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Teaching from a Seminar Room or Lecture Theatre - Dunedin Campus

You may be simultaneously teaching students who are attending both in-person and online / remotely.

Recommended technology for live streaming lectures or tutorials from Lecture Theatres and Seminar Rooms on the Dunedin Campus includes:

Zoom

Echo360 and Otago Capture

Additional resources

Information about more resources for simultaneously teaching students in-person and online / remotely is on the “Shifting Online” Blackboard paper available to all academics - including Intro to Hybrid Teaching (PDF)

Using Zoom from a Lecture Theatre or Seminar Room

Zoom can now be used in most pooled lecture theatres and seminar rooms as they have microphones and webcams.

The following guides have been prepared to help you do this successfully and avoid some common pitfalls and security concerns.

Note: These instructions refer to the standard lecture theatres and seminar rooms on the Dunedin campus not the pilot teaching spaces which have alternative instructions in place already.

Preparation

Before your first simultaneous online and in-person lecture, you need to:

  1. Create a recurring Zoom meeting for your class
  2. Enable Cloud recording on your Zoom account (if not already done)
  3. Locate and note down your Zoom host key
  4. Review security options, especially if you have a large class

Joining Zoom from a pooled lecture theatre on the Dunedin Campus

Step-by-step instruction guide

Important points to note:

  • In the lecture theatre, make sure you are using the Mac desktop computer option – not Windows (see the step-by-step instruction guide on how to identify which option you are using and how to change from Mac to Windows)
  • Unless you have the waiting room feature enabled, you do not need to sign into your Zoom account to get host rights, simply join your Zoom meeting as detailed in the step-by-step instruction guide, then use your “host key” to get one-off host rights.
  • Ensure you record to the Zoom Cloud (not to the local computer)
  • For large classes where group discussion is not required, it is recommended to disable participant video, audio and screen sharing to minimise possible distractions and avoid any unwanted interruptions. This is done at the lower left of your Zoom window, under the Security button.
  • If you select the laptop input or document camera in a lecture theatre, it will not be shared via Zoom (at this stage). If you wish to show your laptop, join the lectern computer as normal then follow these instructions to share your laptop screen. If you need to use a document camera, please contact AskOtago for more guidance.

Helpful hint: It can be useful for the Zoom chat to be monitored by other teaching staff (not the presenter) so that questions from online students are not missed. The extra staff might be in their own office but have joined the lecture by Zoom.

Remote teaching

Teaching online – ideas and suggestions

A Blackboard paper called “DISTANCE LEARNING Shifting Online” provides resources, tips, ideas, guidelines and suggestions to help staff make the shift to online teaching.

The paper is available to all staff and will be constantly updated. Login to Blackboard and look for it under “My Papers” and “Courses where you are: Student”.

If you do not have access, or have a suggestion for improvements or further content, contact either Sarah Stein, Distance Learning (sarah.stein@otago.ac.nz) or Keryn Pratt, College of Education (keryn.pratt@otago.ac.nz).

Making lecture / tutorial recordings available to students

Covid-19: Making Lecture / Tutorial Recordings Available to Students covers the making (Zoom or Universal Capture – Personal) and sharing (Otago Capture and Echo360) of recordings to Blackboard or Moodle.

Live streaming

Use Otago Capture / Echo360 when on-campus and in a “Capture capable” room. Zoom is easier to use in other situations (e.g. when using your own device, not in a Capture capable room and when off-campus).

Further information

The following guides (also linked above) provide more details on using Zoom, Otago Capture and Echo360.

Zoom

Otago Capture and Echo360

Being prepared

We recommend that you try things out before you use them for real. When you are more familiar with the applications and technology, you'll be able to concentrate on your content and delivery. Check the sound and video of your recordings - we recommend that you use a headset with a microphone. eConferencing recommends using the Logitech H570e, though any headset with a microphone that you may have should work fine. Contact AskOtago if you need to get a headset.

Remote working and keeping in touch

While working off-campus, staff need to be able to continue to access University IT applications and services in order to communicate and work together, assist one another and interact with their students.

The majority of these are available online without needing to connect into the University network through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or having to have a work computer available.

All of the following are available directly:


Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is an online suite of applications which includes office productivity, email, file storage, collaboration tools, and other specialist applications. In particular, Teams is a great way to work collaboratively and communicate with your colleagues.

Our Microsoft Office 365 licence also allows staff to download Office applications (including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) to their personally-owned computers.

These videos and help sites will get you started:

Zoom

Zoom has been the University's video conferencing system since 2015. Its use within the University and wider world has significantly increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as teaching and meetings have shifted to online platforms. Visit the Zoom website for more information.

Zoom security

Following a comprehensive security review undertaken by the cyber security managers at each of the New Zealand universities, in collaboration with the National Cybersecurity Centre, we can advise that staff and students should feel confident in using Zoom for teaching and learning, meetings and ad hoc communication.

Our University's Zoom accounts have a default meeting setting that requires participants to use a password to join meetings and IT Services recommends using this default setting to ensure meetings stay private. For more details, please read this AskOtago Service Portal article on Zoom meetings and passwords (staff login required).

Zoom on mobile

Zoom has a mobile app that lets you stay in touch with your colleagues on your phone. This can be useful for staff that have yet to set up their desktop machines at home. IT will be able to contact you through the Zoom mobile up to talk you through setting up your computer.

Zoom Breakout rooms

Breakout rooms can split meeting attendees (e.g. your students) into groups to discuss / work on a task. They can then report back by re-joining the main meeting at a time you choose.

Further details on Zoom break out rooms.

Zoom polling

Polling is a useful tool for getting feedback, which can be anonymous, via single or multiple-choice questions.

Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

You will need to use a VPN for IT applications and services which are only available from a device connected to the University's network, such as:

  • Finance One
  • HR Back Office
  • Business Objects applications
  • Files on the High Capacity Storage (HCS) service – these are commonly called shared or network drives and might be called S Drive, U Drive or something similar
  • Applications or files on your computer in your University office or lab.

For more information about using the VPN service and access to network drives, visit the AskOtago service portal:

University of Otago VPN – AskOtago

Getting help

Contact AskOtago to get help on any of the above, or for any other questions related to teaching and/or working from home.

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