Using Zoom For E-Learning

It’s all a bad dream, right? An email, text, or direct message was given to many teachers, instructing us to gather what we could, pack up what we wanted and stay quarantined at home. Many teachers were never even given the opportunity to hug their students and say a proper goodbye. This is our new reality for the next few weeks or even months.

We’ve all found ourselves waking up and ‘going to school’ in our living rooms, kitchens or offices. Some of us feel like we’re first year teachers all over again. Every day it seems to be something new, something unknown, something up in the air. One thing I have heard a lot about is distance learning and ‘How Can I Use Zoom For E-Learning?”. I’m here to help. I want to share my initial experience, along with a few tips and a super easy tutorial. I’ve also included a free printable to send home to families with instructions for both computer use and iPad use.

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Zoom For E-Learning

I (as the rest of the residents of my state) were notified late on Sunday afternoon that our school district was officially closed for at least 3 weeks. To be honest, I was mentally prepared that this was going to happen. It was just a matter of time. Because of this, I had been researching what I could do to best continue educating my students. I read lots of posts on FB from other teachers and searched the hundreds of free apps & E-Learning sites that were being recommended. I tend to be a self-starter and don’t like to wait around to be told what to do. That can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation. 😉 I had been staying in contact with my families, via ClassDoJo and had provided them with a list of digital resources that they could access for FREE. {You can check out those resources HERE.} My families were grateful, but I didn’t think that was enough. The next day, our school admin requested that we provide a packet of printed resources for each of our students. Again, I wanted to provide my students with materials, but also resources that could be extended for all learning levels. This is where I got my idea for the Brain Bags. By the end of the first day, I had sent out digital resources, printed packets, and made my brain bags available to all of my families and students.

On Wednesday I started working on virtually meeting with my students a reality! I found Zoom and the link for teachers to sign up for free. I signed up and it quickly walked me through the steps of creating a meeting and how to send it to families. I created a ‘Morning Meeting’ for the next day and sent the direct link to my families, via Class DoJo. I have to pause here and say that all of this was/is trial and error. We as teachers and even families, are taking this one day at a time and most of us are all in the same boat. It takes patience, as most of us (including families) are doing this for the first time. But I can tell you that once you get it up and running and your students start entering their new ‘virtual’ classroom, you AND them will be giddy with happiness!

Okay let’s get started..

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What Is Zoom?

Zoom, to put it in basic terms, is an online meeting forum. You can have meetings with another person or multiple people, even when social distancing is the (current) norm.

Teachers have found that this is a fabulous way to give students instruction time, without having to be in the classroom. These meetings can also be recorded and sent to families that could not make it to the meeting at that time. (Please check your district’s policies on this before recording.)

The features for the free account, which are listed on the Zoom website, include:

Unlimited meetings for up to 100 participants

HD audio and video 

Screen sharing

Whiteboarding

Annotation

Breakout Rooms

Virtual backgrounds

In-meeting chat

Local recording

Nonverbal feedback

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Sign Up For Zoom For E-Learning

1. You, your admin, or teacher peers can sign up for a free Zoom account.
2. Fill out this form to request a FREE educator account, which also removes the 40 min temporary removal.
3. Upon verification, all free Basic accounts using your school’s email domain will have the time restriction lifted.

Now teachers will be able to log in, schedule their classes, and send out invites to students. Students are not required to have a Zoom account and can join classes using the links sent from the teacher. For the best experience, we do recommend every user download the Zoom application on their preferred Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, or Android device. Families can also use a phone/device to access the meeting; they will just need to download the Zoom app.

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Scheduling a Meeting On Zoom For E-Learning

The next step is to schedule and host a meeting! Your students are going to be so excited to see your face, as well as their friends!

Here is how to schedule a meeting according to Zoom.us.

Option 1: Scheduling through the desktop app.

1. Open the Zoom desktop app.
2. Click on the Home button at the top left.
3. Press the Schedule button.
4. Enter in Topic, Date, and other related details and press Schedule. It is recommended that you make Registration required when scheduling a meeting, as that allows you to generate a registration report after the meeting is over.

Option 2: Scheduling Online

1. Go to https://zoom.us/meeting (You may be prompted to sign in but will be redirected to the page after)
2. Click the blue “Schedule a New Meeting” button in the top left corner
3. Enter in Topic, Date, and other related details and press Schedule.
   
   It is recommended that you make Registration required when scheduling a meeting, as that allows you to generate a registration report after the meeting is over.

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Beginning a Meeting/Lesson on Zoom

• Go to your Zoom home-screen and go to your profile. Once you open up your profile, go to Meetings (found on left hand side of screen) Click the blue Start this Meeting tab.

• Once you click the blue Start this Meeting button, this Open Zoom? pop-up will appear. Click Yes. This will open the video screen and you will be able to see yourself. (Make sure nothing is blocking the camera on your camera/phone, and it is clear.)

• Next, you should get a Join with Computer Audio pop-up. You will want to click YES. This allows Zoom to access your computer/device microphones.

• As your students start to enter your Zoom meeting/class, you will want to click on Manage participants. You will need to ‘allow’ them access to the meeting.
• There is a Share Screen button, which gives different options for seeing the participants in the meeting/class. YOU as the creator are the only person who controls how the participants are displayed.
• There is a record button, if you want to record the session and send to students who did or could not come. (PLEASE check your district’s policy on this before doing…)
• The RED button in the bottom right corner is how you will END the meeting.

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Tips for Using Zoom for E-Learning & Distance Online Teaching

• Use the MUTE button! I leave all participants mics open as they are coming in, as this gives everyone a chance to say hi, but it gets loud very quickly!! I learned in my first session that there is a lot of background noises in the student’s houses, so clicking MUTE ALL was a necessity. If I wanted a student to share or they wanted to speak, I could individually unmute them.
• My first session was 9 kindergarten students and it went awesome! I read a book, did a mini-lesson on verbs/nouns, we had a quick show & tell and a small brain break.
• My second session had 12 students and seemed a little more chaotic. I might have added to that, since we were having a ‘virtual birthday party’ for me, the teacher, and we all had party hats on. :-/ But I think having a small group is a little more efficient.
• Have a written plan of what you intend to do.
• Don’t be upset if students get up or distracted. We are ALL doing the best that we can and this is very unusual circumstances.
• Make sure your internet connection can support the meeting, so maybe do a trial meeting BEFORE your first initial one. Create a meeting and send the link to a teacher friend or relative. See how it all works before you bring your students into a live meeting with you.
• Make sure you have your computer audio levels turned on and up. This will alleviate you having to troubleshoot, while students are waiting on you.
• The same goes for your visual camera. Make sure it is clean and unobstructed.
• Be aware of what/who is in your background and what your students will/might be able to see.
• Make sure to have all of your teaching tools & resources within reach and available for when you need them.
• Make sure you sit in a well lit and quiet place.
• For more information, go here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us articles/216378603

Here are some downloadable and printable directions that you can share with students & families. 🙂 You can click the above image to access or you can download through this link!

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Want to watch a video?

If you wish to watch some videos of me talking about my experience, then feel free to watch it here or on my IG story highlights!

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Questions? Comments? Tips & Your Experiences?

And if you have any further questions or you have more tips and tricks, please leave them in the comments below and I will respond and add them to this post! Happy Virtual Teaching!

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