News & Updates

Zoom Tips for Faculty

By Abbi Tushingham

August 28, 2020

Below are a few helpful reminders and Zoom tips that we hope can improve your teaching experience this semester.

General Reminders

• Calling #600: When you experience a technical issue during your class, please dial #600 from the wall phone in your classroom for immediate assistance. If we are not able to resolve your issue over the phone, we will quickly send an AV student employee to the room to assist you. If you are teaching outside in a canopy, you can call the Help Desk directly by dialing (315) 859-4181 from your cell phone.
• Laptops in the Classroom: We advise against trying to connect your laptop to the installed classroom systems. If you do plan to connect your laptop, you will need to make sure that all cables are properly reconnected to the podium system so that everything will work correctly for the next faculty member. If you are bringing your laptop to use as a second camera, please read below for a helpful Zoom tip that allows you to use the two cameras that are connected to the classroom computer.

Important Zoom Tips:

• Increase your microphone volume.

Zoom will often automatically set your microphone volume at a particular level, and in most classrooms, that level will not be sufficient for your remote students. To increase your microphone volume, click the arrow or caret symbol next to the microphone icon in the bottom left corner of your Zoom screen. Select “Audio Settings” from the bottom of the menu that pops up.

In the audio settings window you will see that you can adjust both your speaker and microphone volume levels. If you see the box below is checked, you will need to uncheck it to turn the microphone volume all the way up. We recommend this adjustment in almost all spaces.

Use two cameras at the same time.

Most spaces have two cameras available, and with a special screen share feature you can use both of them at once. To begin, open your Zoom meeting and select the camera installed on the classroom computer. Next click Share Screen, then select the “Advanced” tab at the top of your window. Lastly, select “Content from 2nd Camera” then select “Share”.

Once you have launched this screen share, the second camera (either the document camera or the Logitech MeetUp camera) will now be the main focus of the meeting for everyone. This allows for both you and your document camera to be visible at once, or for both you and the in-class students to be visible at once.

If you have any questions or concerns about the classroom technology, please contact avs@hamilton.edu

For questions or concerns about using Zoom, please contact Abbi Tushingham (atushing@hamilton.edu) or the Help Desk (helpdesk@hamilton.edu).