Share Zoom Recordings
When you set a Zoom Cloud recording settings to Share, it generates a link you can make public or restrict to PSU users.
- Sign in to your Zoom web portal at pdx.zoom.us
In the navigation menu on the left, click Recordings.
Click the Share button on the right of the recording you want to make available.
- This displays setting options:
- Share this recording: Allows the recording to be shared publicly or internally. Switch the toggle off if you want the recording to be private. If you share the recording, Zoom will create a web page where visitors can view the cloud recording.
Add expiry date to the link: Allows you to set number of days or specific date when the link will expire for viewers.
Viewers can download: Allows viewers to download the video in addition to viewing it online.
Viewers can see transcript: Allows viewers to see the auto transcript if Zoom was able to process one.
On-demand(Registration Required): Requires users to enter their name and email address before viewing or downloading the recording. The host will be able to download a report with this information.
Password protection: Requires users to enter a password before viewing or downloading the recording. After toggling this to on, enter a custom password and click Save.
Copy sharing information to clipboard: Copies the link and password (if enabled) to your cloud recording. Share this information to allow others to view the cloud recording. - Click Done to save these settings.
This article was last updated on .
Email templates for the start of term
Contributors:Misty Hamideh
Many students are anxious for information about their classes before the term starts. By communicating early, you can help establish an encouraging online environment and alleviate some of their anxiety.
Use these templates to craft a message you’ll send to students as or before the term starts. Consider also adding a short introduction paragraph or video.
Welcome email (faculty to students)
Dear Students,
Welcome to [term/year]! I am excited to get the term started, but I want to first share some details about how our course will be organized this term.
Course materials
- All course materials will be posted on Canvas and will be available on [date].
- I will send you the syllabus on [date]. // The syllabus is attached to this email. // The syllabus will be available online.
Class meetings
- The class will meet via Zoom on MTWF from [time] to [time].
- The Zoom link for this course is [enter link].
Communication
At some points in the term, my inbox gets quite full — but I do want to hear from you. If you don’t hear back from me within two weekdays (not counting weekends), please send a follow-up email. I will appreciate the gentle reminder.
Now for a little about myself…
[add a brief introduction paragraph or video]
For questions related to advising for the undergraduate major (e.g. degree requirements, petitions, graduation), please contact [enter department advising email]
For all other questions related to undergraduate courses (e.g. technology, library, PSU resources, PSU policies, and practices), please contact [department email].
Staff will either answer your question or direct you to the relevant person or resource.
Thank you and I look forward to meeting you all soon.
Faculty / instructor name
Sharing student resources (department to students)
Consider sending this the first week of the term, to remind students of the resources available to them. Also, consider sending a department newsletter with videos to build community and connection.
Dear Students,
Your instructor will be in touch to explain the details of your course. This may involve using the learning platform, as well as other tools such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, email, and more (all free to students using a PSU Odin ID). Watch for an email from your instructor, and check the learning platform if you have access.
In the meantime, here are some resources available to you.
- If you are new to Canvas, you can log in at https://canvas.pdx.edu/ and find tutorials by selecting Help from the lefthand navigation bar and choosing “Technology Help for Students”. Also, an introductory Canvas course is available to all students called “Online and Remote Learning Support.”
- If you need accommodations, contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 503-725-4150 or drc@pdx.edu.
- If you get sick or have mental health needs, you can book an appointment with Student Health and Counseling (SHAC).
- The Learning Center offers academic coaching, tutoring, and more. Contact them at thelearningcenter@pdx.edu or 503-725-4448.
- The Cultural Resource Centers (CRCs) provide student leadership, employment, and volunteer opportunities; student resources such as computer labs, event, lounge and study spaces; and extensive programming.
- Also don’t forget to visit the [enter department] website to stay connected!
Essential student communications
Early and regular communication with your students is very important. This guide offers key contact points and ways to help students get the support they need before the term even begins.
If you’re new faculty, make sure to use your Gmail account at mail.pdx.edu. This is also where you can access the Google suite of education applications. If you’re new to online teaching, contact the Office of Academic Innovation as early as possible for help preparing your course.
