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Introduction

This page covers frequently asked questions about using Zoom Meetings and Zoom Classroom technology. The current focus is on Zoom for remote teaching and learning. We are continuing to update this list as additional questions come to us.


Table of Contents

1. Where can I get the Zoom Meeting link to my scheduled courses?

Biola created Zoom meetings for each scheduled course on behalf of Faculty and imported the Zoom meeting links into the appropriate Canvas course. Faculty are be listed as the owners of these meetings so they can log into https://biola.zoom.us with their NetID and password to view attendance, create polls, or pre-assign breakout rooms in advance. The Zoom meeting for each course can be easily started manually from the classroom touch panel and will automatically stop at the scheduled course time. 

  • Faculty can access the Zoom meeting for their Canvas course in two ways: 1) through Zoom Room in the classroom and 2) through the Zoom meeting link for each course from Canvas on their laptop. 
  • Students can find the Zoom meeting information, as well as recordings of previous class sessions, in the Canvas course.

For more specific information on where you can find your Zoom meetings in Canvas, please see Where is My Class Zoom Meeting Information?

2. What is a breakout room and how do I start one?

Zoom breakout rooms allow meeting hosts or cohosts to temporarily break participants into smaller Zoom meetings for small-group discussion. Hosts or cohosts can set the breakout duration, automatically or manually assign participants to rooms, and may join a breakout room. To start a breakout room, Faculty must connect to the Zoom meeting using the Zoom application from a desktop or laptop computer. Please read all of the information below to fully understand how breakout rooms function, especially if you are using them in a Zoom Classroom.

For more specific information on how to start a breakout room remotely or while teaching from a Biola Zoom classroom, please see our documentation links below. Note, the process is slightly different when in a classroom vs when you are teaching from your home or office.


In a Zoom Classroom

In your Home or Office

How do I start a breakout room?

How Do I Start a Breakout Room in a Zoom Classroom?How Do I Start a Breakout Room outside a Zoom Classroom?

Can I (the host) join a breakout room?

The professor can assign a Zoom Classroom to a breakout room using their computer, but must not connect their computer's audio and should keep their computer camera off. See these directions on joining breakout rooms in a Zoom Classroom while using your computer.

Note: If anyone remains in the main Zoom meeting, the main Zoom session will continue to be recorded (see below).

Yes. For information on how to do this, please see How Do I Join a Breakout Room outside a Zoom Classroom?

What happens to the recording while breakout rooms are running?

By default, the Zoom Classroom’s camera and mic will continue recording you while the breakout rooms are happening unless you assign the Zoom Classroom to a breakout room.

To prevent yourself from being recorded while breakout sessions are going if you do not assign the Zoom Classroom to a breakout room, you can either pause the recording on the Zoom app on your computer (see instructions below), or you can mute the video and mic on the Zoom Classroom touch panel.

Make sure to instruct asynchronous students to skip over this blank part of the recording.

Breakout rooms are not recorded.

By default, your computer webcam and mic will continue recording you. To prevent this from happening while breakout sessions are going, you can either pause the recording on the Zoom app on your computer (see instructions below), or you can join the breakout sessions yourself (see above for directions). Joining the breakout session will automatically pause the recording. When you re-enter the main session, the recordings will resume automatically.

How do I pause the recording?

You would need to pause the recording from your computer’s Zoom App. You MUST remember to resume the recording when the breakout rooms are done.

Can my TA run my breakout rooms?

Yes, but they'll need to be a co-host of the meeting. If your TA has a paid user license, you'll be able to do this in advance of the meeting, otherwise, you'll need to do this during the meeting.

3. Can I pre-assign students into specific breakout rooms?

Yes, Zoom allows users to pre-assign participants into specific breakout rooms when editing a meeting in the biola.zoom.us/meeting/ web interface.

For more information on how to pre-assign participants into specific breakout rooms prior to starting a meeting, please see How Do I Pre-assign a Zoom Breakout Room?.

