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GW Law Library
Office of Instructional Technology Guides

Zoom for Instruction

Information on Zoom meeting security and ways to manage Zoom interruptions are on the GW Information Technology Website.

This document provides security options to consider when scheduling a Zoom meeting and guidance if Zoom abuse occurs during your meeting:

Here is a look at Zoom's in-meeting security options.

Zoom in meeting security settings

Zoom Accounts

GW Law faculty can use a GW Law Zoom account to deliver lectures. Your GW Law Zoom account uses your GW Law Google account for authentication.  Please follow these instructions to activate your GW Law Zoom account.

Accessing your GW Law Zoom account

There are several ways to access your GW Law Zoom account.

  1. through your Canvas course site [scheduling and starting lectures]

  2. through the GW Law Google apps 9 dot menu [to access the settings dashboard]

Scheduling a Zoom Lecture

All lectures related to a GW Law course should be scheduled using the Canvas Zoom integration in order for the Zoom link to be automatically made available to all students within the course. Meetings scheduled outside this portal will not be automatically made available for all students in your course.

Schedule a Canvas Zoom Video

  1. Log in to Canvas, either using the nine-dot Google Apps menu or at my.law.gwu.edu.

  2. Select the course you want to schedule meetings for from your Canvas course site.

  3. Click Zoom in the left course navigation menu.

  4. In the top right corner click Schedule a New Meeting

  5. Fill out the form using the following guidelines

    1. Topic: Your course name is auto-populated here. Do not delete the title but you may add on text (Ex: 9999-10 Web Portal Law Week 1 Lecture 1). The Media Center uses your Course and Section Number (9999-10) to accurately permission academic recordings for students to view.

    2. When: The start time as defined by the schedule of classes for the first course meeting. You can edit the start time down to the minute by clicking on the box and manually typing in the time. Ex: 2:05 PM

    3. Duration: The length of time your lecture is scheduled to last according to the schedule of classes.

    4. Recurring Meeting: Check this box if you are scheduling for the entire semester. 

      1. Recurrence: Select Weekly

      2. Occurs On: Choose the days of the week you would like this meeting to recur on

      3. End Date: The last day of the class/semester in the Law School

    5. Registration: Do not check

    6. Security: We do not recommend changing the password, it is unnecessary for meetings scheduled through @law Zoom.

      1. Waiting Room: For course meetings, we do not recommend using the waiting room. Leaving this box unchecked will allow attendees into the meeting automatically without requiring any action on part of the host.

    7. Meeting Options: We do not recommend changing these options. If you do not want a meeting to automatically be recorded, you may uncheck Record the meeting automatically in the cloud

    8. Alternate Hosts: If you have a teaching assistant or other user you would like to assist with managing you meeting, enter their @law email address here to give them host permissions. Click into the Advanced Options to add the Alternate Hosts.

  6. Select Save to save your meeting.  Students registered for your course can now access this meeting by using the Zoom integration on the Canvas course site.

  7. For additional assurance, share the link with students registered for your course by using the instructions in the next section.

    1. Zoom - Schedule a Meeting Settings

 

Managing a Zoom Lecture

On the following page, you will see all the details of your meeting

  • Time: Shows the details of your meeting. If the meeting is recurring, you will see the option to See all Occurrences. Here you can delete meetings from specific days.

  • Add to Calendar: Optionally, you may add an event for this meeting to your personal Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or Yahoo Calendar. *If you get an error message, you may need to log in to your Zoom.com profile and authenticate your Calendar under Calendar and Contact Integration.

  • Invite Attendees: This is the direct link to share with outside attendees. You may also Copy Invitation for full instructions to send out. *If the meeting recurs, this link will not change for future meetings, proceed with caution when sending invitations to non-GW Law attendees.

  • Polls: Polls may be created in advance using the Add button at the bottom of this page.

Zoom Manage a Meeting

Zoom Settings Dashboard

You can access the dashboard for your Zoom account by logging into your GW Law email and using the nine dot Google Apps menu.

Meetings Tab

Schedule a New Meeting with this button.

Edit Settings for meetings scheduled in the future and create polls in advance of a meeting.

Use the Zoom Settings Dashboard to view your upcoming and previous meetings.

DO NOT schedule a class lecture from the Zoom Dashboard. Please schedule through the Canvas course site Zoom integration.

