Teachers, Professors, and Instructors: 10 Ways To Improve Your Zoom Classes
Just because you’re on Zoom doesn’t mean “phoning it in” is okay
As I prepare to head back into the classroom for the Fall 2021 semester, I’m thinking about what I’ll teach, and which activities I’ll have my college students do. Being that we’re living under a global pandemic, I need to give this a lot more thought, and be even more intentional so the students aren’t in close contact.
And yet.
I’m still braced for the possibility that I’ll be asked again to return home to teach classes from my dining room table.
Just in case this happens, teachers, here’s some tips for you. Just because you’re teaching online doesn’t mean reading a lecture is okay. Below are my tips - collected from actual students in 2020, and shared with you, my amazing audience - to be an excellent teacher via the computer screen.
When I learn other professors simply show up on Zoom and talk for an hour, I’m like:
I will say what I have been saying since 3rd grade when I was so bored in school (and repeated daily until I graduated from undergrad): There is nothing more boring than only one person talking for an hour.
In other words, a lecture. One person talking. The rest of the people doing nothing, maybe taking some notes, but often sitting there, wondering, “When do we get to leave?”
Why, why, why for the love of cornflakes are so few instructors, teachers, and professors making their classes interactive, useful, or interesting for their students?
Many colleges, including Chicago universities, have pivoted to the mostly-adjunct model. Which means the Prof is online for maybe (maybe!) 6 hours per week.
Your students are online far more. Make it worth their time and their tuition.
I polled one of my classes, and they came up with an awesome brainstorm of how the Zoom learning experience can be improved.
Allow me to share:
10 Ways To Improve Your Zoom Class
Use cameras
Encourage students to put cameras on, but don’t require it. Same goes for you, teach. You can’t expect anyone to engage with a blank square.Include activities!
Icebreakers, group problem-solving (what do you think Breakout Rooms are for????), group discussions. And there’s this lovely thing called “the internet” where you can find activities if you have no idea what to do. One of my favorites is icebreakers.ws.
My favorite activity is to have groups brainstorm, or discuss an assignment, and come up with 3 or 5 points to share back to the class.Make it more interactive
Don’t just barf out information. (See “lecture,” above.)
Ask open ended questions, use the chat box, ask students to answer in the chat. I have an 8 a.m. class. Guess how much my students love to talk at that hour? But they respond in the chat. It works.
Ask an open-ended question or ten about the lesson, and let them figure it out. You saying everything teaches the listeners nothing.Send out slides beforehand
Eh…okay…I’m going to give you 2 perspectives on this. Some of my students says this helps them follow along. Fine.
However. I - personally - am not a fan of sharing my slides, because I want my audience to stay with me on any given slide. Your call.Put groups in breakout rooms
I mentioned this above, but it’s important. One huge aspect of IRL learning that’s missing is the in-person experience of getting to know one’s classmates. Students are not going to see tiny squares on a Zoom screen and think, “Hey, that guy said something cool! I’ll email him!”
I open my classes with an icebreaker (“What do you think Miley Cyrus will be doing in 20 years?” Gleaned from the “3,000 Questions” book, above) and then put my students into breakout rooms where they review the week’s homework with each other. (Not me. I ask open-ended questions later.) I also give them time to talk about “whatever.”
Here’s the dirty little secret about breakouts: It gives you, dear instructor, a break.Vary your delivery style
Again, stop it with the one-way lectures! Show videos, use polls, mix it up! Invite a guest speaker! Things that are not just you talking.Know how to use Zoom (or whatever platform you use).
As the room leader you should know how to address and solve the most common Zoom challenges and issues. I made a video on Zoom basics for my students and clients. (See video below!)Be enthusiastic!
File under “duh.” This applies in person or online, but doubly online and in Zoom meetings.
Virtual meetings come with their own special kind of drain – because you’re in the absence of the others’ presence. (I ripped that off from the NYT.) So act like you want to be there. Why did you get into teaching in the first place? Show your passion for the topic! Not passionate? Fake it.Ask for students’ feedback on Zoom class methods
And not just at the end of the semester. Is the lecture working? Are activities working? Don’t assume.
Another way to find what works? Talk to other teachers.Offer incentives
This came from a business student, so I thought of money right away. I am not giving my students money, nor am I suggesting you should, either.
Then I realized there are other non-tangible, valuable ways to reward achievement. Like less work. So here’s what I offer now: Any student who has a 94% average as we head into Finals Week has the option to deliver an oral exam only at a (mutually agreeable) time of their choosing.
Less work as a reward? Wish I’d had that option in college.
Want a workshop on how to make your meetings more interactive? Or your classes more interactive? Hit me up.
“You saying everything teaches the listeners nothing. ”
About The Author
Hi! I’m Marianna. I make the process of public speaking easier for my clients. I lead group workshops in Presentation Skills and Confident Speaking. I help with everything from preparation to managing anxiety. And yes - I teach presentation skills workshops over Zoom! I even lead “Presenting On Zoom” workshops. Want a workshop or some training? Let’s talk!