4. How do I share content in Zoom?

When teaching or learning remotely, Faculty and students can share content using the Zoom desktop application on their computer. When teaching from a Biola Zoom classroom, Faculty can share content by connecting a laptop computer to the classroom podium and using the room's touch panels to control when content is shared.

For more specific information on how to share content when remote or from a Biola Zoom classroom, please see How Do I Share Content in Zoom?.

5. How will students view previous Zoom class recordings?

Biola is configuring IT-created Zoom class meetings to automatically record while the meeting is running, no matter who hosts the meeting. This ensures class sessions will be recorded when Faculty teach from a Biola Zoom classroom as well as if they need to teach remotely from a computer. IT has configured these meetings to automatically post the recording in the Canvas course when the meeting ends.

For more information on how to find previous Zoom meeting recordings, see How Do I View Previous Zoom Class Recordings?

See this FAQ if students are having trouble accessing recordings when they click on the recording links in Canvas.

6. What happens to recordings when I start a breakout room?

Zoom will continue to record the initial meeting unless the host stops or pauses recording, ends the meeting or all participants have joined a breakout room. If you join Zoom from your computer and assign the Zoom Classroom to a breakout room, the room will continue to record a blank and silent screen.

What you should do:

        1. Let your asynchronous student watching the recording how long the breakout session will go, so they know how long tot fast-forward.
        2. Press the pause recording button in the Zoom app on your computer when breakout sessions begin.
        3. Press the continue recording button in the Zoom app on your computer when breakout sessions end.

7. How can I help students without access to needed technology?

The Biola IT department has laptops and mobile hotspots available for students to borrow. If a student doesn’t have access to required technology please have them complete the Request to Borrow a Computer or Request to Borrow a WiFi Hotspot form and IT will contact them. Also, Biola IT is working to provide curricular software to students via a virtual computer lab product called Apporto. Apporto will allow students to access course software on any device, from anywhere with an adequate internet connection.

If you would like IT to provide a specific software for your students to use, please fill out our software request form.

8. How can I request specific technology for my classroom?

Our intent is to provide a consistent classroom technology experience across the campus so that using the technology is easy, reliable, and supportable. 

If the standard Classroom Remote Instruction Technology models don’t meet your specific academic needs please complete the following form so we can reach out to you to discuss and review your request: Custom Classroom Technology Request form

9. How can I take attendance of remote students?

The following are engagement guidelines that faculty might want to consider as they make their own individual instructional decisions, particularly regarding attendance and exams. Different courses call for different kinds/levels of engagement and assessment. While these guidelines are provided, it will be up to the faculty member to decide what is appropriate for his or her courses.

  • Consider "attendance" to encompass engagement beyond a student's presence in a physical classroom and reserve awarding points for activities that contribute to students’ learning and progression towards learning outcomes.

  • A modified approach towards attendance may be to monitor student engagement by naming specific activities and criteria by which a student can demonstrate they are effectively engaging in the course and the learning experience. Some examples include:

    • Frequency of log-ins into Canvas

    • Participation in discussions threads, conferences, small groups

    • Touchpoints or meeting sessions with the faculty

    • Low-stakes learning activities and assessments (e.g. short assignments, quizzes, meta-cognitive reflection questions, etc.)

Ideally, assessment of student learning will not change much for remote delivery. However, keep in mind that assessments should be used to measure and reflect student engagement with the course learning outcomes and reinforce learning. Concerns regarding exams in a remote setting might best be solved by reconsidering the assessment tool being utilized. 

10. How can remote students engage small group discussion?

Zoom breakout rooms allow Faculty to split their session into virtual discussion groups. Faculty can then temporarily assign their remote students to these virtual discussion groups manually or allow Zoom to randomly choose the group assignment automatically. For more information on Zoom breakout rooms and how to use them, please see How to Manage a Zoom Breakout Room.

11. How do I facilitate finals/exams for remote students?

Faculty can use the basic Canvas Quiz system to administer tests online. In addition, if they are not open-book tests, they may want to use the Respondus LockDown browser, which does not allow students to copy & paste or view other websites on their computer while they are taking the exam.

