There are dozens of ways to facilitate a Zoom session with your class. However, simply broadcasting your lecture through a Zoom session is likely to be less effective than meeting with your class in person. Adding interactive activities throughout the session is an easy way to break up a session and gather feedback from your students. Let's look at a few possibilities.

Students Should Have An Active Role

Not only should the instructor communicate to the students. The students should be communicating to the instructor and with one another. Otherwise, why does it need to be live? If you're just delivering information in a monologue, that can be done in a video that students can access at any time that's convenient for them. A live session should be a two-way street.

Have a Plan

Baristas

Check out these great resources from experts in the field.

When You Get Nothing But Crickets

Active Learning in Hybrid & Physically Distanced Classrooms

How to Teach When Everyone is Scattered

Video Classism

As with any instruction, thoughtful consideration should be given to how you will interact with your students around the instruction. Have a plan for your Zoom session. You don't need a script but an outline of what you'd like to accomplish will make the experience better for everyone. Think through what you want to communicate to students as well as when and how you will receive information from students. If your response to -- why does it need to be live? -- is so students can ask questions, plan for that. When will you pause for questions? Will you have students type their questions in the chat? Will you call on students one at a time? Will you just open it up and hope you get more than crickets?

Zoom with Activities Breaks

One way to break up a Zoom session is by planning breaks during which students complete some activity in Canvas or somewhere else, a quiz or survey would work well. Then, after the activity has been completed, everyone returns their attention to the Zoom session and the results or experiences are discussed.

Another way to break up a Zoom session would be to have everyone participated in a shared activity during the Zoom session. You could use the drawing features in Zoom to markup a document, image, or website as a group. You could participate in a quick brainteaser activity. You could pause for a social intermission during which everyone shows off their favorite coffee mug, demonstrates an impressive physical feat, or discusses a non-course related shared interest. The possibilities are endless.

Zoom with Breakout Room Activities

Zoom can be a way to facilitate small group activities similar to breaking into small groups periodically during an in-class meeting. After some time as a whole group, the breakout function can be used to divide students into smaller groups within Zoom. The instructor can remain in the main Zoom session so that students can come back to ask questions, or they can move from breakout room to breakout room listening in and advising the groups as they would in a classroom setting. After a prescribed amount of time, everyone could return to the main session to debrief.

Zoom Technical Resources

Accessing Your OTC Zoom Account

Sharing Your Screen in Zoom

How to use Breakout Rooms

Screen Share & Annotation for EDU

Comprehensive Guide to Educating Through Zoom

How to use Waiting Rooms to Manage Office Hours & Drop-In Visitor Times