Zoom Instructor Guide

Request a UBC Zoom account and install Zoom

1. Contact your helpdesk to request a UBC Zoom account. If you will be using Zoom with 300 or more students, please also note the class size so that the helpdesk can enable support for more participants.
   • UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
     • Email the UBC IT Audio/Visual (A/V) Helpdesk at av.helpdesk@ubc.ca with your UBC email and your faculty, school, or department.
   • UBC Vancouver Faculty of Medicine:
     • Complete the Zoom account request form.
   • UBC Okanagan:
     • Complete the general IT service request form, selecting "UBC - Okanagan" as the campus and writing "Zoom Account Request" in the description.
2. Upon approval, you’ll receive an email. Click Activate Your Zoom Account in this email.
3. You may be asked to enter your date of birth to confirm that you are at least 16 years old (to meet Zoom’s security measures for educational institution licenses).
4. In the webpage that opens for activation, click Sign up with a Password.
5. Fill in your first and last name, create a password (please use a different password than your UBC CWL), and click Continue. You now have a UBC Zoom account.
6. The Zoom application should automatically download for you to install.
   • If the application does not automatically download, go to ubc.zoom.us/download, and click Download under "Zoom Desktop Client".
7. Open the Zoom installer that downloads, and follow the steps to install the application.

Schedule a lecture, exam, or meeting with Zoom

Prepare for your Zoom session

• Find a private, quiet, well-lit room for hosting. Ideally this place is somewhere you will be able to avoid interruptions or distractions for the duration of the session.
• Wear plain and neutral-coloured clothing. Clothes with busy or colourful patterns—such as plaid shirts or bright reds—can create distortions in the video and remove visual detail from your face.
• Use an external microphone or headphones with a built-in microphone. These tools will improve the audio quality of your presentation.
• Avoid pointing your camera directly at a light source to avoid appearing as only a silhouette. Instead, sit with the light shining on you directly from behind the camera or from an angle at the side.
• Make sure there is nothing behind you that will be distracting or revealing for students to see. If a busy background is unavoidable, test out using the Zoom blurred background feature or Zoom virtual background feature on supported devices.
• Test your audio and video beforehand. Also ask students to go to zoom.us/test ahead of time to test their connection, microphone, and camera.
• Get someone (e.g., a teaching assistant) who can help monitor the Q&A or chat questions and handle technical troubleshooting with students. You can also learn the differences between host and co-host roles, if you're not sure who can do what actions in Zoom.

