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During the Zoom session

Zoom etiquette

As with any other form of communication, contributing to a positive Zoom session involves being thoughtful and supportive. However, there are some additional aspects to online video conferencing which are worth being conscious of, in order to create the best learning experience for everyone.

Two key aspects to be mindful of are your presence and your video and audio.

Make sure you are on time because many lecturers and tutors answer questions about assignments and provide other important information at the start of each class.
Watching video content on a screen can be tiring. But remember, Zoom is live, so you do not have the option of rewinding or pausing the video. It is important to be present, attentive, and actively engaged in the communication and activities, not only out of politeness to others, but also so that you get more out of the learning experience.
Strategies that can help you be fully present and engaged:
- Minimise distractions as much as possible so that you can maintain focus. In particular, avoid multitasking.
- Make notes just like you would for an in-person class or session.
- Make note of the time if you lose focus, or need to step away for some reason, so that you can catch up on missed content by watching the recording (if available), or check other lecture material such as slides and handouts to help fill in the gaps.
- Ask in chat if you think you may have missed something or require further clarification. Or, if you realise after class that you need further clarification, ask in your unit forums.
Strategies for effective communication:
- In small groups, unmute yourself if possible so that you can easily contribute to the conversation verbally. A great deal of human communication is visual, so turn your camera on as well.
- In large groups, where there are many participants, you may not have the opportunity to contribute verbally, but you can use the reactions and chat to interact with the host and your fellow students. In a fast moving chat, your lecturer may not be able to get through every question, so if you have any outstanding questions post them in your unit forums on Moodle afterward.
Video
Ideally, it is good to have your camera on to make communication easier. So, turn your camera on and check how your video displays to others.
Ensure your background/location are appropriate, your room is sufficiently bright, and your camera angle is adjusted so that people can clearly see and communicate with you.
If you prefer not to see your own video during a session, you can alter the settings to Show or Hide your self view.
Audio
When the host is presenting, you should mute your microphone. This will prevent small sounds on your end from becoming background noise for everyone else.
Using headphones is also a good idea, so that the audio from the Zoom session does not get picked up from your microphone and create an echo or audio feedback loop.

Check you understanding View

Communication modes

The main methods of communication over Zoom are verbal and visual communication, including the use of chat and emoticon reactions. Please consider keeping your camera turned on to make communication easier through body language and facial expressions.

In small groups, communication over Zoom is not too dissimilar to a regular conversation, although there may be some lag due to variations in internet speed which can create difficulties.
In medium to large groups communication can become increasingly difficult to manage, so it may take some time to get used to communicating on Zoom.
To make communication easier for everyone you can:
- try to avoid talking over each other as much as possible
- use the ‘raise hands’ reaction to indicate that you wish to speak
- directly invite people to speak who have not yet had a chance to contribute
- proof-read your chat messages before hitting send, to check your grammar and spelling
- keep each chat message relatively short and to the point, so that they are clear and easy to understand
- be patient with the technology and others
- be friendly! In particular, by greeting people at the start, and thanking them at the end of a Zoom meeting.
Most importantly, try your best to communicate as collaboratively and openly as possible with your classmates and academic teaching staff. The more you try, the easier it will become.
There are two types of reactions:
1. Emoticon reactions such as “clap”, “thumbs up”, “heart”, etc. can help you express how you feel about what is going on. In online lectures and tutorials, they are a nice way of communicating with your lecturer/tutor and fellow students. Emoticon reactions will disappear after 10 seconds.
2. Non-verbal reactions such as “yes”, “no”, “raise hand” are frequently used in online lectures and tutorials to facilitate additional interactivity and feedback. These will persist until removed manually by yourself or the host.
One of the most commonly used reactions during online tutorials and lectures is the “Raise Hand” option. Clicking on this will indicate to your lecturer/tutor that you have a question you wish to ask verbally. If they are able to take questions at the time, they will unmute you (or invite you to unmute yourself) so that you can ask your question. After they have answered, return to the reactions menu and select “Lower Hand” to remove the hand icon from your name.

Using Closed Captions/ live transcription

Breakout Rooms

In some sessions, you may be asked to undertake work in groups. This means that you will be assigned to a “Breakout Room”. You may be asked to discuss specific points, or work on a document or online activity together.

Make sure you know what you are supposed to do before you join the Breakout Room. If you are unsure, ask the host for more clarification.