To edit settings, click on the link for the specific meeting under the Topic column in the meetings list.   See sections herein for detailed instructions for specific settings.

Settings Tab

You can also use the Zoom Dashboard to review settings for Meetings, Recordings, and Telephone.  Many settings are configured at the institution level and not available at the account level.

Reports Tab

Two types of reports are available.

  1. Usage: View Meetings, Participants, and Meeting Minutes within a specified time range

  2. Meetings: View registration reports and poll reports for meetings

Recording a Zoom Lecture

All Zoom lectures, created using the Canvas integration, are set to automatically record.  Once the lecture ends, it is sent to the Law School's media server and stored. Making the recordings available to the students is upon email request and is subject to processing times.

When you end your lecture, simply End the Meeting for all and your recording will be stopped.

If you stop the recording and need to restart it during the same lecture, click the Record button in the menu bar, then select Record to the Cloud.

Basic Zoom Controls

Zoom tool bar with buttons

Button Action Description
Zoom Mute Button Mute

To disable/enable your microphone, click on this button.

Upon entry to your lecture, all students are muted by default.  Inform your students when you will allow them to unmute themselves.

Zoom Stop Video Button Video To disable/enable your webcam, click this button.
Zoom Security Button Security Provides you information about the session encryption.
Zoom Participants Button Participants View the list of participants in your class session. 
Zoom Chat Button Chat Send a message to one person (private chat) or to all participants
Zoom Screen Share Button Share Screen Share your desktop (everything you have open) or select a specific application to share (e.g., Microsoft Word)
Zoom poll/quizzes button Polls/Quizzes Create Polls/Quizzes to use in your Zoom sessions. You can create them on the fly or before your class session from your Zoom Service Dashboard
Zoom Pause Stop Recording Button Recording Use these buttons to either Pause or Stop your session recording.
Zoom Breakout Room Button Breakout Rooms Create Breakout Rooms in the middle of your live session.
Zoom Reactions Button Reactions Add non-verbal emoji reactions to the session.

Zoom show captions button

Show Captions Allows the system or a participant to start providing live captioning.
Zoom apps button Apps Integrate apps (Zoom timer, virtual backgrounds) to use during your meeting.
Zoom whiteboards button Whiteboards Allows freeform collaboration and brainstorming space on a "whiteboard".
Zoom notes button Notes Open Zoom's Notes feature to collaborate on meeting notes.

 

Advanced Zoom Controls

Speaker View v. Gallery View

Each Zoom account can choose their personal view of the Zoom session.  The view selector is at the top right of your screen.

Zoom meeting view settings

Speaker View displays only the person speaking in the main display box.  All other participants are displayed in the top panel.

Zoom Speaker View Button

 

Gallery View displays thumbnails of participants in a grid pattern. Depending on your computer, you can display up to 49 participants in a single screen.  For meetings with more than 49 participants, there will be multiple gallery pages and scroll arrows to display those pages.

Zoom Gallery View Button

Assigning a Co-Host for a Zoom Lecture

Co-hosts can be assigned in-meeting or in advance of a meeting. The screenshot below shows how to make a participant a co-host using the participants list in-meeting. To make someone a co-host in advance of a meeting, use the nine-dot Google Apps menu to login to Zoom, edit meeting details, and assign co-hosts using their @law.gwu.edu email. Images of this process are at the top of this guide under How to schedule a Zoom lecture.

Zoom Assign CoHost Function

 

Managing Zoom Participants

Zoom Managing Zoom Participants Menu

Chat in Zoom

Zoom Chat Menu

Screen Sharing in Zoom

Zoom offers many screen sharing options and configurations.

Basic Screen Share Options

Most often you would just share your entire desktop screen by choosing "Desktop 1" or one particular window open on your desktop, like a browser window (Firefox, Chrome, etc.).

If you plan to share screen to play a short video make sure to check the Options "Share Sound" and "Optimize for video clip".

Zoom screen sharing basic

 

Advanced Screen Share Options

Advanced options allow you to only share a portion of your screen, a video, just audio, and more.

Zoom screen sharing advanced

Files Screen Share Options

Files options allow you to share files directly from a third-party file sharing service.

Zoom screen sharing files

For more detailed information on screen sharing, please see Zoom's guide here: Sharing your Screen or Desktop on Zoom

Closed Captioning

Zoom offers a Closed Captioning tool that provides live automated subtitles and transcription of the meeting audio. This feature allows you to make your meeting more accessible with ease.