Email Your Students
Approximately two weeks before the start of each term, a Google Group is created for each course in Banner. You can use your class group to email all students enrolled in your course. Some tips to save time and effort:
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- These groups are maintained for two terms — so make sure to select the email address for the correct term.
- You don’t need to work from scratch. The Office of Student Success has created helpful email templates with information for an initial email, along with a course syllabus.
- Don’t wait until your syllabus is absolutely final. You can label it clearly as a “draft” and provide as much information as possible.
Include Student Service Links on Your Syllabus
Throughout the term your students may need PSU services. Linking to services on your syllabus is a great way to let students know what’s available. These could include free e-tutoring, disability resources, tech support, library help, and more.
Publish Your Course and Open It Early
You can publish your Canvas course before the term starts. This can help students who may have concerns about course requirements or who are new to online learning. Even if you don’t plan to teach online, it’s where students expect to find your syllabus and course materials.
Post an Announcement and Share Instructor Information
Your home page is the “megaphone” of your course. It’s reassuring for students to know you will post important announcements here, along with your contact information. If your home page is not configured for this, you can get help from OAI Support or modify it yourself.
Learn About Students with a Google Form Questionnaire
You can create a Google Forms Survey to learn about your students before the term starts. Along with their academic experience, it’s important to know whether your students have any significant constraints on their coursework.
Schedule an Early Zoom Office Hour Check-In
It can really help students to have a brief “in person” conversation before term starts. This will alleviate anxiety for students who have questions about course requirements or structure. It can also foster engagement and make your first week more productive.
You Don’t Need to Record in a Classroom!
Contributors:Emily Connelly
If you are new to remote teaching, you may be wondering how you can conduct your regular class lecture activities outside of a classroom. Zoom and other technologies can accommodate many teaching practices and use cases.
It’s in everyone’s best interest to seek a non-campus based solution wherever possible. If your concerns are not addressed in the following suggestions, please contact the OAI Faculty Support desk to discuss further.
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- Zoom has a robust annotation feature that can be used on virtual documents or the virtual whiteboard.
- If you do not have a touch screen and find it difficult to write with a mouse, pen tablets like those from Wacom can also be used.
- You can also run Zoom on a tablet and record annotation directly. This option may not be practical to record yourself with the camera at the same time.
- Document cameras can be plugged into your computer via USB and used as a second camera in Zoom or Kaltura Capture. Using it in Zoom you will be able to switch between the document camera and a shared screen in similar fashion to using a podium. If you are in need of a document camera, the PSU library has a limited number available for check out.
- Zoom has built in support for screen sharing an iOS device via cable or AirPlay, which you can use in conjunction with a free whiteboard app like LiveBoard.
- Zoom has a robust annotation feature that can be used on virtual documents or the virtual whiteboard.
There is a lot of anxiety around running programs like Zoom with lots of participants’ home wifi connections. Our advice is to take stock of what your internet can do, and make plans from there. Are you able to:
- Watch streaming videos on YouTube with multiple devices at once? Watch multiple YouTube videos on the same device at the same time?
- Do you have access to a physical network connection to your modem? This will be a stronger signal than wifi.
- Are you able to download and upload large files into a cloud storage center like Google Drive or a media storage space like Mediaspace or YouTube?
- Is your internet connection available reliably or is it something that needs special arrangements or a costly additional data plan?
Consider that there is no one way to teach remotely. If you have a reliable signal at home that seems too slow to leverage Zoom there are many other tools you can use to teach that offer amazing pedagogical value. If you can upload large files and want video, consider using a tool like Kaltura Capture to pre-record content for your students and offer a discussion session on Zoom you can dial into with audio if you still want a synchronous component
Normally when you create a class that will be offered at a distance, we have time to find or build solutions — unfortunately, this is not the current situation. We cannot aim for perfection; we have to look for creative alternatives, knowing that we don’t have the time or technology to design the way we would prefer. This quarter is somewhat of a shared experiment: we are not going to be able to recreate everything we would normally do.
