Remote Teaching and Learning at Peabody

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Faculty Guide to Zoom

Faculty Guide to Zoom

Live Classroom

Faculty can conduct live classroom sessions remotely through a Zoom meeting. Classes can be lead in a combination of video lecture and sharing your screen to show materials. Students can also present materials and create breakout groups.

For those new to using Zoom, reference this getting started guide (Zoom website) in advance of first use with students. Also see IT@Peabody’s Zoom Video Conferencing FAQ. Be sure to practice and build familiarity with how the tool works. All faculty logging into https://jhupeabody.zoom.us will automatically be given an updated account with no limitations.

Zoom Quick Tips to Relay to Students

  • Test audio and video at least 15 minutes before class starts
  • Use headphones
  • Mute microphone when not speaking
  • Send students the Zoom page for students!

Considerations Regarding “Zoombombing”

Inside Higher Ed detailed the relatively new phenomena of Zoombombing in which “online Zoom classes were disrupted by individuals spewing racist, misogynistic or vulgar content.” See also the New York Times and the LA Times. With the massive increase in Zoom usage, nefarious actors have found a new sort of hobby.

What Precautions Can Faculty Take When Setting Up Meetings?

  • Don’t post meeting links to public sites. Post your meeting links to Canvas or send them to your students through email. Links posted publicly can be found and used by anyone.
  • Make sure that you join as host. If you join your own meeting with the same link sent to students, you may join as a participant without access to the host controls. To ensure that you join as host, make sure that you always launch your meetings from the Zoom application on your device.
  • Require a password to join your meetings. If you have already sent out the link, you can send them the password after you set it up. If you haven’t sent the link yet, you have the ability to embed the password in the meeting link.
  • Enable a waiting room. When you enable a waiting room, participants will be greeted with a message that they must wait for the host to admit them. The host screens entrants and decide who to admit.
  • For public or large meetings, avoid using your personal meeting ID (PMI). Save your PMI for small meetings with colleagues or for students with whom you meet regularly. Think of your PMI like a direct phone number when considering its use.
  • Restrict your participants’ abilities. You have the ability to Mute Participants upon Entry and to lock screen sharing to participants you specify. You can find these setting in your Zoom client, and they are also available to the host during meeting. When in the meeting, the options are available to you in the “Share Screen” settings and in the “Participants” pane.
  • For more guidelines and information, see IT@JH’s resource for Securing Your Zoom Meeting, the CER’s Zoom page, and Zoom’s article “How to Keep the Party Crashers from Crashing Your Zoom Event.”

What Can Be Done If a “Zoombomber” Joins a Meeting?

If someone joins your meeting and the options above are utilized, you should have some time to remove them. Use this time to:

  • Mute all. In the participant panel, you have the option to Mute All and disallow them from unmuting. 
  • Disable share screen. If the unwanted guest has already begun sharing their screen, you can select “View Options : Stop Participant Sharing” to knock them out. If you haven’t done so previously, also select the up arrow next to “Share Screen” at the bottom of the Zoom window, and in “Advanced Sharing Options” select that “Only Host” can share.
  • Remove them. In the “Participants” list, the Host has the ability to remove a participant and disallow re-entry.
  • Consider switching to a different Zoom meeting. End the call, and send your participants a new meeting ID with the settings updated as recommended above. If the meeting was using your personal meeting ID, you can change your PMI in your profile settings, along with adding a password and waiting room to your PMI meetings.

1 – 1 Lessons and Peabody’s Guide to Using Zoom in “Music Mode”

To provide one on one music lessons, all faculty already have access to a current Zoom account. Log in at https://jhupeabody.zoom.us with your JHED. 

By default, Zoom is optimized for human speech and the associated frequency range and volume levels. Peabody’s Guide to Using Zoom in “Music Mode” outlines the settings you can change to tip the scales towards optimizing for the dynamic range of music. The PDF guide contains a Quick Start Guide, along with detailed instructions and screenshots to help you along the way, and is also posted on the Zoom for Students and Families page.

Two important notes:

  • Faculty and students need to set many of these settings on their respective devices, and the guide is written for all. 
  • In particular, the “Preserve Original Audio” setting is available on both Macs/PCs and iOS/Android devices.
  • These settings will only help to preserve the quality of the audio that is being captured. An external microphone and headphones or speakers for each participant will greatly improve the sound quality that is able to be transmitted and received. For more information and recommendations on microphones for lessons, see this portion of Peabody’s Keep Learning site.

For a few additional resources, you can:

IT@Peabody and the Learning Innovation team is always available to help. Contact either team via https://servicedesk.peabody.jhu.edu.

Zoom Recording Guidelines

The choice to record a Zoom session is a decision made by the instructor; recordings should only be made if the instructor determines there is a pedagogical reason to do so. Like other course content created as part of university activities, these recordings are subject to the Johns Hopkins Intellectual Property Policy. Zoom recordings should be treated as subject to federal student privacy law (FERPA) and the Johns Hopkins University FERPA Policy if students are personally identifiable in the recordings. Please contact your divisional Registrar with any questions.

For more information on JHU policy regarding Zoom recordings, please see JHU’s Guidelines for Recording with Zoom. When referring to these guidelines, please remember that Zoom domain for Peabody faculty is https://jhupeabody.zoom.us – not the central domain referenced in the above documentation.

Zoom FAQ

Here are the most frequent questions we get about Zoom:

  • What’s the easiest way to get started? Go to https://jhupeabody.zoom.us, log in using your JHED ID, and then create an instant or scheduled meeting. Once you share the link, everyone can use that link to join your session. Post the link to your Canvas space so that the students can always find it when needed.
  • How many students can join my class? The maximum number of attendees in one meeting is 300 people.
  • Why can I hear my voice echoing? This occurs when someone else’s microphone is picking up the sound from their speakers. Remind your class to keep their microphones muted unless they are speaking. As the call leader you can also mute all participants if needed. It also usually helps if all attendees use headphones instead of speakers.
  • How do I fix the sound quality when I play music for the class? If you are playing an audio recording for your class, you want to ensure they are hearing the original recording rather than your microphone picking up the music from your speakers. To do this, follow the instructions to share computer sound on Zoom. (Note: the first time you do this, you may have to install an extra plugin and restart your Zoom client. Please test in advance of class so you are ready!) If you plan to play an instrument live in class, take a look at Peabody’s Guide to Using Zoom in “Music Mode”. 
  • How do I record my class?  If you need to record a class session, follow the instructions for starting a cloud recording – this will save the file to the cloud and notify you via email when a link is ready to share the recording later in your Canvas classroom. Cloud recordings offer automatic interactive captioning and transcription, multiple viewing options, and will remain in your online Zoom account for 60 days. If you need the recording only for your own reference and don’t need the features above, follow the instructions for starting a local recording – this will save the file to your computer (or you can save to the cloud and download the recording to your computer later). 
  • How can I learn more? For additional help using Zoom, please visit the Zoom support page at http://support.zoom.us/ or contact IT@Peabody or the Learning Innovation team via https://servicedesk.peabody.jhu.edu.