Zoom Instructor Guide

Request a UBC Zoom account and install Zoom

1. Contact your helpdesk to request an account. If you will be using Zoom with 300 or more students, please also note the class size to enable support for more participants.
   • UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
     • Email the UBC IT Audio/Visual 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 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 (meeting Zoom’s security measures for educational 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 CWL), and click Continue. You now have a UBC Zoom account.
6. The Zoom application should automatically download for you to install. If it doesn't, go to ubc.zoom.us/download:
   • Click Download under "Zoom Desktop Client".
   • Open the Zoom installer that downloads, and follow the steps to install the application.

Schedule a real-time lecture with Zoom

Prepare for your lecture session

• Find a private, quiet, well-lit room to avoid interruptions or distractions.
• Wear plain and neutral-coloured clothing. Clothes with strong detailing such as plaid shirts can create distortions in the video and remove visual detail from your face.
• Use an external microphone (one that you plug into your computer) to help improve the audio quality of your presentation. Ideally, use headphones with a built-in microphone.
• Avoid pointing your camera directly at a light source or you will likely appear silhouetted. Instead, sit with the light shining on you directly or at an angle.
• Make sure there is nothing behind you that will be distracting or revealing for students to see, or use the Zoom blurred background feature, which blurs your background 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 moderate during the lecture to monitor 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 real-time lecture 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, if you are not signed in already.
   • 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 and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top.
3. Click Start for the session. You will be prompted to join immediately or test your speaker and microphone first. When you are ready, join the session.
4. To turn on Zoom's closed-captioning tool, click the Show Captions icon at the bottom of the screen.
5. If you are using a waiting room, you can click the Participants icon, then select Admit all to admit students into the session.
6. During the lecture, you can share your video and audio using the menu at the bottom of the screen. You’ll also find options there for other features:
   • Security: Click the Security icon to lock the room so no new participants can join (highly recommended after you start the lecture), 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 To: drop-down menu, choose whether to write to all session attendees or to individuals. Use the 3 dots in 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 at the bottom of the screen. Choose whether you want to record the session on your computer or to the Zoom cloud (to store it online). To pause the recording, click the pause icon on the bottom of the screen. To stop the recording, click the stop icon.
   • For cloud recordings, a pop-up will ask if you want to stop recording. Click Stop Recording.
8. To end the session, click End at the bottom right of the screen. This button will give you options for ending the session.
9. If you recorded the session, you can access the recording depending 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: Log in to your Canvas course, and click Zoom in the Course Navigation. Click the Cloud Recordings tab to view recordings. Move the publish toggle to on (blue) for any recording to let students also see it.
   • For local recordings: When you end the session, Zoom will convert the recording and then open the folder it is stored in on your computer.
10. Download your Zoom cloud recordings, especially if you intend to edit the video or reuse the recording in the future. Steps for downloading are provided in the download section below.

Record an in-person lecture with Zoom

You can use a Zoom session to record an in-person lecture using your webcam, audio, and presentation slides—whether or not any students will be attending the lecture online. This recording can then be shared with students via Canvas. Note that these steps will not record student interaction in the classroom, as doing so requires a more complex setup.

1. Schedule a Zoom session in Canvas, following the steps for scheduling a real-time lecture in this guide.
2. Before your class starts, connect your laptop to your classroom projector, set your display to mirror your screen, and open your slides.
3. Once you've started your Zoom session, start recording by clicking the Record icon at the bottom of the screen. Choose to record the session to the Zoom cloud (to store it online).
   • If you do not see the record option, you may need to click More first.
   • At any time in the session, you can pause the recording by clicking the pause icon at the bottom of the screen. To stop the recording, click the stop icon.
4. Share your presentation slides in the Zoom recording by clicking the Share Screen icon at the bottom of the screen and selecting your slides.
   • The classroom projector will show only your slides, while your laptop will show your presenter's view, Zoom controls, and video thumbnail.
5. At the end of your lecture, click End at the bottom right of the screen to stop recording. Zoom will then save your recorded lecture to the cloud. You will receive an email notification when the cloud recording is ready.
6. 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. Move the publish toggle to 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 long-term or anticipate a need to share them with others, we recommend downloading the recordings from Zoom each term, using the instructions below. You can then store recordings on your computer, or upload them to share on Kaltura or Microsoft OneDrive.

Understand breakout rooms in Zoom

Breakout rooms allow you to split your main session into separate, smaller sessions so students can interact in groups. You can assign the smaller rooms manually, let Zoom choose automatically, or let students self-assign into rooms you set up. You 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.