The global education community has come up with some amazing experiences for students online in situations like this. Contact OAI to set up a meeting with one of our Instructional Designers to look at potential solutions.
Standard hardware in computers of the past five to seven years is pretty great and should be able to handle basic streaming and video and audio recording. The things that really hurt audio and video quality are a few basic considerations when setting up:
- Avoid having a bright light/window behind you.
- Set your computer up so the webcam is almost at eye height with you. If you have a laptop without a stand, stacked books are an easy fix.
- If possible, invest in a headset/headphones with a built in mic. Cheap bluetooth ones sell for around $8 and even they will assist you with a better audio quality by keeping your microphone at relatively the same distance from your face throughout the course of your session. Using headphones will also help prevent echoing and feedback during class.
- Remember to practice! Zoom has a test session available at https://zoom.us/test you can use at any time to make sure your equipment is in good working order.
- PSU Library has a limited supply of laptops and other equipment available for check out, if your equipment cannot accommodate recordings.
- You and your colleagues can co-facilitate Zoom meetings by using the co-host functionality.
- You and your colleague can each pre-record short videos or audio, separately using Kaltura Capture.
Again, remember you do not have to create video or web conferences to create a successful remote session! If you still want a multimedia feature, why not try your hand at an audio recording? Or, if you have headphones with a microphone, take a stroll around the block with your cell phone and create a pre-recorded lecture. Take your laptop to a park and use Kaltura Capture, just remember that headset! Good audio is the most critical component of video: Viewers will tolerate hard to see/bad video, but we do not typically have the same patience for poor audio.
Change Your Zoom Display Name and Add Pronouns
You can change your preferred name and add accurate pronouns to your Zoom display name manually in your Zoom profile settings.
To do this,
- Log in to your PSU Zoom account at https://pdx.zoom.us/
- Select Profile in the left navigation panel
- In the upper right corner, click the small blue Edit link to update your profile data
- In the First Name and Last Name fields, update your name(s). In the Display Name field, make the same adjustments and add your preferred pronouns.
- Click Save Changes.
In addition, it’s possible to change other PSU system display names, but this is inconsistent across platforms. See the Registrar’s First Name Override option information to get started.
This article was last updated on .
Schedule a Meeting in Canvas
Schedule a Meeting in Canvas
If you teach in Canvas we recommend scheduling your course Zoom Meetings from Canvas. Doing so automatically creates course meeting and recording links for your students. The Canvas scheduler has abbreviated settings, however. To access security preferences and other advanced functions, log into pdx.zoom.us. Only Canvas users with the Teacher or TA roles may schedule Zoom meetings in Canvas.
If you record a meeting, the Zoom Cloud recording link will appear shortly after the meeting ends. These are hosted by Zoom and expire after 90 days. Zoom recordings in your account will also be saved to your My Media account in MediaSpace (if you have activated it by logging in at least once).
- In Canvas, select Zoom from the navigation menu. Authorize Canvas to access your Zoom account if you have not already done so.
- Select the blue Schedule a New Meeting button in the upper-right corner.
- Enter meeting details:
- Topic: enter a descriptive title. This is helpful for finding recorded meetings in your MediaSpace My Media list.
- Description (optional): Enter an optional meeting description.
- When: select a date and time for the meeting to start.
- Duration: enter your planned duration. This will not cut off the meeting if you run over.
- Time Zone: confirm or select the correct timezone.
- Recurring Meeting: select this option to create a recurring meeting. Once selected, you’ll have the option to choose how often the meeting recurs, and when to stop repeating. Each occurrence will be listed in Canvas, but they will use the same meeting URL. You can edit a specific session of a recurring meeting if needed.
- Registration: select if you need detailed attendee information from external guests.
- Security: options are Passcode, Waiting room, and Only authenticated users can join meetings. Passcodes are easily shared, so we recommend activating a waiting room and/or requiring PSU authentication.
