Better Zoom

Cameras are off.  No one is talking.  The students are, well, doing what exactly?  Highline instructors frequently request ideas for how to make Zoom more interactive, engaging, and learner-centered.  Following are tips, best practices, and ideas – from Highline faculty and other academics.

Socially distanced but connected: Engaging your students using Zoom

Want to feel more confident teaching on Zoom? In this hands-on session presented by Laura Soracco and Maurea Brown at Highline’s 2020 Opening Week, you will learn about Zoom tools to promote student engagement and be inspired to set up lively synchronous sessions.   Presentation recording   Presentation slides

Zoom class lesson plan template

Tarisa Matsumoto-Maxfield and Hara Brook presented a mini-inquiry group series on interaction and engagement with Zoom in fall 2020.  Here is a link to their  Zoom lesson plan model, based on work by Prairie Brown and Aleya Dhanji.

Being more inclusive with zoom

As you lead a class discussion or a meeting on Zoom, it’s all too easy to lose people in the process.  Hogan and Sathy offer great tips in  8 Ways to Be More Inclusive in Your Zoom Teaching, which can help you reach students in a virtual classroom, just as in a physical one.

Creating interactive Google slides for distance learning

From Hello, Teacher Lady, learn how to create interactive slideshows in Google Slides by adding internal links. This “trick” is especially useful when creating digital choice boards & other interactive presentations to support distance learning.

Getting the most out of Zoom – Highline Winter Institute presentation from Maurea Brown

Need more ideas on how to engage your students in Zoom when your students are on a mobile device (cell phones specifically) and/or laptop/computer? Find links below from Maurea Brown’s presentation at Winter Institute 2021.

• Day 1:  Show, tell and share engaging activities used on Zoom. Facilitator will show what has worked for lower-level ESOL students using Google Apps for Education (Slides, Docs, Forms, Jamboard) and Canvas on Zoom. We will experience this as our students would on a mobile device.  Recording (requires Highline log-in)
• Day 3: 10-minute Show and Tell (or Teach) showcasing what faculty created  for their Zoom class the first
  week of Winter quarter to engage all learners on mobile and laptop/computer.  Recording    Faculty examples  (requires Highline log-in)

Google Slides note taker for Zoom breakout rooms

Hello, Teacher Lady presents this time on a slick way for students to take notes using Google slides in breakout rooms.  The method allows teachers to see in real time, on one screen (spoiler alert:  use grid view) all the collaborative work students are doing in their breakout rooms.

How to make breakout rooms work better

Breakout rooms: love them or hate them? Teachers (and students) are familiar with the woes of breakout rooms.  Nobody talks, which is really awkward. Classmates turn their cameras off or just walk away. And a dearth of other issues.  Learn some strategies for success from Beth McMurtrie on how to make breakout rooms work better.

Encouraging student engagement during synchronous meetings: Preventing mid-term drop off

Many are feeling a sense of general overwhelm, students and faculty alike – exacerbated of course by Covid 19.   In this Faculty Focus article, Samantha Clifford EdD presents six authentic scenarios and offers strategies and ideas to maintain motivation and accountability.

Flower Darby – How to be a better online teacher : Advice guide

In this article, Darby offers advice on how to make your online pedagogy as effective and satisfying as the in-person version, through ten essential principles and practices of better online teaching.

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