When managing a web conference with over 50 students, it’s important to be intentional and structured in your teaching. Here are tips for running a large class in Zoom.
- Structure how students ask questions: Raising real hands and spontaneously speaking questions can be difficult to follow in large classes. You can mute all participants at the outset to cut down on noise. Ask students to use Zoom’s non-verbal feedback features to ‘raise a hand’ with a question or comment. Students will appear in hand-raising order over the Manage Participants button. Students can also use the Zoom chat feature to ask questions. A TA can help monitor the chat and manage discussion, unmuting students and lowering their ‘hands’.
- Structure how students answer questions: Asking questions and waiting for volunteers can give the illusion of active participation, but it may only involve a fraction of the class. Cold-calling class participants is a systematic way to include more students. You can also use Zoom polls as mini-quizzes to check student comprehension, or poll on a subjective opinion before a debate and then run the same poll afterwards to see whether opinions changed. Zoom’s non-verbal feedback features also offer a simple yes/no option. PollEverywhere offers even more poll types for a creative instructor who really wants to engage the class.
- Structure how students give you feedback: Use Zoom’s non-verbal feedback features for yes/no/faster/slower to see if students want you to change your pace or take a break. You will need to prompt them; don’t assume students will use them spontaneously. Zoom polls can also let you ask these questions in a more nuanced and attention-getting way, though you will need to prepare the polls before class.
- Attend to the structure of the class session itself:
- Use Zoom breakout rooms so students can discuss and explore a topic in greater depth, spending less time in a large group.
- Limit screen-sharing: When you share presentation slides, it limits the number of students you can see on the screen. Stop sharing your screen when you start discussion, so people can see each other.
- Plan for everyone: For “flexible attendance” courses in which some students can watch the recorded lecture later, be sure you’re providing activities that will deliver a satisfying experience to both sets of students. (Separate resource on this coming soon; in the meantime, sign up for a consultation for more on this issue.)