Zoom is our preferred web conferencing platform for online video communication and collaboration. All staff have an enterprise account that will enable you to have sessions of unlimited duration and up to 300 participants. We recommend that it be used for smaller scale groups such as tutorials and seminars. Zoom can be used any time you need to meet or broadcast to a group online. Zoom is a flexible tool so you can be creative in how you choose to use it.
Sign in using your MQ OneID through macquarie.zoom.us
Why would I use Zoom?
- You can use Zoom to record a lecture, recording your desktop/ online workspace and the webcam. To do this just start a meeting with no other attendees and hit record. Once you stop recording Zoom will automatically create an MP4 video file that can then be shared with students or uploaded to Echo360 or added to your course in iLearn
- Zoom is very user-friendly and has an easy to use inter face so feel free to head to the Zoom Help Centre for guidance or head to https://macquarie.zoom.us/ to get started.
- You can advertise virtual office hours and schedule online meetings with students rather than meeting them in your office
- Guides on how to use Zoom are located on the Web Conferencing section of the Macquarie University website.
Zoom tutorials are available through the Zoom.us website. They are straightforward video tutorials that will help you understand the platform better.
Smaller Group (<50) Tutorials/Seminars
ZOOM can be used to facilitate smaller online group meetings/ activities rather than large lectures. The use of discussion forums, which would enable interaction between academic and tutorial groups online, could be used to complement/supplement the Zoom meeting.
Considerations/Issues
- Clear instructions need to be made available to students
to minimise issues (e.g. have students log into the Zoom meeting 10 minutes before the tutorial start time) - Up to 300 students can log into a ZOOM meeting but the quality of the sound and learning experience could be compromised with Zoom meetings above 50 being held.
- Additional support staff to assist with online tutorials (e.g. keep track of and summarise the chat inputs) could be advantageous
- Presentations etc. can be shared through the Zoom platform using the screen sharing function
- There are settings in Zoom that enable the materials and meetings to be recorded and saved for future use.
That’s a great idea
“Additional support staff to assist with online tutorials (e.g. keep track of and summarise the chat inputs) could be advantageous”
but costly.