For more information on how you and your students can use Respondus, please see Instructor Quick Start Guide and the Student Quick Start Guide.

12. How secure are classroom recordings?

Biola has vetted Zoom, VidGrid, and Canvas to ensure they meet FERPA, HIPPA and GDPR regulations for data privacy and protection. If you have any specific data security/privacy questions regarding the use of these tools, please email the IT Helpdesk at it.helpdesk@biola.edu and we can direct your question to Biola’s IT Security team.

13. How to work with or talk about individuals in restrictive countries?

You should use extreme caution when communicating digitally about people that work in restrictive countries until advised that their situation is secure. The key is to write and speak as though your emails, phone calls, video conferences, and digital interactions are all being listened to or observed by a government official.

For more information, please see the Email and General Security Guidelines for Those in Restrictive Countries section on the Remote Educational Services Guidebook.

14. How will class recordings get to Canvas?

Zoom class meetings that were created by IT and integrated in Canvas will automatically post class recordings once Zoom has processed them in the Cloud Recordings menu in the course's Zoom tab.

15. What level of support is available for Faculty?

Contact Information

Instructional Support Hours:

  • Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
  • Saturday: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Sunday: Closed

Biola IT will provide a higher level of classroom technology support for Fall 2020 in the following categories:

  • In-class Support: We will dedicate greater numbers of staff to classroom tech support and strategically place them around campus for faster response.

  • After-class Incident Support: We are engineering our incident response workflows for quick resolution of issues. If issues cannot be solved, we will be ready to provide workarounds.

16. How many participants can I see in my classroom reference monitor?

Classroom reference monitors support viewing up to 25 participants at a time. If your meeting has more than 25 participants, you can view additional participants by pressing the scroll buttons next to the Change View option on the Zoom touch panel.

17. Will I need to bring my computer to the classroom?

Biola classrooms are equipped with Zoom Classroom technology. A Zoom Classroom is a tool that hosts online Zoom meetings in a classroom, so Faculty can see, hear, talk and share content with remote students. You can view the Zoom Classroom like a virtual Teacher's Assistant managing Zoom setup, turning on your camera/mic, recording and stopping the meeting on your behalf.

Zoom Classrooms streamline and automate the Zoom experience in a classroom, but there are a few scenarios where you will need to bring and use your own laptop:

  • If you would like to respond to students via chat.
  • If you would like to configure, initiate or end Zoom breakout rooms (unless you have a TA manage this for you).
  • If you would like to administer polls.
  • If you would like to use the Zoom digital white board.
  • If you would like to share content from your computer.
For more information on how to do the above on your laptop, please see our How to Use a Zoom Classroom documentation.

18. Can I get reimbursed for a personally-funded Zoom license?

Faculty should submit reimbursement requests to the purchasing department using the reimbursement requisition form.

19. Do I need a Biola-licensed Zoom account to use Zoom?

Anyone can create a free, Biola Zoom account at any time. A free account may be sufficient for your needs, and Biola will not incur any additional costs. To create a free account within Biola’s organization, go to https://biola.zoom.us/ and sign in with your NetID.

20. How can I get Biola-themed Zoom Backgrounds?

The Office of University Marketing has created Biola-branded Zoom backgrounds for faculty and staff to use in meetings. Download the backgrounds here. 

21. How do I get a Biola Zoom account?

Faculty/Staff: Biola Faculty and Staff are eligible for a full, Biola Zoom license, though many staff only need a basic license.

  • All staff and faculty can get a basic Biola Zoom account by following these directions on How to Get a Free Biola Zoom Account.
  • All faculty teaching a Fall 2020 course will automatically receive an email invitation to accept a full Biola Zoom account. Click on the approval button in the invitation email and follow the instructions.
  • All other faculty and staff can request a Biola-licensed Zoom account by completing the Zoom account upgrade form. The IT Helpdesk will review your request and respond within 4 business hours. Our first priority is to accommodate all faculty who teach remotely.

Students: All Biola students should set up a basic Biola Zoom account by following these directions on How to Get a Free Biola Zoom Account. If students have trouble activating their account, have them contact us at it.helpdesk@biola.edu.

