In the last two semesters, we’ve heavily relied on Zoom to facilitate remote learning. Each and everyone that we spoke to have had interesting (or not-so-pleasant) stories to tell about our Zoom sessions. Here are some of the top 5 we’ve heard. Do you have yours to share?
- Zoom bombing
The issue of Zoom bombing is not confined to the ANU. Many people around the world have experienced unexpected and more often than not, disruptive and inappropriate intrusion, during their meetings or classes especially during the first months of the lockdown period. Apart from actual Zoom bombing and the management of these participants being a nightmare, the fear of encountering it has also made many us extremely cautious. We received quite a lot of enquiries in Semester 1 asking, “How can I be sure that my students are who they say they are?” One important tip is never to share your classroom zoom link on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, just on Wattle. With the upgrade of the Zoom security system and additional Zoom management skills, we hope this problem has gone away mostly, or for good!
- “My Zoom recordings never came!”
In the first Semester, due to system overload, many of the Zoom recordings were not successfully delivered on time. Some took over 2 weeks to arrive in our mailboxes while others never did. Did you encounter this issue in Semester 2?
- “Help! No one can get into my Zoom sessions”
As with any technology, there are often hiccups with the application at some point or another. The EDS team received many pleas for help relating to students (and academics themselves) being unable to log in to allocated Zoom sessions. Fortunately, these were mostly system glitches that have now been resolved. Or we simply forgot that we did not untick the “Waiting Room” button.
- Breakout rooms are nothing like in-person group discussions
As we advanced in our use of Zoom, many people started using breakout rooms to have small group discussions. However, as we soon found out, these were not as easy to organise or facilitate as they seem. For one, the backend system where we are supposed to be able to pre-allocate students to breakout rooms didn’t seem to work as expected (e.g. half the students were in their respective breakout rooms while the other half were stranded with no rooms to go to). Other problems that emerged included:
- Difficulty communicating to the whole group once students were in breakout rooms
- Difficulty in moving from one room to another
- Difficulty in keeping time
- “I feel like I’m talking into the void”
Many of you have told us not just about having Zoom fatigue but also being sick of talking into the void where few students have their cameras turned on or participate during the sessions. What strategies have you used to counter that?
- Honorary story 1: “None of my students came to my Zoom session”
This was a funny story where we received a call for help asking why the person in question couldn’t see students and vice versa. As it turned out, starting your personal meeting instead of the scheduled meeting you’ve sent to students would do just that!
- Honorary story 2: “My students can’t hear my video”/”Ooops, they all saw my emails!”
Sharing screens became a skill we had to quickly pick up. In the first semester, we received many laments about people accidentally sharing private information to students as well as not sharing the right (or any) information on the screen as we forgot a button or two. Luckily, I believe we have all quickly learnt this lesson for Semester 2.
- Honorary story 3: “My students are in their PJs”
One of my personal favourite stories is about the way we/our students dress during Zoom sessions. Has it bothered you?
Have you been Zooming through the semesters? Come share you stories with us in the comment section below!