Andreas Ramos | Adjunct Professor of Digital Marketing | See andreas.com

Tips for Remote Classroom Video Teaching

By Andreas Ramos, Lecturer at INSEEC SF

Updated May 8th, 2020

See the Google Docs version version where you can edit and add.

  • I’ve been teaching webinars and classes at CSTU and DMA-NC via online conference software for a year. We added Zoom at INSEEC SF in March 2020. I also use GoToMeeting and Google Hangout. I prefer Zoom because the interface is easy to use and has lots of useful options. Students also prefer Zoom because the interface is similar to other modern software.

Set Up the Zoom Account

  • There are free Zoom Personal accounts, but these are limited to only 40 minutes per call. That works for most meetings.
  • I signed up for a Pro account, which allows a single session up to 24 hours and up to 99 people in the audience. Pro is $150/year as a one-time payment (you can also pay monthly).

Set Up the Video Class

  • You should use Zoom for at least 10-15 min with a few friends before your first class. Try the options until you’re familiar with them.
  • There is also a Zoom test room, where you are the only person present so you can learn to share your screen, mute and unmute, check your microphone and camera, etc. To use this, go to Zoom.us/test
  • Use Zoom Schedule to set up your call. Start the broadcast 15 minutes before class. This gives people time to set up. The first time they use Zoom, they have to download and install which takes five to ten minutes. During that fifteen minutes, welcome people and chat with them.
  • Zoom gives you a personal account ID number. That number is also part of your call’s URL, such as https://zoom.us/j/123456789 (an example number). People click that URL in their phone or computer and the Zoom call will open. They can also go to Zoom, enter the number, and the call opens.
  • No matter how often you send out the ID number for the call, many will still not know what to do. Write a short, simple email, such as, "Join the call at 9 a.m. Click https://zoom.us/j/123456789". Post to Slack and send by email as well.
  • Your Zoom ID doesn’t change, so you can use the same number for all sessions.
  • Before the call starts, have your presentation (Powerpoint, Word, etc.) open on your computer and use Screen Share to select it for shared display so others can see it.
  • Which browser? Google Chrome works better than Apple Safari. Some students had difficulty with other browsers.

Prepare before the Video Class

  • Have a glass of water and a pen and clipboard by your desk to take notes
  • Stand, if you can
  • Wear a shirt with a solid dark color (not white). If it has patterns or stripes, it may cause distracting motions on the screen.
  • Tell students to have their laptops/phones at 100% battery
  • Tell students to use their headsets/earphones for better sound
  • Tell students to be connected to WIFI to avoid roaming fees or slow connections
  • If the local WIFI is overloaded, the sound may lag or drop out. Ask a few students to switch to call-in via their phone.

During the Video Class

  • Ask everyone to turn on their video so you can see them. You get feedback by seeing their faces. If they know you can see them, they also behave a bit better.
  • Mute the students to reduce background noise. You can mute everyone with one click. For Apple, use ⌘ Cmd+Ctrl+M. For Windows, use Alt+M. (But this doesn’t work correctly. One student fell asleep and began snoring. I had to mute him by clicking on his video image.)
  • The top students pay attention and take notes. But some students goof off and distract the top students. It only takes a few minutes for some students to realize that you can't control them, so some will talk with each other, look at their cell phones, whack each other on the head (the back row boys, of course), and so on. Note: Many students also use FB Messenger to set up their own chat group during the call.

Breakout Rooms

  • You can assign students to breakout rooms. This needs to be activated in Meeting Settings (Advanced).
  • Once you start the breakout room feature in a meeting, students will be sent a link to click on to access their room. It can take a couple seconds for the student to click on their links, but zoom tells you who is in their room and who isn’t.
  • There is an option when creating the breakout room to bypass the “link to join room” feature and just send participants directly to their room, this is much better than having them click the link.
  • Breakout rooms are assigned randomly.
  • You can manually put students in specific rooms once the meeting has started, but it can take a couple extra seconds so if you have a large group, you can do it beforehand. Zoom will remember these groups for the duration of the call, so you can keep sending them to the smaller group rooms and they can continue to work with the same people.
  • The host can join breakout rooms to work with these smaller groups. I’ll try this with the next class and write about it.
  • Joining breakout rooms is a great way to make sure they’re actually doing the work, but you’ll often find that they’re off topic. Suggestion: leave the room, then rejoin twenty seconds later and surprise them, they’re more likely to stay on task if they think you might come back any minute.
  • One drawback with breakout rooms is that if  you’re screen sharing before you put the students in rooms, the screen share will disappear once they join their rooms, so they can’t follow instructions once they’re in their rooms. To work around this, I instructed them to take a picture with their phone of any instructions I had.
  • See more about Zoom Breakout Rooms at support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476313-Managing-Breakout-Rooms