For non-PSU attendees, you can select Sign in to Zoom and Add Authentication Exception. This registers your guest's email address. They must sign in to the meeting with the Zoom account associated with the email address entered. This can be a free, noncommercial account. - Video: choose whether you, the meeting host, and participants will join the meeting with video enabled or disabled.
- Audio: to accommodate students with limited internet access select Telephone and Computer Audio.
- Meeting Options: Recommended settings for class sessions:
- Do not enable Join before host.
- For large classes, select Mute participants on entry.
- For easier name recognition, you may want to Allow host to save video order.
- If you have set up assigned breakout rooms in your Zoom settings, select Breakout Room pre-assign.
- Do not select Use Personal Meeting ID unless you want guests to have ongoing access to your personal meeting link.
- Select Record the meeting automatically in the cloud to share a recording link with students.
This article was last updated .
Staying Present in Your Online Course
Being present in your remote course is key to keeping students engaged, leading to overall student success. Here are a few ways to stay connected to your students and help them feel like part of your learning community.
Post Regular Announcements
Posting regular announcements keeps students informed and creates an encouraging online environment. Being present doesn’t mean that you have to be online all the time. You can maintain regular contact with your students through weekly updates, video reminders, and full-class messages acknowledging students’ good work.
Provide an Open Discussion Area
Providing an open discussion area encourages connection for your students—both to you and each other. Another way to build community is through an asynchronous discussion board. This provides students a way to reach out to their classmates about topics that are not specifically related to a weekly topic or specific assignment. For example, a student might use this discussion area to ask for help in finding resources for an assignment or to share details about a community event related to the course topic.
Use Google Forms Surveys
Creating quick surveys is a great way to check in with students throughout the term. When asking for feedback, it’s important to ask questions about things you can change, and to respond to that feedback holistically. Two simple feedback questions that can be effective are:
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- What is one thing your instructor could change to improve your learning in this course?
- What is one thing YOU could change to improve your learning in this course?
Schedule Optional Zoom Sessions
Giving students the opportunity to meet with you in real time can help to build community in your course. Be sure to have some kind of interaction planned to keep students engaged.
Allow Non-PSU Guest Access to Your Zoom Meeting
Allow Non-PSU Guest Access to Your Zoom Meeting
The global setting for your PSU Zoom account should always be set to require PSU authentication. This ensures that meeting guests will have full access to Zoom features like breakout room pre-assignment. When students are able to join with any Zoom account, they can unintentionally log in with a personal account and be excluded from necessary Zoom features. Instructions on allowing a non-PSU guest into a meeting are below.
Limit meetings to authenticated users
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal at zoom.pdx.us
- Schedule a meeting.
- In Settings, select the Meetings tab and scroll down to Require authentication to join. Select the toggle button so it is on (blue).
- Below this toggle button, check to see if Signed in with a Portland State account (Odin) is your current default setting. If it is not, select Edit.
- Select the checkbox to Set as default authentication option.
- Select Save.
In the past, allowing a non-PSU guest into your meeting required you to temporarily change your settings to allow anyone with a Zoom account to join. This creates a security risk. The new security standard is to create an authentication exception for a specific non-PSU guest. You can add authentication exceptions to a single meeting, all instances of a recurring meeting, or a single instance of a recurring meeting.
Note: You can't add authentication exceptions to meetings that use your personal meeting ID. You must select "generate a meeting ID automatically."
Add a non-PSU guest to a new meeting
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- Schedule a meeting.
- Under Meeting ID, select Generate Automatically.
- Under Security, select the check box next to Require authentication to join.
- Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
- Enter the guest participant’s name and email address.
(Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions.
- Click Save.
- Choose your other meeting settings, then click Save to schedule the meeting.
Add to an existing meeting
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click Meetings.
- Locate the meeting you want to add an authentication exception to, then click Edit.
- In the Edit Recurring Meeting dialog, click either Edit This Occurrence or Edit All Occurrences.
- Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
- Click Add Participant.
- Enter the guest participant’s name and email address.
(Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions. - Click Save.
