Introduction to Zoom (part 3)

Now that you’ve learned the basics of Zoom, let’s finish this introduction by giving you a quick glimpse of what we can do in the settings and some final advice.

Change the settings

For numerous security reasons, you should change some settings. But it could also be for pedagogical purposes as well. Indeed, once you will absolutely want as a teacher is Breakout rooms.

Breakout rooms

Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time.

So, in your browser, go to Settings and then In Meeting (Advanced):

⚠️ Be aware that the Zoom app on a computer has more functionalities than its iPad OS counterpart. Breakout rooms is one of them. Consequently you will need a computer to use this functionality.

Personal link

This is a feature I have discovered very recently (thanks Marc!). If you go to https://zoom.us/profile, you will be able to create a personal link, that is to say an alias. To put it simply, instead of sending a mix of endless letters and digits, simply put your name.

No doubt your students will appreciate that because a name is much more meaningful than an URL full letters and numbers.

Security settings

To make sure everything’s fine during your lesson, make sure to:

• Enable waiting room
• Require a password (and to embed it in an invite link)
• Enable Only authenticated users can join meetings (that means that participants will have to sign up with their Zoom account which is their G Suite account).

All of this can be done in Settings > Security.

Use both

Using Zoom on your iPad and on your computer can be… incredibly efficient. You will benefit from the two worlds.

On your computer, you can show yourself, you can speak and see if your students are engaged, you can chat with them.

And you can use your iPad with a stylus exactly like you would on a whiteboard in your class.

⚠️ I’m not talking about using dual monitors with the Zoom desktop client. I rely on two separate devices, every one of them serving a different purpose. In that case, you have to log in twice (“one of you” become a co-host).