How will I hold class meetings?

This section provides an overview on delivering and managing your class meetings using pedagogical best practices with technologies supported by the Office of eLearning.

Holding live class meetings best approximates a classroom setting, since students can ask questions and engage in discussion and group work. Students often interact with course content on their own time, so these synchronous sessions offer a sense of belonging to a community of learners. Instructors can gauge students’ understanding of the materials through activities such as polling and discussions. It is often easier to give assignment instructions or expand on difficult concepts in person.

Review What will we do in my course? to learn how to design engaging face-to-face classes.

Consider the circumstances of your course

Your course may be fully face-to-face or fully remote. Or you may have both in-person and online audiences, in which some students are in a physical classroom, and the others join by web conference. This hybrid environment is more complex than either wholly online or in-person teaching and requires classroom equipment to enable instruction and interaction between the in-person and remote students.

If students are not on campus, host synchronous class sessions through Zoom to replicate the face-to-face experience. (Zoom is the only officially supported web conferencing platform for UD.) To increase engagement, live sessions should include more problem-solving and discussions than lectures.

Do not require that students participate live. Students may face challenges due to technology, connectivity, time zones, and other access issues. Therefore, any live class sessions should be recorded to be viewed by students at alternate times.

Emphasize engagement. Online discussions are as important as synchronous instruction to overcome the challenges of flexible teaching. Your course site should emphasize activities that build community among the students (review How will we communicate?) and ask engaging questions.

Holding meetings using Zoom

Zoom is the supported web conferencing tool at the University of Dayton for holding live class sessions and online office hours. Zoom supports a variety of pedagogies including active learning, lectures, discussion, and group work.

Set up your environment for Zoom sessions. For optimal meetings, you and your students should have a strong internet connection, a quiet space, headphones, and an external microphone. Lighting should be from the front so that you are not in shadow. In general, you and your students should turn on your cameras for better interaction, however the single most important part of a Zoom session is audio, so turn off your camera if you have low bandwidth and prioritize having a quiet location.

Learn the basics of Zoom. There are several essential steps to learn before holding a Zoom session. These include how to get a Zoom account, how to run a meeting, and the three ways to access Zoom .

Add Zoom to your Isidore site. Schedule class meetings from your course site so that students can easily find the meeting links. Recordings should be set to record in the cloud and will appear in Isidore automatically.

The most recommended security settings are all set for you by default for all Zoom meetings. Security features include an enabled waiting room and sharing by host only. You can learn more about additional security features on this information site.

Take advantage of Zoom’s active learning features. Non-verbal feedback options allow students to respond with quick signals to your questions (thumbs up/down, yes/no, etc.). Use breakout rooms to sort students into small groups to work on problems or discuss course content. Use polls to gather student input for discussions and get a sense of their knowledge on a topic.

Screen sharing allows instructors and students to present content from their computers.

Set up your Zoom office hours. Use your Personal Meeting Room for office hours, meetings with advisees, or impromptu help sessions. It has a permanent URL, which you can configure and does not need to be scheduled in advance.

Learn how to use annotation and screen capture. If you wish to record short videos, please refer to the guidelines for creating effective videos [LINK How do I create videos materials in Course Materials].

Next Steps

Join us for eLearning training to ask specific questions and to receive additional one-on-one support.

Go to Topic 2: How do I provide course materials?