Breakout room limitations

Before using breakout rooms in a lecture, it's important to know their limitations:

• Anyone with a UBC account can use up to 100 breakout rooms for up to 300 participants in any lecture. You can also request a Zoom large meeting add-on to use up to 100 breakout rooms for 301-1000 participants. Request the large meeting add-on for your account by contacting the helpdesk listed for you in the section above for requesting a UBC account.
  • Sessions for 301+ students are best run on newer computers using hardwired internet (rather than a wi-fi connection), since they take up more bandwidth.
• You will need to use the Zoom desktop application when running your session, to see how students are assigned to the breakout rooms. Using a mobile application will not work.
• Only the session's host or co-host can assign students to the breakout rooms, so make sure you are the host or that the host or a co-host (e.g., a teaching assistant) knows how to do this.

Preassigned breakout room limitations

We recommend using breakout rooms on-the-fly, since Zoom gives you the option to automatically or manually create groups (or let students choose groups) as you are running the session. However, if you want to pre-assign students to breakout rooms (meaning you set up the groups ahead of time), please be aware of these additional limitations.

• You will need approval from your faculty or department to use pre-assigned breakout rooms, based on an academic need. Upon approval, your faculty or department should provide you with a process for gathering the student information required to pre-assign students to rooms. Contact us at the LT Hub to learn more about this requirement, if you have not received instructions.
• You can pre-assign a maximum of 50 breakout rooms for up to 200 participants.
• Every student in your course will need to have an activated Zoom account as pre-assigning students requires entering their emails. Check with your faculty or department on how to handle this with your students.
• Students will need to log in to their Zoom accounts and use the Zoom desktop application to join the lecture. Pre-assigned breakout rooms will not work for them in the mobile application.
• Only the person who schedules the Zoom session can pre-assign the students to rooms. If you have someone else (e.g., a teaching assistant) schedule your lecture sessions, make sure that person knows how to do this.
• The same pre-assigned breakout rooms will be applied to all session occurrences, if you use a recurring Zoom session for your lectures. To create different breakout room pre-assignments, you will need to create separate Zoom sessions for each lecture.

Use breakout rooms during a real-time lecture with Zoom

Breakout rooms allow you to split your main session into separate, smaller sessions so students can interact in groups. Below are steps for running breakout rooms on-the-fly in a session. You can read more about limitations of breakout rooms and details on using pre-assigned breakout rooms (where the groups are set up ahead of time) in the section above.

1. In your active session, click the Breakout Rooms icon at the bottom of your screen to assign students to breakout rooms.
   • If you do not see the breakout rooms option, you may need to click More first.
2. 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 split your students up evenly into each of the rooms.
   • Assign manually: You will choose which students are in each room.
   • Let participants choose room: You will set up empty rooms, and students will select one to join.
3. Click Create. Your breakout rooms will be created but not yet open to students.
4. Adjust your room settings as needed, including manually assigning students and renaming, adding, or deleting rooms.
   • Click Options (on Windows) or the gear icon (on Mac) to manage settings for breakout rooms, including allowing students to return to the main session and automatically closing the breakout rooms after a set time.
5. When you are ready to start your breakout rooms, click Open All Rooms. All participants will be moved or prompted to move into their respective rooms.

Ask poll questions during a real-time lecture with Zoom

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

Create a poll

1. Add a poll to your session ahead of time:
   • Go to zoom.us/meeting and sign in to the Zoom web portal, if you haven't already.
   • If you don't see any sessions, follow the steps above for scheduling a real-time lecture.
   • Click the title of the session you wish to add a poll to.
   • Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click Create to make a poll.
   • Select Poll.
2. Set the poll options:
   • Click the title to rename the poll (by default it will be named “Untitled Poll”).
   • Type in the poll question, and select if you want the question to be "single choice" (students choose one answer) or "multiple choice" (students can choose more than one answer), then add the answer options.
   • Choose whether you want students to answer anonymously by clicking the 3 dots at the bottom.
3. If you would like to add another question to this poll, click Add a Question.
4. When you are finished, click Save.
5. You can add more polls by repeating steps 1-4 or you can manage existing polls under the Polls/Quizzes section at the bottom of the page in the Zoom web portal.

Launch a poll

1. In your active Zoom session, click Polls at the bottom of the screen.
2. Select the poll you would like to launch from the drop-down at the top (this drop-down will only appear if you have more than one poll).
3. Click Launch.
4. Students will be prompted to answer the poll questions and you will be able to see the results as they come in. Click End Poll to stop collecting responses.
5. If you would like to share the results with students, click Share Results. When you are done, click Stop Sharing.
   • Click the 3 dots at the bottom for options to re-launch the poll, save the results, or view the results from the Zoom web portal.

Schedule an invigilated exam with Zoom

Different settings should be used for a Zoom invigilation session than for a real-time lecture. These differences are specified below.

