LMS Weekly Update: ZOOM Classroom, Online Brightspace Support and Academic Continuity Resources

Posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2020

Most Asked Questions on ZOOM Classroom tool

  • How many ways are there for setting up a Zoom meeting? You have three ways to schedule a Zoom meeting.
    • From within a course in Brightspace – ideal for when you give lectures to your students. Go to your Brightspace course and access the Zoom Classroom link from under the Tools menu. After you schedule the meeting, the link to the new meeting will automatically show up in your students’ course calendar. They will have access to the meeting on the date and time you chose in the meeting’s settings. Note that your students won’t need to sign up for a Zoom account, as they will automatically have access to your Zoom classroom, as participants.
    • Through the website, outside your Brightspace course, by signing into the Algonquin College Zoom Portal – recommended for small groups’ meetings, when the participants don’t have Brightspace accounts and/or you don’t want your students to join the meeting by mistake. Also, you may choose to use this Zoom portal for your open office hours, specially when you need all your students, from multiple classes, to have access to this room.
    • Using the ZOOM app on your smart phone
  • How do I share my screen? Click on the Share icon, down at the bottom of the screen. You may share your desktop (or choose which desktop, if you have more than one), share a whiteboard that allows you and your students to collaborate, or share one specific app (which you should have it open before you start your Zoom meeting). If you have all the info you need to share with your students in one app (Power Point, World, Excel, etc), then sharing an app instead of the desktop, will avoid the notifications that you usually get from other applications (new emails, new chat messages, etc) to pop up while sharing. But if you need to switch from an application, to a video and then to a website, etc, then Desktop sharing is the way to go. Watch this video for more details on running Zoom and screen sharing.
  • How do I add a virtual background? For those days when your office does not look the best, but you need to turn on your camera while giving your lectures using Zoom, once you have the meeting open, click on the chevron beside the Start Video icon and select the Choose a Virtual Background link. Use one of the existing images, or upload your personal ones, by clicking on Add Image. Click here for more information on setting a different background.
  • How do I record my lecture and make it available on Brightspace? We recommend opening your own Zoom meeting – find your personal meeting ID by logging in to your own Zoom account. Under the Profile menu, you will find your Personal Meeting ID .
    • Start your session by going to Host a meeting menu, on the right hand side, up at the top. You can start the meeting with video ON, OFF, or only screen sharing. We may choose to bookmark this address for easy access, next time when you need to record. The link will look like this: https://algonquincollege.zoom.us/s/YourOwnMeetingID.
    • Test your microphone and video settings.
    • Decide if you need to share your desktop or only one application. Open only the websites or the applications you need to share, before you start sharing and recording.
    • Don’t forget to click on the Record button. We recommend that you record on your computer. This video shows you how to record the meeting and also how to access the files with the recordings (under Documents/Zoom folder on your computer)
    • Make the recordings available to your students – We are waiting on guidance for best practices – Please check the LMS Weekly Update website in the next few days.
  • How do I use breakout rooms? Watch this video for details on this.

Online Faculty Brightspace Support Hours

Please know that you can still book 15 -minutes appointments with one of our Brightspace Faculty Support Team members by using this link. The appointments will take place using a ZOOM meeting or the Desktop Sharing in Teams. You will be sent by email a link to the ZOOM room where the session will take place, closer to the beginning of the appointment. Otherwise, please use the link included in the appointment confirmation email. Note that we are providing support Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Multiple Ways to find Answers to some of your Brightspace Questions

Academic Continuity resources

LTS encourages you to check out their Academic Continuity resources, in particular the Teaching Remotely page, which includes teaching guidance and links to the recommended tools for delivery, one of which is Brightspace.


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