Zoom

On this page:

Overview

Zoom is one of the video teleconferencing tools available for use to the Bethel community in addition to Google Meet. Zoom is an application based tool (meaning it requires the download of an application to your computer for use) whereas Google Meet is a web based tool (meaning it runs in a web browser directly). For a side-by-side feature comparison, click on our Video TeleConferencing page. 

Getting Started - For New Users

Start by going to https://zoom.bethel.edu and login with your Bethel credentials. 

You'll need to download the Zoom application if you haven't already. You can download it from the website above or if joining a Zoom meeting for the first time, it will prompt you with an installer.

When logging into the application, be sure to select "Sign In with SSO"  and check that our education account is linked, or our "company domain" as Zoom refers to it, is entered correctly as "bethel-edu". For further details, please watch the "Getting Started" video below.

Joining the Bethel Zoom Organization - Current Zoom Users

If you have used Zoom previously, you may need to sign out of your individual account before signing in again through the Bethel Organization.

For further step-by-step instructions, please see Joining the Bethel Zoom Organization or watch the "Getting Started" video below. 

Getting Started with Zoom

Google Calendar Integration

We've enabled the Zoom calendar integration in our GSuite - this means you can automatically create a Zoom meeting directly from your Google Calendar. 

Within Google Calendar, when you create a new calendar invite, you'll see the ability to add Zoom conferencing as an alternate to Google Meet conferencing. 

You can also customize meeting options like join with video on, join with audio muted, join before host, and more with this integration.

Basic Use Training

Zoom offers a multitude of up-to-date training modules for its use. 

Live Training Webinars are available daily by Zoom experts. 

Video tutorials and quick start guides are available covering many topics such as joining a meeting, recording a meeting, and adjusting your audio and video settings. 

Moodle Integration and Classroom Use

Zoom is the official teleconferencing solution for classrooms. Zoom is publicly available via zoom.bethel.edu. Moodle integration with Zoom is sorted. Zoom is also the official lecture capture solution by utilizing the record feature. We recommend storing recordings to the Zoom cloud as these recordings will have an automatically generated transcript. These recordings can be shared into Moodle for students to view asynchronously. This can either be for pre-recorded lectures or for students unable to join synchronously. Please note that Zoom recordings will only be available for 30 days in the cloud due to limited storage. If a lecture needs to be permanently saved, please migrate the files to Youtube or Google Drive.

There are special considerations for our classroom environment. In testing, Zoom participants were able to read writing on the whiteboard if the camera about 5’ from away and text is written in ~48 point font. Zoom does have the integrated whiteboard feature that may suit your needs better. Utilizing Powerpoint slides (Google Slides, Prezi slides, etc) should be done through screen sharing and not by trying to capture the projector screen with the webcam. As the webcam will autofocus or you may move across the screen, it can be very disrupting to the class if students lose access to the slides. Doing this will show both virtual attendants and F2F attendants the same presentation without disruption. 

Presenting and Using the Whiteboard with Zoom

Another consideration to our environment is the amount of users on Zoom at one time - specifically if they are physically in the same space as one another. We do not encourage faculty to have all their students on the Zoom call if they are in the classroom space. This can cause numerous problems, including microphone feedback, disruption of when to mute/unmute, and most importantly a lack of bandwidth to support all the students using Zoom simultaneously over WiFi.

To add a recurring Zoom meeting inside of Moodle:

1. Go to your Moodle course and turn editing on.
2. Click Add an activity or resource and choose External Tool. It's best to choose the announcement module as this is a weekly activity. 
3. Name your activity and choose Zoom LTI Pro from the dropdown list in preconfigured tool. 
4. Save the activity.
5. Open the activity.
6. Select Schedule a New Meeting.
7. Choose when the first meeting will occur and the duration rounded up. Choose Recurring meeting, set recurrence to weekly, and choose the days of the week that your class meets. Select the end date. 
8. There are a few more options to choose from such as enabling a waiting room and muting participants on entry.
9. Identify any alternative hosts such as a TA.

To access a recurring Zoom meeting inside of Moodle:

1. Go to your Moodle course and select the Zoom activity.
2. Select the next upcoming meeting, and then select the Zoom URL under Join URL. The passcode to the meeting can also be found on this screen.

Please note: adding the Zoom external tool to a Moodle course will add a Zoom activity to the gradebook. This can either be set to 0 points or used for participation.

Screen Sharing is a great option to show a Powerpoint presentation or other tools for a lecture. More information on screen sharing can be found on Zoom's support website.

Polling allows the host to start a poll. This functionality is great for pop quizzes in class and acts very similarly to iClicker or Turning Point. More information on polling can be found on Zoom's support website.

Whiteboard can be accessed through the screen sharing menu. The host can determine if other participants can annotate on the whiteboard or if only the host can make markings. More information on Whiteboard can be found on Zoom's support website.

Breakout rooms are a great feature to break up discussions into smaller groups. Breakout rooms are enabled by default. Breakout rooms can also be preassigned during the creation of the recurring meeting. However, breakout rooms cannot be preassigned when scheduling meetings through Moodle's integration. A workaround is to create the meetings using Moodle's integration, and then edit the meeting settings by going to zoom.bethel.edu and selecting Meetings on the left. It is very important to have the setting "Only authenticated users can join" to be turned on for preassigned breakout rooms to work. If the preassigned breakout rooms do not inherently work, go into the Breakout Rooms menu, click Recreate, and click "Recover to pre-assigned rooms". More information can be found at Zoom's support website. 

Live Closed Captioning is not publicly available for Zoom. For students needing CC, please reach out to the Office of Accessibility Resources and Services. 

Asynchronous Closed Captioning is publicly available for Zoom. In recording settings accessed after authenticating to zoom.bethel.edu, the option to enable Audio Transcript needs to be turned on. It is turned on by default.

Recording meetings is a great tool for lecture capture as the recording of audio, screen capture, and camera feed are synced into one video. More information on recording and recording layouts can be found on Zoom's support website. Recordings stored in Zoom's cloud will only be available for 60 days. If a recording needs to be permanently stored, download the file and store it in Google Drive or upload to Youtube. If a recording needs to be edited, upload the video to Youtube and use Youtube's video editor. Breakout rooms are not recorded.

Sharing recordings with Zoom is very easy. Navigate to zoom.bethel.edu and select Recordings on the left side. You can then select which recording you would like to share and select "Copy sharing information to clipboard". You can then paste this into a Moodle course or email. Sharing through this method will give additional settings, namely allowing others to view but not download the recording.

Here is a quick run through of adding Zoom to Moodle, recording a lecture with Zoom, and posting it to the Moodle course.

Changing Zoom Settings

While some Zoom settings are set by Zoom administrators, other settings can be controlled on the user level. Please review your settings by going to zoom.bethel.edu and clicking on Settings on the left.

Virtual Backgrounds

We've had some custom virtual background created for you to share your Bethel spirit while in class. To set a virtual background in zoom, open the app, navigate to Settings > Virtual Background and click the + icon next to "Choose Virtual Background" to upload any or all of the below images as an optional background. Be sure that "Mirror my video" is not selected.