Improve the Online Experience

  • Encourage students to ask questions via the Chat box. Students can type questions anonymously. Only you see the question. Students are shy about making mistakes in front of others, so anonymous chat is a great solution.
  • Encourage the students to speak. Otherwise you lose too much interaction
  • Polls work well. You have to turn this option on before you start. You can use multiple choice, choose one, and so on. You have to set up the polls before class. I use three or more polls per class. I’ve noticed if 19 students are logged in, only 15-16 will click on the poll (which means the others are not paying attention).
  • The students like personal interaction. Wave at them when they join. When they wave, wave back at them, so they see that you see them. and so on. The cat walked into the room so I held up the cat. They liked that. Consider a “bring your pet to class” day to humanize the classroom. Stuffed animals work too for those who don’t have actual pets. Or your kids too! :-) (Some people complain that Zoom calls with pets and kids doesn’t look professional. Well, one of the victims of COV19 was the professional office world. We’re all working at home now. Welcome to cats, kids, and whatever else.)
  • If you want to show something, have it by your desk. I had books and items to show them.
  • Use the whiteboard tools that allows you to draw on the screen or display your mouse. That lets you draw circles and lines, write, point to things, etc.
  • Improve your Zoom background. You can change the background so others don’t see a messy room, etc. You change it to a view of a forest, ocean, sky, Macron’s desk at the Élysée Palace, and so on. However, instead of amusing backgrounds, try a professional background, such as office space, book shelves, and so on. You can upload your own background image. Use images with 1280 pixels by 720 px or 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels in PNG format.

Student Feedback

  • Do students prefer online or in-person? I polled the students: the average across four classes is a 70% preference for in-person class.
  • I also prefer in-person because I can meet students individually.
  • But there are advantages to Zoom. In class, students often don’t ask questions. It’s not because they’re afraid of asking a question that the teacher will think is dumb. They’re afraid of asking a question that the OTHER students will think is dumb. The chat box lets them ask questions directly to the teacher that nobody else can see. I repeat the question so everyone hears it and then answer the question.
  • I’ve also noticed there is more interaction in Zoom. Today’s college students are completely comfortable with text chat. Perhaps it gives them a sense of control over the conversation. More students have asked me about their personal projects, work, and so on.
  • You have to do whatever you can to break up the monotony of video. It’s not a talk show. Change topics, use polls, ask students to speak, answer their chat box questions.

Zoom Bombing

Some people who have nothing better to do are jumping into Zoom meetings to cause chaos. This is called Zoom Bombing. Here are steps to prevent this.

  • Keep meetings and classrooms private. If necessary, use a meeting password.
  • The “Waiting Room” lets the host control who enters.
  • Do not post invites to Zoom meetings on social media.
  • Send the meeting password directly to attendees. (However, an attendee could post the invite to social.)
  • Use random meeting IDs, so it can’t be shared.
  • Change screen sharing settings to “Only Host,” so only the host can control the screen.
  • The host can also mute all participants.
  • Lock a Zoom session after it begins so nobody else can join. Do this by clicking “Participants” in the bottom of a Zoom window, then clicking “Lock Meeting.”
  • Remove troublemakers by hovering over their name in the Participants menu and clicking “Remove”. The removed participant can't re-enter.

Update Your Zoom Every Week

  • Zoom is constantly updating the software to add features, fix things, etc.
  • Check every week to be sure you have the latest version.
  • To update, open Zoom, click on your photo, and select Check for “Updates”.

