Information Technology Services

By: Tori Reany

Zoom, the University's one-stop software for web conferencing, video recording, and webinar hosting, promotes collaboration in a number of ways. For example, Zoom's meeting links are easy to copy and share with others, which supports faculty who want to hold online office hours and students who want to work on group projects in real time. 

The ability to meet online provides more flexibility in scheduling and can maximize the time faculty/students spend answering questions, coordinating projects, getting task updates, and making decisions. For online presentations, Zoom's chat and audio features let audience members give instance feedback, and the recording feature provides viewing options for those who could not attend live. 

Below are some additional features in Zoom that can be used to enhance online collaboration. 

Zoom Features

• Single Sign-On (SSO) - anyone with an e-ID can host a Zoom meeting.

• Share Your Screen - share your screen to show others your desktop or specific software applications.

• Annotation Tools - type text, draw with shapes, pens, or highlighters, use whiteboards, save and erase work, etc.; Allow participants to co-annotate for collaboration and feedback or lock annotations so only the host can annotate.

• Breakout Rooms - split participants into smaller breakout rooms for discussion and then regroup as a whole. Participants can notify the host they have a question, and the host can jump in and out of the different breakout sessions.

• Polling - pre-load poll questions into any scheduled meeting. Use polling to guide your discussion and/or decide who to assign to each breakout room.

• Record - record your meeting or presentation and upload to OneDrive or Stream. Then share the link  in a Blackboard course or email. Screenshots and the chat log can also be saved.

Basic versus Pro account

The features listed above are available to every member of the SIUE community via their basic Zoom account. Using the basic account, you can meet with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes.

Faculty and staff can request a Zoom Pro account to have unlimited meeting time, and they can request to host a Large Meeting (over 100 participants) or Webinar. Note that while a Pro account is a permanent upgraded feature, Large Meeting and Webinar privileges are granted only for specific date and time requests.

Users with a Pro Account can also request the ability to record to Zoom cloud. This is necessary when using a mobile device such as cell phone or tablet for meetings, and it is helpful when recording in the classroom. All cloud recordings will be available for 30 days in the Zoom cloud. ITS recommends faculty download cloud recording as soon as possible and store them in OneDrive, Stream, or another preferred video storage location.

For more information or ideas on how you can utilize Zoom, contact Tori Reany in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies.