Zoom - How Do You Have a Great Zoom Meeting

Setting up you, your presentation space, and your webcam

This Zoom blog post (link temporarily unavailable) offers a number of helpful tips. Here are some of the highlights. 

• Have a webcam. If you're on campus, newer computer monitors have built-in webcams. You can find the on/off slider on the top edge of the monitor. If you need a different webcam, you can check one out from Helpdesk (Bldg 30). 
• You can test your audio and video without opening your room by visiting https://zoom.us/test Links to an external site.. 
• Check your background. If there is anything back there you don't want students to see, remove it or cover it up. 
• Be aware of noise. If your dog starts barking, mute yourself. 
• Your room lighting should come from your front, not your back. Being backlit may make it harder to see you.
• Adjust your camera so that it's at eye level and shows you from your chest up, not just your face (harder when using a built-in monitor camera).
• When speaking, look into the camera, not at your screen. That way you your students will see you looking at them and not looking somewhere else.

Also, wear pants, skirt, kilt, toga, tutu, or other covering for your bottom half. You never know when you may have to get up. While you can temporarily turn off your video, the cost is high if you forget.

In the meeting

Close the computer programs you don't plan on using during the meeting, including, and especially, email. This will reduce the chances of you accidentally sharing something you didn't mean to, such as your Canvas gradebook or a pop-up email notification with subject line "Meeting request: Accusation about inappropriate use of college funds." 

When you want to share something on your screen, share only that program, Do not share your entire desktop. Getting in this habit will also reduce the chances of you accidentally sharing something you didn't mean to.