Turn on Closed Captioning

1. Turn on Closed Captioning by clicking the Show Captions button in Zoom's lower toolbar.

Zoom in meeting show captions button

2. Then choose the captions language. English will show first by default.

3. Click Save.

4. The Captions are now turned on. A brief notification will appear at the bottom of the Zoom.

live transcription notification

 

Caption Settings

1. Click the Show Captions caret

Zoom show captions settings

2. Then Click Caption Settings.

3. Adjust Captions settings here in Zoom's Accessibility settings if necessary.

Zoom accessibility settings

 

 

Breakout Rooms

The use of pre-assigned breakout rooms requires that, during the meeting, the students are logged in to Zoom with their @law accounts.

To create breakout rooms in advance:

  1. To continue to pre-assign breakout rooms, click Edit this Meeting

  2. Under Meeting Options, check the box marked Breakout Room pre-assign

  3. Create Rooms allows you to manually create rooms here in Zoom, if you feel comfortable with CSVs you may click Import from CSV

  4. To pre-assign breakout rooms you need each participants @law.gwu.edu email address

  5. Click Save in the Breakout Room Assignment window if you create rooms manually

  6. Click Save once more to make sure all changes are applied to the meeting.

 

Creating breakout rooms during a Zoom session

Breakout rooms allow a host to place participants into smaller groups. This can be useful for small group discussion and activities. Breakout rooms are controlled and managed by the host.

The host can accomplish this using the breakout button on the toolbar.  The host then defines how many rooms to create.  The host can manually define which participants go into which room or allow Zoom to automatically place  participants in rooms using a randomizer.

Zoom Breakout Room Sorter

Creating breakout rooms in advance

The host can accomplish this through the Zoom Settings Dashboard. This process is detailed at the top of this guide.

Things to know about breakout rooms

  • meetings being cloud recorded only record the main room regardless of what room the meeting host is in.

For more details about breakout rooms, view the Zoom Breakout documentation.

Office Hours

We recommend using Zoom to hold office hours to minimize the need for other tools. Please use the instructions above to schedule your office hours and change the referenced settings below. Office hours should be scheduled through Canvas to be accessible by all students.


By choosing to use Zoom for office hours, you have the ability for certain restrictions and options.

  • If you want private office hours for one-on-one meetings, you can enable the waiting room to restrict who is allowed in and admit them when you are ready, follow these settings:
    • Topic: You may change the Topic name for the meeting as you wish. We recommend adding 'Office Hours' to the end of the course name for both you and your student's references.
    • Waiting Room: Check the box to enable the waiting room. For more information about the waiting room feature click here.
    • Meeting Options: Uncheck 'Record the meeting automatically in the cloud'
  • If you want to conduct office hours as a open forum discussion available to the entire class, follow these settings:
    • Topic: If you would like office hours recorded and shared with the entire class, leave the course number and name in the Topic and append 'Office Hours'. If you do NOT want office hours recorded and shared with the entire class, you may change the Topic name for the meeting as you wish
    • Meeting Options: Check or uncheck the 'Record the meeting automatically in the cloud' button as appropriate.

Zoom Transcripts

You can access the dashboard for your Zoom account by logging into your GW Law email and using the nine dot Google Apps menu.  Once in your Zoom account, you can access transcripts by following the steps below.

  1. In the left navigation menu of your Zoom account, click on Recordings.
     
  2. Under the Cloud Recordings tab, look for your recording.
     
  3. On the right of your recording’s row, click on the More button and select Download from the drop-down menu. It may say something like “Download (4 files)”, with the number of files depending on your settings.
     
  4. Zoom will then ask you where you want to download the files onto your computer. Once you select a download destination, Zoom will download the first file of the batch. Zoom will again ask you where you want to download the next file, and so on.
     
  5. Navigate to where you downloaded the files and look for the file ending with a .vtt extension. The file ending with .vtt is your transcript.

 

Converting VTT file in Word

  1. Right-click on the .vtt file and select Open With from the drop-down menu, and select Microsoft Word
     
  2. With the .vtt file open in Word, re-save the file (Save As) as a Word Document (.docx) or a PDF (.pdf).
     
  3. Note: You will want to review the transcript and make any needed edits as what has been transcribed may contain errors and will not be perfect. A suggestion would be to replay the video and read through the generated transcript, pausing and editing where needed.