Additional Notes

  • You can also record the session. This is on by default.
  • Zoom had "Zoom AttentionTracking". This told you if Jennifer opened another window on her computer and Zoom gave you an “Attention Report” (for example, Jennifer was active for 62% of the meeting). However... many complained and Zoom turned this off April 2, 2020 .
  • Peggy Kenny here. I used to do online classes, and this is what worked: “Chunk” the information you plan to teach. Give a part of the lesson, then have an activity ready for the students to use the information. This can be a problem to solve, or a discussion, or a question to answer. Give feedback on the answers/responses, correct any errors, then present the next chunk of info. Rinse and repeat...

How to Get Better Engagement

  • Based on the presentation by Bill Hoogterp for Zoom
  • Summary by Andreas Ramos for INSEEC SF
  • See also OwnTheRoom.com/virtual-trainings (promo code OTRTEACHER202)

1: Go around the Room

  • The teacher is a movie director. The teacher’s job is to get the students to actively perform.
  • A roll call where they answer “here” or “yes” has minimal personal engagement
  • “Go around the room” to get students to speak
  • Ask them to say in one short sentence their name, location, and goal
  • Hi, I’m Clement; I live in Paris, I want to work in startups, and I want to learn how to promote it.
  • Bon jour, my name is Marie, I live in Strasbourg, my family owns a bicycle factory, and I want to learn how to sell more bicycles.

When students talk, they’re “in the room”. If they don’t talk, they’re not in the room.

  • Get them to talk
  • If they are engaged, they pay attention, they connect emotionally, and they remember
  • By getting them to say where they are and what they do, they present themselves
  • Engage them every 8 minutes or your gradually lose them
  • When students talk, the presenter gets a break to think about the next step
  • Use frequent review. Okay, what did I just say? What are the three forms of marketing? Clement? Marie? Don’t wait for them to speak up. Pick a name.

2: Four-Dimensional Teaching

  • 1-D: You simply talk. Students watch but daydream at the same time.
  • 2-D: Add emotions that match your words. Use pauses and change tone to show that you go to the next topic. Use voice tones (talk, whisper, smile, laugh, yell). Students notice changes and pay attention.
  • 3-D: Enact words and emotion with gestures. Use hands, arms, body. Try “last week, today, next week.”s “Small, medium, big.” “Slow, fast.”
  • 4-D: Stand up and move around. Don’t sit. Move from side to side, twist, move forward and back.
  • By using voice tones, emotions, gestures, and movement, they must pay attention to see you mean and what you’re going to do next. They stop daydreaming.

3: Use Body Polls for Engagement

  • Clicking a digital poll is an anonymous action with minimal effort and low engagement
  • Get students to use their hands to show scores for polls. This forces them to be active.
  • Ten Finger Poll: Show me your fingers. “From one to ten, how good is this webpage? Use your fingers. One, two, three… Go!” They see each other’s score.
  • Thumb Gauge: Hold your hand flat and angle up to down to show high, medium, low. “What’s your score? One, two, three… Go!”
  • Hands Apart: Hold your hands apart horizontally. “How big is the impact? Small, medium, large? One, two, three… Go!”
  • Hands Apart: Hold your hands apart vertically. “Is this good or bad? Small, medium, large? One, two, three… Go!”  
  • Show the size of an object with your hands
  • Show the shape of an object with your hands

4: Additional Ideas and Tips

  • Use a good camera for better video quality and a microphone for sound quality (I use a Logitech HD 1080p, $65, and a Snowflake USB microphone, $45)
  • I tried a green screen (collapsible, 5’x7’, $70) with a 6’ tall tripod. It allows a seamless background without ghosting. But it was too much bother to set up and take down.
  • Set a professional virtual background
  • Use a front light for better illumination
  • Don’t have a bright window behind you
  • Fill the frame with your head and shoulders
  • Dress professionally
  • Log in five to ten minutes early and chat with the group
  • Greet people as they log in
  • Use both Powerpoint and hand-held posters
  • Use stage props, such as stuffed animals (and cats and kids...)
  • Tell students to change their screen name each class: “Clement Monet: Chilling in Paris” to add interaction
  • Tell students to add virtual backgrounds. Let students vote on virtual backgrounds