Breakout Rooms are set up by the host/co-host of the Zoom meeting. The host will either assign you to a room, or ask you to choose a room.
- If you have been assigned, you will receive a notification and can join by clicking on the “Join” button.
- If you do not receive the invitation or click “Not Now” or dismiss the invitation by mistake, you can join your assigned room by clicking on the “Breakout Rooms” button and then clicking “Join Breakout Room”.
- If you have been asked to choose a room, click on the “Breakout Rooms” button, then click on “Join” next to the room you wish to join, and click “Yes”.
- This option is commonly used for teamwork, when students know which room they need to join. If you are unsure of which room you should select, ask the host.
The video and audio controls work in the Breakout Room exactly the same as in the main room. You will only be able to see and hear the people in the same Breakout Room as yourself.
Your lecturer/tutor may send messages to you all while you are in a Breakout Room. These will appear as banners on your screen before disappearing. Keep an eye out for them.
You can use chat in your Breakout Room just as you would in the main Zoom session. However, note that your chat can only be seen by the other participants in the same Breakout Room.
You can use the Breakout Room chat to communicate and collaborate with your team members. Chat is helpful for making short discussion notes. If you expect to make extensive notes or need more tools and formatting options, you may like to set up a Google Document and share it with all of your team members so that you can type into it together.
When you return to the main session, the chat log from your Breakout Room will still be visible to you, but it will not be visible to anyone who was not in your Breakout Room. This means that if you have used the chat to collate ideas that you would like to share with everyone, you will need to copy and paste them back into the chat.
There is one extra menu option when you are in a Breakout Room, which is “Ask for Help”. When you click on this, the host (e.g. your lecturer) will receive a message, and will join the Breakout Room to answer your questions. Please be patient, as there may be other rooms asking for help too, and they will come to assist your team as soon as they can.
In a large Zoom session with many Breakout Rooms, the host may not be able to visit the Breakout Rooms, so they may ask you to refrain from clicking “Ask for Help” and instead ask you to rejoin the main session to ask any questions.
To leave a Breakout Room and return to the main room, click “Leave Room” at the bottom-right of the screen and select “Leave Breakout Room”.
Make sure you do not click on “Leave meeting”, or you will leave the Zoom session entirely instead of returning to the main room.
If the host closes all rooms, a countdown timer will appear on the screen. You can wait until the timer ends to be automatically sent back to the main session, or alternatively you can return to the main session manually as explained above.

Whiteboard/Annotation

One of the collaborative functions in Zoom is the ability for multiple people to annotate a shared screen or a shared whiteboard together. This can be used to brainstorm ideas, identify and highlight content, and make notes together.

The Whiteboard is a blank collaborative space. Slides and other kinds of shared content can also be used as a background for annotation, but only if the host has enabled that option in the settings.
To share content:
- Click the “Share Screen” option from the control menu.
- Select “Whiteboard” to create a blank space for participants to annotate, or select another option if you would like participants to annotate a document, slides, or other content.
There are various annotation tools available to you depending on whether you are sharing content yourself, or someone else is sharing. There is a guide available on the Zoom Help Center for more information about Using annotation tools, but the best way to familiarise yourself with these tools is to experiment with them yourself. To do this in advance, you can create your own Zoom session by yourself or with friends.
- When you are sharing, access the annotation tools by clicking on the “Annotation” or “Whiteboard” option from the control menu. (They usually display automatically after sharing a whiteboard, so if they are visible already you do not need to do this.)
- When you are viewing somebody else’s screen or whiteboard click on “View Options” at the top of the screen and select “Annotate”.
- If you make a mistake, you can delete a specific annotation you have made using the “Eraser” tool or clear all of your annotations using the “Clear” tool. The person sharing their screen can also delete other people’s annotations.
Make sure you select "Save" from the annotation toolbar if you wish to keep a copy of the whiteboard. This can only be done while the shared content is visible. An image will be saved to the Zoom session folder (with the session's date-time-name as the folder name) on your computer.

Note

Refrain from annotating a slide or other shared content unless you are explicitly invited to do so. Your annotations will be visible to everyone, and unexpected annotations are distracting for both the presenter and everyone watching the presentation.

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Student Academic Success

Student Academic Success

During the Zoom session

Zoom etiquette

Video

Audio

Check you understanding View

Communication modes

Note

Breakout Rooms

Whiteboard/Annotation

Note