Zoom FAQ

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 will automatically start and 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?

Zoom breakout rooms allow meeting hosts to temporarily break participants into smaller Zoom meetings for small-group discussion. Hosts 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.

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?.

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?.

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.

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. At this time, Zoom does not allow a Biola Zoom classroom to join a breakout session. This means, if you are teaching from a Zoom classroom and start a Zoom breakout room, the recording will continue as the Zoom classroom will remain in the recorded meeting.

What you should do:

1. 1. 1. 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 Mute button on the Zoom touch panel in the classroom to mute the classroom mic.
         3. Press the Stop Video button on the Zoom touch panel in the classroom to stop the classroom video camera.
         4. Once the breakout session ends, press the Unmute button on the Zoom touch panel in the classroom to unmute the classroom mic.
         5. Once the breakout session ends, press the Start Video button on the Zoom touch panel in the classroom to start the classroom video camera.

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.

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

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. 

• A Guide for Academics: Open Book Exams
• Alternatives to the Traditional Exam

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Contact Information

• Phone: 562.903.4740
• Email:it.helpdesk@biola.edu
• Metzger Helpdesk: By appointment
• Tech Commons Helpdesk: Closed
• Remote Support Screen-sharing: By appointment

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.

Classroom reference monitors support viewing up to 25 participants at a time.

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 Assistance managing Zoom setup as well as meeting starting/stopping/recording on your behalf.

Zoom Classrooms 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.
• 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.