Lecturing with Zoom

Zoom Basic Lecturing with Zoom

Preparing and Sharing Materials

Before you start your synchronous session, make sure all of the materials you'd like to show to your class are open and ready. This may include PowerPoint, PDF, Word, Excel, and other documents, websites in browsers, videos (both on your local machine and streaming from a site such as YouTube).

You will also want to make sure that you CLOSE any document, site, or other material that you DO NOT want your students to view (such as your Grades page within your Canvas course) to be open and accidentally shown as you share your materials.

Structuring the Flow of the Session

Clear, Consistent, Structure

Each synchronous session (or class) should have the same or similar segments. Remember, each segment needs to be started with verbal cues such as, "Next, let's cover the...."

  1. Open with a welcome segment, just as you would in a face-to-face course.
  2. Have a transition segment. Within this segment, you can preview learning objectives for the session, and if needed, tie them back into course-level objectives and relate them to previous sessions' learning objectives.
  3. Have an instruction segment. This could be a traditional lecture with multimedia or any other style you prefer.
  4. Have an engagement segment. This segment could help students practice, interact, collaborate, discuss, etc. the material you've just covered.
  5. End with a review, Q&A, and To-Do segment.
    1. Remind students of the important concepts just covered, or better yet, have them remind you!
    2. Give them a chance to ask any lingering questions. You can also create an asynchronous Discussion Board to extend the learning experience.
    3. Take this time to go over the activities and assessments they are expected to start, continue, or complete before the next session.

Setting Expectations

It is very important to have precise instructions for expectations of all aspects of the synchronous session.

  1. Are students expected to ask questions? If so, by voice, text, or clicking on the raised hand emoji and being called on? Do you have any other 'netiquette' rules you'd like them to know (ask questions during the lecture or after?)?
  2. Are students expected to prepare for the session?
  3. Are students expected to collaborate or participate in a segment of the session? If so, do they need a webcam, microphone, access to a cloud storage service?
  4. Have you created and shared rubrics for any of the graded activities and assessments you're planning?