Student Employees: Student employees are able to get a basic Biola Zoom account by following these directions on How to Get a Free Biola Zoom Account. If your student employee needs an upgraded Biola Zoom license, please email the it.helpdesk@biola.edu to make your request. Normally, most student employees can perform their job functions with just a basic Biola Zoom account.

Teaching Assistants: As with student employees, TA's are able to get a basic Biola Zoom account by following these directions on How to Get a Free Biola Zoom Account. If you believe your TA needs an upgraded Biola Zoom license to meet with mulitple groups of students for study halls, please email the it.helpdesk@biola.edu to make your request.

22. How do I use Zoom in a Hybrid-Flex classroom?

Biola has installed hardware that enhances current classroom technology to be able to automatically host online Zoom meetings so that you can teach all your students and be freed up to focus on teaching.

A Zoom Classroom runs a meeting in the same way you would run a meeting on your laptop, but doesn’t use your computer. All the processing is handled by the classroom’s AV system, providing an optimized web meeting setup that avoids the technical problems you might encounter when hosting the meeting on your laptop.

For more information on how to use a Zoom Classroom, please see How to Use a Zoom Classroom.

23. Is Zoom safe to use?

Yes. Zoom has quickly patched every newly-discovered vulnerability in their software, and they are focused on improving security even more. Whenever the Zoom app prompts you for an update, install it right away. These updates contain security patches. For more tips on how to use Zoom safely, please see Safeguarding Your Zoom Meetings.

24. What changes come with a Biola-licensed account upgrade?

Faculty and staff that previously created a personal Zoom account using their Biola email address should be aware of a few ramifications before accepting a Biola-managed license.

What Will Change:

  • Your personal Zoom account, contacts, and recordings will come under the management of Biola University.

  • A few institutional settings are applied (link to settings) that may not have been in place on your personal account.

  • To preserve our limited licenses, Biola will need to retain your license if you ever leave the institution.

  • If you were ever to leave Biola as a faculty or staff member, Biola will retain ownership of your Zoom account and recordings. Also, Biola is not able to assist you with downloading personal recordings from your Biola licensed Zoom account.

Other Notes:

  • All pre-existing meetings will remain in your account.

  • If you need Zoom for personal reasons, we recommend that you create a personal Zoom account instead.

25. Why would I need a Biola-licensed Zoom account?

With a Basic (free) account, meetings of 3 or more participants time out after 40 minutes. Licensed accounts have no timeouts. Licensed users also get a few other Zoom features.

26. Why can't students access recordings for their courses?

Students need to have a Biola Zoom account, or they will not be able to see the recordings in Canvas.

If students encounter an error when they try to view recordings in Canvas, they need to follow these steps:

  1. Go to https://biola.zoom.us. Please note that if you are already logged in to zoom.us (not biola.zoom.us) with a non-Biola account, you will not be automatically directed to the correct location. You will need to log out, and then go back to https://biola.zoom.us.
  2. Go back to the https://biola.zoom.us address once more to go to Biola's Zoom log-in page.
  3. Click the "Sign in with NetID" button. Note: If the student does not see the "Sign in with NetID" button, they should confirm that the page address is actually https://biola.zoom.us.

Note: The student may receive an email from Zoom at their Biola email account inviting them to join Biola's Zoom account. If they receive that email, they need to accept that invitation.

This will ensure that the student gets a Biola Zoom account. If they already had a personal Zoom account that used their Biola email before Biola purchased Zoom in late May, then the student will need to agree to join Biola's Zoom account. Once they've agreed to join and followed all on screen instructions, then they can go back to Canvas and view the recordings.

If students attempt to follow the above directions and have trouble, direct them to it.helpdesk@biola.edu and IT will help them activate their account.  

27. Why aren't my participants being assigned to their breakout room pre-assignments?

In Fall 2020 some meeting participants may not be assigned to the breakout room pre-assignments for one of two reasons:

  1. They'd joined the Zoom meeting with a Zoom account associated with a different email address than the one you pre-assigned.

