Video conferencing - Zoom
Zoom is a collaborative software product and is available for use by distance teachers and supported by the University’s ITSS eConferencing team.
Using Zoom, you and your students can see and talk with each other, share your screens and show presentations to each other, use text chat and a whiteboard, and record your sessions. There is also an instant messaging system via the desktop or mobile application.
The University provides bookable videoconferencing services at the Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington campuses, and in the University of Otago Centre on Queen Street in Auckland.
Students can attend “classes” from work or home if they have access to a reasonably modern computer, a headset and webcam, or just a mobile device and headphones, as well as a good quality broadband connection.
Videoconferencing:
- offers immediacy and a way of building social presence within the class;
- provides a way to undertake live demonstrations; and
- can enhance collaborative activities across sites.
The potential disadvantage with videoconferencing is that it can suffer from lecturers sometimes teaching with the same methods in the “virtual” classroom as they do in their face-to-face classroom. Courses should be designed to exploit the advantages of videoconferencing in combination with the use of other technologies.
Information about Zoom, including how to get started can be found at: https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/zoom/
Log in and automatically create your account here: https://otago.zoom.us/signin
If you wish to discuss in more detail how Zoom could work for you, please contact:
ITSS eConferencing on:
Tel 64 3 479 8997 or 64 3 479 8440