- Modify any other meeting settings as needed, then click Save.
This article was last updated .
Refresh your course for a new term
Contributors:Misty Hamideh
This article outlines a few things you can do to make sure you’re ready for the new term.
1. Reflect on past terms
Before opening your course to students, take a moment to reflect on the last time you taught. How might you enhance your course for the upcoming term? Are there new teaching strategies you might like to explore?
Here are a few articles about ways to level up your teaching.
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2. Pre-term Canvas checklist
- You may want to choose which courses to display on your Canvas dashboard. Each term’s new courses are displayed there automatically, but you can customize the display each time you log in. Select courses to show or hide on your dashboard.
- Copy course content and settings from a previous term into a new term to update the course for the new term. Some materials from prior offerings may be subject to Oregon University System Records policy. Making your changes in the next term’s course can help you keep an accurate record of the way the course was offered to students in a prior term. See: Copy materials between Canvas courses.
- Along with updating due dates, you might make small or significant updates to content, discussions, quizzes, assignments, or even grades. Getting started with Canvas basics.
- It’s also a great idea to review the academic calendar for the upcoming term. Take note of university closures and/or religious holidays that might impact your course plan. See the PSU Academic Calendar.
- Don’t forget to publish your course at the start of the term. Students can’t get into your Canvas course site if you haven’t published it! Publish Your Canvas course.
- Use the Canvas course checklist! This course design checklist outlines all of these and other important tasks to make sure your Canvas course is ready for students.
Prep Your Zoom Tech
Zoom, like most applications, runs best when you’re using the most up-to-date version.
- Make Sure Your Zoom Application Is Up to Date: If you use the Chrome or Firefox browser plugin to schedule Zoom meetings through Google Calendar, make sure the plugin is up to date.
- Log into Media Space: If you’ve never used your Media Space account, be sure to log in at least once. This allows automatic copies of your Zoom meetings to be stored there.
- Schedule your meetings from within Canvas: If you’re holding scheduled Zoom meetings with your class, you may want to schedule your meetings from within Canvas. This will create Zoom meeting links for your course that students can access directly in Canvas. See: Using Zoom with Canvas.
Zoom Checklist
See full Zoom-bombing prevention suggestions
Review Zoom Recording and Student Privacy and Conferencing, Web Recording and FERPA
Before Scheduling (Global Defaults)
- Make sure you’ve downloaded and are using the most recent version of the Zoom client.
- ❗ Don’t share the meeting URL publicly.
- ✅ Enable Screen sharing and limit to Host Only
- ✅ Enable Annotation if needed during meeting
- ? Disable Allow Participants to rename Themselves
When Scheduling (Meeting Settings)
- ? Disable Join before host
- ✅ Enable waiting room
- ✅ Enable Only authenticated users can join and restrict to Signed in with a Portland State account (Odin)
- ✅ Enable Mute participants upon entry (optional, depending on class size)
During the Meeting (Crowd Control)
- Click Participants to open the Participant Panel during the meeting. Keep it open during the entire meeting for quick access to participants and settings.
- Click Chat to open the Chat Panel during the meeting. Keep it open during the entire meeting for quick access to chat and settings.
Click Chat kebab menu (…) to disable or limit participant chat. - ? Disable Participant Annotation
- Click More from the participant panel and select
? Disable Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves
✅ Enable Lock Meeting once all participants have joined
Emergency! (React Quickly)
- ❗ Use the Security panel (first available in Zoom client 4.6.10 released 4/7/2020) for quick access to
Lock Meeting (prevent additional participants from joining)
Enable Waiting Room (if not already enabled)
? Disable Participant Share Screen
? Disable Participant Chat
? Disable Participant Renaming - Share your screen to quickly replace any inappropriate content someone else might be sharing. Host sharing overrides participant sharing.
Hover next to name of participant to
Mute audio
Stop video - Click down caret next to participant name to
Put in waiting room (temporarily remove participant)
Remove (permanently remove participant from the meeting)
Report any Zoom-bombings to OAI.
This article was last updated on .