    • IT has resolved this issue: Biola IT is helping every student receive a Biola-managed Zoom account and will be requiring Zoom meetings to only allow Biola-managed Zoom accounts to join them.

  2. The participant joined the meeting after it started. Zoom was able to establish which pre-assigned breakout room a participant should be assigned to when they had joined the meeting before it has been officially started by the host (i.e. Zoom Classroom or Faculty/Staff).
    • Zoom has resolved this issue: Zoom should now be able to determine a student's breakout room pre-assignments no matter when they join the meeting.

28. Why are there a lot of short (often blank) Zoom recordings in my Canvas course?

Biola Canvas courses have received many short and often blank Zoom recordings for a couple reasons.

The first is due to the fact that the Zoom meetings for Biola courses were originally created with the Join Before Host option enabled. This feature allowed students to join their course meetings before the official scheduled time and casually converse with their fellow students or Faculty (if they joined early as well). The outcome was that as soon as a student joined the meeting, they were told the meeting was recording and they left. This would happen many times, creating many blank recordings.

The second is that Faculty would either open the meeting outside the scheduled time at home to get familiar with Zoom and to ensure meeting functionality or just before class started to ensure they're ready to teach.

To address this issue, IT has disabled the Join Before Host option for all meetings IT automatically created for Faculty on August 26th. If your course's meeting was created after the 26th, you can turn it off manually by following the directions listed below. This will decrease the number of unintentional Zoom recordings created by students joining early. We recognize that means students won't be able to meeting casually before class, but this will decrease the amount of confusion to students watching course recordings. Additionally, if you would like to come to your classroom early and ensure you are set up and ready to teach your class, you can start an instant meeting in the classroom that will create an empty meeting that no one else can join without your consent and will not record.

If you would like to turn this on or off, you can do so by following the directions on How to Enable/Disable Join Before Host in Zoom.

29. How do I remove the Zoom classroom from my Zoom meeting?

Zoom meetings that are scheduled to take place in a Zoom Classroom are presently configured to be easily started manually from the classroom touch panel and will be automatically stopped on your behalf.

If you are hosting the meeting remotely, the Zoom Classroom will not join the meeting at the meeting start time.

For information on how to do this, please see How Do I Remove a Zoom Classroom from a Zoom Meeting?

30. Why won't my Zoom breakout room pre-assignments save?

Some professors have reported difficulty saving their breakout room pre-assignments for all sessions of their class meetings.

To create breakout rooms for all recurring meetings and not just the meeting coming up next, it is necessary to click Edit this Meeting at the bottom, and then click All (see highlight below). If the professor clicks Only this Meeting, the breakout assignment does not persist across all dates.

31. How do I prevent or allow participants to join my meeting before I do?

Join before Host is a Zoom meeting setting that allows participants to join a scheduled meeting before the host has officially started it.

This setting allows participants to join early and discuss amongst themselves before the meeting officially starts as well as allows meetings to take place in the event the meeting host is unable to attend. A host may not want this setting enabled if they wish to monitor all interactions between participants or to prevent unmoderated or unwanted content from being recorded if the automatic recording setting is on for a meeting.

For more information on how to disable or enable the Join before Host setting in a Zoom meeting, please see How to Enable/Disable Join Before Host in Zoom.

32. How do I let someone create/view/edit meetings on my behalf?

Scheduling Privilege is a Zoom feature that allows you to give another Biola paid licensed Zoom user the ability to create, view, edit and host meetings on your behalf. Since these users have creation and editing rights, they will be able to create new polls or pre-assign breakout rooms to a meeting in your account.

For more information on how to give someone Scheduling Privilege, please see How to Assign Scheduling Privilege in Zoom.

For more information on how to use Scheduling Privilege, please see How to Edit/Host/Schedule a Zoom Meeting with Scheduling Privilege

33. Who owns & manages Zoom recordings?

For more information about this topic, please see Zoom Recording Ownership & Management FAQ.

34. How do I hide the Zoom tab in my Canvas course?

For more information about this topic, please see How to Hide the Zoom Tab in Canvas.

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