Run a lecture or meeting with Zoom

1. To include real-time closed captioning of your audio, first ensure the option is enabled for your account:
   • Go to ubc.zoom.us/profile/setting and sign in to your Zoom account.
   • Scroll to the "In Meeting (Advanced)" settings, and make sure the Automated captions toggle is on (blue).
2. Access your scheduled session:
   • If you scheduled using Canvas, log in to your Canvas course, and click Zoom in the Course Navigation.
   • If you scheduled using Zoom, open the Zoom application on your computer, sign in, and click Meetings at the top.
3. Click Start to begin the session. You will be prompted to join immediately or test your speaker and microphone first. Join the session once you are ready.
4. To see the closed-captioning tool as it is applied for you and other participants during the session, click the Captions icon at the bottom toolbar, and select Show Captions.
5. If you are using a waiting room, admit students by clicking the Participants icon and selecting Admit all.
6. During the session, you can share your video and audio using the bottom toolbar. You’ll also find options there for other features (some may be visible only after clicking the More icon):
   • Security: Click the Security icon to select "Lock Meeting" (so no new participants can join), turn screen-sharing on for participants, and more.
   • Controlling participation: Click the Participants icon to manage participants including removing them, renaming them, muting their microphones, and stopping their shared video.
   • Chatting: Click the Chat icon to open the text chat panel. In the drop-down menu, choose whether to write to all session attendees or to individuals. Use the 3 horizontal dots below the panel to prevent or limit participants from chatting (e.g., during an invigilated exam).
   • Screen-sharing: Click the Share Screen icon to share your whole desktop or specific windows and applications. To play a video, click the Share sound and Optimize for video clip checkboxes.
   • Polling: Click the Polls icon to create and launch questions for your students to answer live during the session.
   • Breakout rooms: Click the Breakout Rooms icon to assign students to rooms for participating in smaller group discussions. This icon is visible to hosts and co-hosts of the session.
7. To start recording, click the Record icon in the bottom toolbar. Choose whether you want to record the session on your computer or to the Zoom cloud (to store it online) by selecting Record on this Computer or Record to the Cloud.
   • If recordings will be shared only with students in this term of the course, students do not need to sign consent forms before you record. However, if you plan to share recordings outside the course or in a different term of the same course, either the students will need to sign consent forms first or you will need to edit out the students after.
8. To pause the recording, click the pause icon or stop icon at the top of the screen.
9. To end the session, click End at the bottom right of the toolbar. This button will give you options for ending the session.
10. If you recorded the session, access to the recording depends on where you chose to record it:
    • For cloud recordings: You will receive an email notification when the cloud recording is ready, with a shareable link and password that you can send to students.
    • For cloud recordings of Zoom sessions scheduled through Canvas: You can share these recordings from within Canvas. Log in to your Canvas course and click Zoom in the Course Navigation. Click the Cloud Recordings tab to view recordings. Turn the Publish toggle on (blue) for any recording to let students see it.
    • For recordings on your computer: When you end the session, Zoom will convert the recording and then open the folder it is stored in on your computer.
11. UBC Zoom recordings are automatically deleted from the cloud one year after they are recorded. Download your Zoom cloud recordings for future use by following the steps to download Zoom recordings in the accordion section below.

Record an in-person lecture with Zoom

Classroom lecture-capture options work better than Zoom for recording in-person lectures. Approximately 70% of general classrooms have built-in recording equipment, and UBC A/V has mobile recording kits available for others. Find out more on UBC A/V’s page for recording and streaming options in UBC classrooms.

In instances when these options are not accessible to you, the steps below can be used to record your lecture with Zoom instead and then share it with students via Canvas. Note that these steps will not record student interaction in the classroom.

1. Schedule a Zoom session in Canvas, following the steps for scheduling a lecture, exam, or meeting in the accordion section above.
2. Before your class starts, connect your laptop to your classroom projector, set your display to mirror your screen, and open your slides.
   • If you need help with mirroring, learn how to mirror your screen on a Mac or mirror your screen in Windows.
3. Once you've started your Zoom session, start recording by clicking the Record icon in the bottom toolbar. Choose to record the session to the Zoom cloud (to store it online) by selecting Record to the Cloud.
   • If you do not see the record option, you may need to click More first.
4. Share your presentation slides in the Zoom recording by clicking the Share Screen icon in the bottom toolbar and selecting your slides.
   • Note that when you set your display to mirror your screen, the classroom projector will show only your slides, while your laptop will show your presenter's view, Zoom controls, and video thumbnail.
5. To pause or stop the recording, click the pause icon or stop icon at the top of the screen.
6. End the lecture by clicking End at the bottom right of the toolbar. This action will also stop the recording. Zoom will then save your recorded lecture to the cloud, and you will receive an email notification when the cloud recording is ready.
7. To share your recorded lecture with students, log in to your Canvas course and click Zoom in the Course Navigation. Click the Cloud Recordings tab to view the available recordings. Turn the Publish toggle on (blue) for any recording to make it visible to your students.

Download Zoom recordings

Zoom is not intended as a long-term storage solution, and it is not the best location to share recordings with others.

If you would like to keep Zoom recordings for future use, we recommend downloading the recordings from Zoom each term, using the steps below. You can then store recordings on your computer or upload them to share online using a storage platform like Kaltura or Microsoft OneDrive.

Use Zoom breakout rooms in a session

Breakout rooms allow you to split your main session into separate, smaller sessions so students can interact in groups. You can assign students to the smaller rooms manually, let Zoom choose the students automatically, or let students choose a room themselves. Hosts and co-hosts can also switch between the rooms at any time.

Inside these rooms, all participants will be allowed to share audio, video, slides, whiteboards, and screens with just their smaller group.

