Why is Zoom so popular in education?
That Zoom is the market leader within worldwide education is well known. Of course, the pandemic has played a huge role in that. Not only the quality of the video and audio, but also the enormous scalability and flexibility are in demand by many schools, from elementary school to university. In this short blog, I want to dwell on some of the applications that Zoom has to offer. The emphasis here is on fully online teaching and not in a combination with, for example, a Zoom Room as a classroom, with the tools available in it. Below are a few examples of useful features for your live online classroom or your virtual classroom.
Mute all
Virtual classroom. A winged term but what exactly do we mean by it? As the word says you try to imitate a class online during a live session. With Zoom you come very close to reality although you can never imitate it completely and that is a good thing. With playful ease you can conjure up 49 video feeds, or 49 students, on one screen. This makes it immediately clear to the teacher. Want to listen to the teacher for a while? No problem. With one click on the mute all button everyone is back at the lesson. Handy and it works faster than in the real classroom.
You can also choose whether the students can switch their microphones back on again or whether you as a teacher want to decide that too.
Focus, pin and spotlight video
Various options have been developed by Zoom to apply certain effects in the virtual classroom so that the attention curve and focus remain high. One of the latest gadgets this month is the Focus feature. This new feature allows the teacher to see all the students but the students only see the teacher and themselves. So no making funny faces in front of the webcam to impress your friends. With the pin and spotlight function you can put one or more students in the spotlight. Useful for example during a presentation and larger in the picture and remain. As with many of these features, they appear in the host's taskbar if you have activated the feature in your account settings.
Dual streaming
If you are a teacher and have two screens at your disposal then dual streaming is a perfect feature. You can place the class on the remote left or right screen and drag the content onto the other screen. And if you want to go a step further you can also work with two cameras. All standard in your Zoom package.
Immersive view
Would you like to have your students not only in the picture but also in a school desk setup or in a university lecture hall? Then click on view in the top right corner and choose immersive view. There are a number of examples you can use. The students are sure to love it.
Break-out rooms
One of the most popular features is the break-out room. There is a whole blog devoted to this in an earlier post. As the word suggests, you cut the class into sub-groups. As a host or co-host (let's say you are with multiple teachers) you can go to these sub-groups and differentiate your teaching or give various assignments. Each break-out room is a separate class. You can even divide the rooms in advance and give them their own name. But you can also create rooms on the fly once you have activated this function in your settings. You can create up to 50 rooms and each room can hold up to 200 students. In short, huge numbers that you do not often need, but it can be useful in terms of scalability for open days online in secondary, secondary school or higher education. With one push of a button you can end the break-out rooms and go back to the main session and then start again.
LMS link
As the pandemic continues and schools consider continuing to provide some of their education remotely, the LMS link in Zoom is more popular than ever. Within the LMS, the learning management system, you can integrate Zoom via already existing API links. This means that in one system within the school you can schedule the lessons, prepare the link for students and teachers and also start the lessons in the same system. Of course with the necessary tools for both teachers (hosts) and students (participants). LMS systems such as Its Learning, Canvas, Moodle and Blackboard can be linked as standard.
Cloud recording
For some of our readers, this is probably still an unfamiliar concept. The smart recording possibilities within Zoom allow teachers to differentiate their homework. What do we mean by that? As a teacher you can record certain lessons and share them with the students. This can be done via a recording on your own PC or you can use Zoom's cloud recording. If you store everything in the cloud, you have the advantage of cloud management. For example, you can only allow authorized participants to view the recording. You can also determine the time period in which you can do so. Say two weeks for viewing. In this way you protect the content of your school. In the digital age where watching and reading is a common combination of learning, this method of homework is a nice extra option. Moreover, these lessons are also good to use for fellow teachers. In this way, Zoom cloud recording allows you to conveniently share good content and use recorded lessons more often within your team of teachers.
Live online parents evening (Zoom webinar)
We can be brief about this. Now that Corona has made it normal to sit in front of the webcam in large numbers, it's a small step to the live online parents evening. For this the Zoom webinar or Zoom event function is extremely suitable. This so-called add-on is an extra addition to the standard education package. As a school you can address the entire parent population of the school with limited costs, ask for opinions and have multiple speakers speak. Zoom's webinar and event function has everything needed to organize this professionally. From registration to survey afterwards, it's all in this additional tool that you can add per month. From 500 to 10,000 or more participants. Interactive and professional.
End to end video encryption (Zoom security)
One of the most discussed topics when it comes to live online education is security. In March 2020, there was panic during the first outbreak of the pandemic. Many who had never or very little experience with online teaching took an account with Zoom. Without any preparation, classes were organized and meeting IDs were shared with anyone and everyone, even via Facebook. The result is obvious. By scattering the access codes of lessons and meetings, people entered the lesson or meeting uninvited. The press pounced on it and Zoom was put in a bad light. It was not safe according to many. This led to an enormous boost within Zoom in the area of security. All the features for a safe meeting were always present, but not prominently found. Hence the lack of clarity among many hasty users. By placing all essential functions for security under one security button, Zoom ensured that peace was restored in April 2020. In addition to this rapid action, a whole army of security specialists has been hired since then, and many other things have been implemented so that in normal use it is impossible to get into a meeting or online class without permission. Today, Zoom is one of the few companies to stream video communication software via end-to-end encryption. There are also many other options for blocking the software from uninvited guests without compromising ease of use. Not for nothing does US President Jo Biden organize his "staff meetings" via Zoom.
Education package
Finally, Zoom's application for education. From the start of its software packages, Zoom has made education a priority. That's why we have put together an attractive package for schools in which all the options mentioned are available. The prices for schools are significantly lower than the regular software packages. Even entire school campus packages are possible. In short, customization. The Education Package must always be purchased for at least one year. But then you have something. In addition to the above functions, there are many other possible applications. We at 4Webcom have been working with this package for over 6 years and our trainers are busy offering customized training where necessary. If you want to know more about safe zooming for your school, please feel free to contact us.
We are at your service.
John Welzen
Live online specialist 4Webcom
