among students. Create activities that help break up the lecture material as well as allow students to connect with each other.
  1. Zoom Breakout rooms can be used to create small groups. Note that the host (you!) can only be in one breakout room at a time.