Ask Zoom poll questions during a session

The polling feature allows you to create multiple-choice questions (where you decide whether students select one or several of the options presented) and then gather responses from your class during live sessions. You can create up to 50 polls ahead of time or on-the-fly during a session, and each poll can have up to 10 questions. You can also export results after the session.

Run an invigilated exam with Zoom

If you have a sufficient number of teaching team members/invigilators, you can consider setting up breakout rooms during an online session in Zoom. You and your team can continuously or periodically monitor the live stream of all students' webcams in each room and be available to answer questions. You can also ask to see students' individual screens and photo identification.

1. You should start the session 30 minutes before the official exam start time and have students join the session 15 minutes prior to the start time. To start the session, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in. Click the Meetings icon at the top, and click Start for the session.
2. Invigilators should join the session at least 20 minutes early. After invigilators join the session, you can give them co-host status by clicking the Participants icon, then hovering over each invigilator's name, clicking More, and selecting Make Co-Host.
   • If you do not see the participants option, you may need to click More first.
3. You should disable chatting among students from the main session, by clicking the Chat icon in the bottom toolbar, then clicking the 3 horizontal dots in the chat window and selecting Host and co-hosts.
4. You and your invigilating team can monitor students as they enter the session, by clicking the Participants icon. If you are using a waiting room, any invigilator can use the side panel for this icon to admit students individually or admit everyone at once.
5. Once most of your students have joined the session, you or your invigilating team can start the breakout rooms. Click the Breakout Rooms icon in the toolbar to assign students to breakout rooms.
6. Select the number of rooms you would like to create and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
   • Assign automatically: Zoom will randomly and evenly split your students up into each of the rooms. Uncheck the box for including co-hosts—we don't recommend including co-hosts in this step, as Zoom does not evenly distribute co-hosts when automatically assigning rooms. After creating rooms, you can manually assign co-hosts or have them join each room as an invigilator.
   • Assign manually: You will choose which students are in each room.
7. Click Create. Your breakout rooms will be created but not yet open to students.
8. Adjust your room settings as needed, including manually assigning students and renaming, adding, or deleting rooms.
9. Click Options (on Windows) or the gear icon (on Mac) to manage more settings for breakout rooms. Check the "Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms" box so that students don’t need to do anything additional to start their exam.
10. When you are ready to start breakout rooms, click Open All Rooms. All participants will be moved into their respective rooms. Invigilators can choose which room they want to join, if they are not assigned to one.
11. Once rooms are open and the students and assigned invigilators are in them, you or your invigilating team can manually assign any latecomers from the "Breakout Rooms" pop-up menu by expanding the Unassigned list, clicking the Assign option next to the student’s name, and selecting the room.
12. Invigilators can click View, then Gallery in the upper right corner of the Zoom application to see multiple video feeds at once. Any video feeds that don’t fit will be displayed on additional pages.
13. Invigilators should take attendance and verify student IDs, if they haven't already.
14. Invigilators should make sure that students know where to access the exam, how to ask for help during the exam, when the exam will end, and what to do if they finish early. When everyone is ready, ask students to go ahead with the exam.
15. Once the exam has started, you or another invigilator in the main session (not in a breakout room) can announce the exam instructions or the remaining time to all the breakout rooms by clicking the Breakout Rooms icon, then clicking Broadcast and selecting Broadcast Message. Type in the the text and click the send icon to share with the rooms.
16. The invigilators will monitor for questions and academic integrity.
    • You and your invigilating team will need to coordinate with each other using an external communication tool like Microsoft Teams to efficiently move yourselves and your students in and out of breakout rooms (e.g., to follow up on a question with a student or to ask to see a student’s screen).
17. When the exam end is close, you or another invigilator in the main session (not in a breakout room) can announce the time remaining to all the breakout rooms by using the broadcast feature as explained above. Ask your invigilators in the breakout rooms to also make a verbal announcement to ensure all students receive the message.
18. When the exam is finished, the host or another invigilator can click Close All Rooms to return students to the main session. By default, students will see a 60-second countdown before returning.