Times are changing, faster than ever, especially over the past year. With the world gravitating towards a more online approach to entertainment, events and even learning, educators must possess the technical skills necessary to provide education to learners in this online world.
One popular tool everyone has begun adopting is Zoom. Not only are you able to hold meetings with your co-workers or hang out with your friends online, but you can also host an online learning session.
Zoom contains many functions that you can use to enhance your learning session and incentivize learners to engage with the content.
This article will show you as an educator the tools that you can use to spark participation with your learners in a Zoom call to break down those digital barriers.
Zoom tools that we will cover are how to use polls, breakout rooms, annotations, and managing participants.
How to Use Zoom Polls
Launching polls prompts learners to engage with the education by having them think about the question asked. It also allows your more introverted students to participate anonymously.
Before creating a poll it is important to check to ensure polls are enabled in your Zoom account settings.
Set Up a Poll
- After logging into your Zoom account, navigate to your Meetings tab.
- Select the meeting you wish to create a poll for.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page.
- Click Add in the Poll section.
- Enter a title for the poll.
- Select if you want the poll to be anonymous.
- Enter your question for the poll.
- Enter the responses you want your participants to select.
- Click Add a Question if you want to add another question.
- Click Save.
Launch a Poll
- Click the Poll icon on the bottom of your Zoom window.
- Select the poll you wish to launch.
- Click Launch Poll.
- Click End Poll when participants are finished.
- Click Share Results to share the poll results with participants.
Check out the video below for a demonstration on how to use Polls in Zoom.
How to Use Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms provide participants with the opportunity to talk to their classmates on the topic at hand.
Before creating a breakout room it is important to check that breakout rooms are enabled in your Zoom account settings.
- Click the Breakout Rooms icon on the bottom of your Zoom window.
- Enter the number of breakout rooms you wish to create.
- Select whether you wish to assign participants automatically, manually, or let them choose their rooms.
- Click Create.
- Click Open All Rooms to prompt participants to join the rooms.
- Click Join to join a breakout room yourself.
- Click Close All Rooms to close the breakout rooms.
Check out the video below for a demonstration on how to use Breakout Rooms in Zoom.
How To Use Annotations
Annotations can be a handy tool to mark up the screen not only for yourself but for your learners as well. For example, as an icebreaker in your training session, you might invite participants to share what country they live in. This can be accomplished by screen sharing an image of a world map and asking participants to use their annotation tool to mark where they live.
Before you start annotating your screen must be shared.
Annotations for Presenter
- Click Annotate on your Zoom toolbar. (If you are sharing screens it is on top of the screen.)
- Select any annotation tool to mark up the screen.
Annotations for Participants
- Click View Options from their Zoom toolbar at the top of the screen.
- Click Annotate.
Check out the video below for a demonstration on how to use Annotations in Zoom.
How to Manage Participants
It’s important to know how to manage participants in a meeting to prevent a disruption in the lesson. Here we’ll explain how to mute people, change a participant’s profile name, remove people from a meeting, and give co-host access.
Muting Participants
- Right-click on a participant.
- Select Mute.
Change Participant’s Profile Name
- Right-click on your profile picture.
- Select Rename.
- Enter a new name.
- Click OK.
Remove Participants
- Right-click on a participant.
- Select Remove.
Provide Co-Host Access
- Right-click on a participant.
- Select Make-Co Host.
Check out the video below for a demonstration on how to manage participants in Zoom.
Final Thoughts
With these tools and methods for engagement now in your tool kit, you are on the right track to delivering engaging and insightful online training to your participants.
If your interested in further learning on how to rapidly transition your live classroom learning to online learning, we held a webinar that covers:
- Technology considerations for online education
- How to rethink your curriculum for online delivery
- Strategies to deal with technological barriers and how to help your students through them
- Approaches to rapidly convert classroom content to eLearning
Check out the replay of the free webinar here.
Wishing you inspiration, innovation, and continuous learning.
Join the Learn to Flourish newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to get actionable tips to take your online learning to the next level.