Author: Jim Julius

Some quick FAQ follow-ups to all recipients of yesterday’s message:

Q: I am confused. What exactly am I supposed to do and not do if I use Zoom?

A: At this point, there are few absolute requirements. You are getting a variety of recommendations to consider. If you are comfortable with the way that you and your students use Zoom, nobody is requiring to you to use extra security measures or change your practice. However, if you use the ConferZoom LTI tool inside of Canvas for scheduling meetings, passwords are automatically imposed upon your meetings, and you do not have the option to use the Waiting Room.

Q: Waiting Room sounds good, but won’t it take a long time to check my roster and admit students? And be a big pain to manage once class starts?

A: This definitely adds time to your use of Zoom. Thus, the recommendations yesterday to try to get students to show up early and be sure to provide their real names as they access your Zoom meeting. Via the Participants window, you have the option to admit everyone in the Waiting Room at once if you can tell that everyone there is legit. Another recommendation was to consider adding a trusted student as a co-host, to help you screen and admit participants from the Waiting Room.

Upon reflection and input from a number of you, I know that not everyone is a master of the class roster. So here’s a shower thought: there could be some creative and fun ways to manage your student names so the admission process is easier (and Zoom becomes more interesting!). Work with your class to decide on a new naming scheme. Be creative but here are some ideas:

• If everyone is comfortable providing their pronouns, include those. (e.g. Jim Julius (he/him) ).
• Have everyone pick a descriptive and alliterative adjective to precede their name with. (e.g. Jolly Jim Julius)
• Have everyone pick something neutral, such as a favorite color, to precede their name with (e.g. Green Jim Julius)

I’m sure you and your class can come up with something! If everyone accesses Zoom with a consistent naming scheme, it will be very easy to tell who can be admitted to the meeting without having to reference your class roster.

Q: I liked using the scheduling tool for online office hours that is built into the ConferZoom LTI. Should I stop using that?

Yeah, that probably was the best thing about the LTI. I am not sure what impact the changes to the way Zoom operates via the LTI will have on that feature, but you could continue to give it a try and see. As an alternative, the Canvas calendar has a pretty great feature for booking office hour time slots. You could use that Canvas scheduler for students to book their times to meet with you at a Zoom meeting link that you set up via conferzoom.org and post inside Canvas.

Q: Did you leave anything out of your message yesterday?

A: Thanks for asking! Yes, one important tip: Please make sure your Zoom client software is up-to-date! If you’re not certain if you have the latest version of the Zoom client, look for a Security shield on the Zoom toolbar when you start your meeting (it has some quick controls for altering security settings during your meetings). District computers should have this software automatically updated. But if you don’t have the latest version of Zoom, you can get it from http://zoom.us/downloads

Q: You’ve given me some great tips on how to use Zoom technically, but how can I make my Zoom sessions more inclusive and meaningful for students?

Great question – just today the Chronicle ran a good article on 8 Ways to Be More Inclusive in Your Zoom Teaching!

Q: Thank you!

A: You are very welcome!

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
jjulius@miracosta.edu

To: All MiraCosta faculty and deans

Quick takeaways for Zoom-using faculty from this email:

(1) Use Waiting Rooms, not passwords;

(2) If you use the ConferZoom LTI in Canvas, discontinue that and use conferzoom.org directly.

Details:

As you are likely aware, “Zoombombing” has been in the news. A few incidents have even happened at MiraCosta. Though some, including Zoom, have recommended or required passwords for Zoom meetings in response, it’s also increasingly clear that many or most of these incidents are occurring when students share Zoom meeting access information with others who are looking to cause mischief or worse. Passwords will not stop intruders like this.

Therefore we recommend that you:

• ask students to access your Zoom meetings using their real names;
• remind students that it is a violation of student responsibilities to share Zoom meeting access information with others outside of their class;
• use Zoom’s Waiting Room feature to screen participants.

Please review some tips (with links to tutorials) about how to use the Zoom Waiting Room. If you haven’t already checked it out, please also see our 2-page Zoom tips document, which includes lots of recommendations for running a secure and smooth Zoom meeting.

ALSO: If you have been using Zoom through the ConferZoom LTI in Canvas:

• Passwords appear to have been imposed upon all your meetings this week. We do not understand why this occurred (and it hasn’t happened to anyone who uses ConferZoom direclty), but it is causing problems for many students.
• If you create new meetings through the ConferZoom LTI, passwords are included.
• You are not able to use the Zoom Waiting Room for meetings created through the ConferZoom LTI.

Therefore we recommend discontinuing use of the ConferZoom LTI tool in Canvas. Rather, schedule and manage your ConferZoom meetings and recordings directly through http://conferzoom.org and share the links to your meetings/recordings with your students inside Canvas.

If you have any questions about any of this, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

– Jim

To: All MiraCosta faculty and deans

Quick takeaways for Zoom-using faculty from this email:

(1) Use Waiting Rooms, not passwords;

(2) If you use the ConferZoom LTI in Canvas, discontinue that and use conferzoom.org directly.

Details:

As you are likely aware, “Zoombombing” has been in the news. A few incidents have even happened at MiraCosta. Though some, including Zoom, have recommended or required passwords for Zoom meetings in response, it’s also increasingly clear that many or most of these incidents are occurring when students share Zoom meeting access information with others who are looking to cause mischief or worse. Passwords will not stop intruders like this.

Therefore we recommend that you:

• ask students to access your Zoom meetings using their real names;
• remind students that it is a violation of student responsibilities to share Zoom meeting access information with others outside of their class;
• use Zoom’s Waiting Room feature to screen participants.

Please review some tips (with links to tutorials) about how to use the Zoom Waiting Room. If you haven’t already checked it out, please also see our 2-page Zoom tips document, which includes lots of recommendations for running a secure and smooth Zoom meeting.

ALSO: If you have been using Zoom through the ConferZoom LTI in Canvas:

• Passwords appear to have been imposed upon all your meetings this week. We do not understand why this occurred (and it hasn’t happened to anyone who uses ConferZoom directly), but it is causing problems for many students.
• If you create new meetings through the ConferZoom LTI, passwords are included.
• You are not able to use the Zoom Waiting Room for meetings created through the ConferZoom LTI.

Therefore we recommend discontinuing use of the ConferZoom LTI tool in Canvas. Rather, schedule and manage your ConferZoom meetings and recordings directly through http://conferzoom.org and share the links to your meetings/recordings with your students inside Canvas.

If you have any questions about any of this, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
jjulius@miracosta.edu