1. Before doing the technical setup, decide who will be the host and co-hosts for the session. The host is the only person who can set up the session. The co-hosts are the other invigilators who, along with the host, can admit students from the waiting room and create, start, and monitor the breakout rooms.
2. The host should modify a few default Zoom settings in their account before creating the invigilation session in Zoom. To do this, go to ubc.zoom.us/profile/setting and sign in.
3. Click the Meeting tab at the top if it is not selected already and set the following:
   • Enable the "Always show meeting control toolbar" toggle, so the host and co-hosts have quick access to the meeting controls.
   • Disable the "Remote control" toggle, to prevent students from controlling each other’s shared screens.
   • Under "In Meeting (Advanced)", disable the "Virtual background" toggle, so students cannot hide what is in their background.
4. Next, the host should confirm their ability to schedule exams for the size of the course, by clicking Profile in the top, far left-hand menu of the Zoom web portal. If the number under “License” will not meet the needs of your course, contact av.helpdesk@ubc.ca to request additional support.
5. Finally, the host should schedule the Zoom exam session, with exam-specific adjustments:
   • Click Schedule a Meeting at the top right of the Zoom web portal.
   • Enter in the topic, date, and add the following:
     • The start time - Set this at least 30 minutes before the actual exam start time.
     • The duration - Allow a buffer of 30-60 minutes, to give time for checking IDs and troubleshooting any technical difficulties.
     • A waiting room - Enable a waiting room to better control and know who joins the session and when.
   • Click Save. On the confirmation page, click Copy Invitation beside the invite link. This action will open a pop-up window with the session link and details. Click Copy Meeting Invitation.
   • Paste the session information wherever you are securely posting instructions for students about taking the exam (e.g., in the exam instructions in Canvas).

Run an invigilated exam with Zoom

If you have a sufficient number of teaching team members/invigilators to provide exam presence, you could 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. To start the session, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top, and click Start for the session.
2. Invigilators should join the session at least 20 minutes early. You then need to give the invigilators 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 icon, you may need to click More first.
   • You and your invigilating team should also join or have access to another space to communicate privately outside of Zoom (e.g., a channel in Microsoft Teams).
3. You or your invigilating team should disable in-meeting chatting among students from the main session, by clicking the Chat icon at the bottom of the screen, then clicking the 3 horizontal dots in the chat window and selecting Host and co-hosts.
4. You or 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 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 at the bottom of your screen 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 split your students up evenly 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, manually assign co-hosts to ensure each room has an invigilator.
   • Assign manually: You will choose which students are in each room.
   • Let participants choose room: You will set up empty rooms, and students will select one to join.
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 settings for breakout rooms. Check the box for "Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms" (so students don’t need to do anything additional to start their exam).
10. When you or your invigilating team are ready to start your breakout rooms, click Open All Rooms. All participants will be moved into their respective rooms.
11. Once rooms are open and students and assigned invigilators are in them, you or your invigilating team can manually assign any latecomers from the Breakout Rooms menu by expanding the Unassigned list, clicking the Assign To 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 desktop 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. Make sure students know where to access the exam (if they are not in it already), how to ask for help during the exam, when the exam will end, and what to do if they finish the exam early. Then 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 Message to All.
16. The invigilators will monitor for questions and academic integrity.
    • You and your invigilating team will need to coordinate with each other using Microsoft Teams (or another external communication point) to move themselves and their 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 nearing, 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 Message to All feature. 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.

Host virtual office hours with Zoom

You can use Zoom to host virtual office hours as well as individual or group meetings with students.

1. Go to ubc.zoom.us/meeting and sign in to your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
2. Click Schedule a Meeting at the top.
3. Enter in the topic (e.g., "Office Hours"), date/time, and adjust any other settings. In particular, you may want to click the checkbox for "Recurring meeting" so you can use the same session link for all your office hours during the term.
4. Click the checkbox for "Waiting Room". The waiting room is like a virtual hallway outside your office, where each student waits alone to enter.
5. Click Save.
6. On the meeting information page, click Copy Invitation below the session invite link. This will open a pop-up window with the session link and details. Click Copy Meeting Invitation. Paste the session information wherever you are securely posting information for students (e.g., in Canvas).
7. On the day of the session, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top.
8. Click Start for the session. You will be prompted to join immediately or test your speaker and microphone first. When you are ready, join.
9. Click the Participants icon on the bottom of the screen. In the right-hand panel that opens, you can monitor and manage who is in your waiting room.
   • If you do not see the participants icon, you may need to click More first.
   • If students are in the waiting room, you can message them by clicking Message next to "Waiting Room" and typing what you want to say in the chat that opens. For example, if multiple students are waiting, you could indicate an order of admittance you will follow.
   • You can let students into the session by clicking Admit next to their name.
10. When you are finished meeting with an individual student or a group of students, ask them to leave the session (on the bottom bar of their screen, they can click Leave and select Leave Meeting).
    • If you need to, you can move students back to the waiting room. Open the participant panel by clicking the Participants icon, hover over the student's name, click More, and select Put in Waiting Room.
11. Continue admitting students from the waiting room until your office hours end. By default, students are listed in the waiting room in chronological order.
12. To end the session, click End at the bottom right of the screen and select End Meeting for All.