Teaching from Home Guideline

Some Technical Advices for Teachers on Teaching from Home and Teaching with Zoom and Adobe Virtual Classroom

In this pandemic period, the teaching arrangement is always affected by the pandemic status of Hong Kong as well as the School. As the status can be very dynamic, the arrangement can change very rapidly. There is a possibility that our teachers cannot come to the learning centres, but have to teach online from home. Therefore, we may need to get ourselves prepared and equipped for teaching from home. ITSU would like to share some technical advices with our teachers for teaching online from home.

A stable internet connection is necessary. Usually a 500KB to 2MB/s data speed is enough for online teaching. But if we need to show streaming videos, we will need a faster internet connection. If our home internet connection is shared with some other family members and the internet speed is not very fast, we may need to ask them to avoid running network speed demanding applications, e.g. online games, streaming videos, etc., during our online teaching.
If we use WiFi, the WiFi signal must be strong and stable.
For the computing machine, laptop or desktop or tablet can be used but mobile phone may not be recommended. The screen of a mobile phone is too small for us to control the online teaching apps as well as other applications effectively. If we plan to use tablet, we should note that some features of the online teaching apps available in computer version may not be available in the tablet version. Normally, running an online teaching app together with MS Powerpoint does not require too much computing power. But if we need to run several applications at the same time, a more powerful computer is recommended.
Nowadays, most desktops and laptops come with built-in webcams which can be used for live teaching. If we are looking for higher quality imaging, we can add an external webcam via USB port. If we need to show some physical objects or experimental processes in our online classes, external webcam can serve the purpose better.
The sound quality is very important in online teaching. Almost all desktops, laptops and tablets have built-in microphones which can be used for live teaching. We should test the sound pickup quality of the built-in mic. An external microphone via USB port can be considered as an alternative if needed. One with reasonable quality for teaching purpose is not expensive.
We should find a quiet place to carry out online teaching. But if it is really not possible, we may consider to use a headset with microphone.
To have a good image on screen, we should avoid sitting in front of a bright background (e.g. a window) or wearing white clothes. Spotting some light on the face will improve the image as well.
If we need to use hand-writing or make annotations in the teaching, we may consider to add a writing-pad, or to use a touch screen monitor with a stylus, or a laptop with touch screen or a tablet as the computing machine.

If we are going to use Zoom as the app for online teaching, we may find the following features in the app useful for our teaching.

We should always use our user accounts under the HKU SPACE license, but not our personal Zoom accounts, to do the online teaching for HKU SPACE.
We are recommended to install the Zoom app in the computing device. We should use the app rather than internet browser accessing zoom webpage to run our teaching.
Mute all – This function enables the host to mute all the attendees' voice input. If some attendees' microphones are not muted, all the background noise of them will enter into our online classroom. We will find this feature extremely useful while we are lecturing to a large class.
Waiting room - This feature allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting. If we want to check each and every student first before entering the online classroom for the purpose of taking attendance or preventing anomalous attendees, we can enable the waiting room. But we have to prepare that some students may come late and they will interrupt us when they enter the classroom after the class has started.
Share screen – This feature enables us to share many kinds of content to the screen. The most commonly used ones are (1) a portion of the screen or the whole screen (for showing our powerpoints), (2) whiteboard (for hand writing), and (3) image from an external camera (for showing an object). Besides the host, other participants can share their content to the screen. The right of screen sharing of participants can be controlled by the host. If we worry of any anomalous shared screens coming out in our class, we can disable the participants' right of screen sharing.
Attendees list – By logging in the zoom webpage with our user account, we will be able to get a list of participants of meetings under Settings / Reports / Usage Reports.
Set environment during creation of "meeting" – Zoom app provides a lot of options for users to preset the environment in creating a meeting. We can preset the above mentioned rights, conditions and features, such as waiting room, muting all, right of screen sharing, recording, etc. in advance so that we can focus on our teaching rather than taking care of these settings in the beginning of the class.

Zoom has a lot of features and controls for the host to manage his meeting. The above are only the relatively commonly used features for teaching. These features are briefly mentioned here without details as the purpose of this article is to provide advice and tips rather than operational instructions. We can easily find information and operation of each feature of different depths and formats (in text and video modes) on the web. As the Zoom app keeps on upgrading from time to time, the above mentioned may become outdated shortly. Therefore, we should visit the School's Zoom landing page (http://zoom.hkuspace.hku.hk) regularly for latest announcements.

If we are going to use Virtual Classroom as the app for online teaching, we may find the following features in the app useful for our teaching.

We should always use the assigned VC accounts provided by your Programme Team to do the online teaching for HKU SPACE.
We are recommended to install the Adobe Connect app on the computing device. We should use the app rather than an Internet browser accessing the Adobe Connect webpage to run our teaching.
Audio – By default, the voice inputs of all the learner participants are muted. The host can start and stop audio conference and grant microphone rights to participants. If some attendees' microphones are not muted, all the background noise of them will enter our online classroom. You can choose to mute/unmute all attendees by using the Mute/Unmute All Attendees features.
Video - By default, the video inputs of all the learner participants are muted. The host can start and stop video conference and grant video rights to participants.
Pods - This feature allows the host to collaborate and share content in a myriad of ways. Host/presenter can use pods to take notes (Notes Pod), chat (Chat Pod), conduct question-answer sessions (Q&A Pod), poll (Poll Pod), share content (Share Pod), and share files (File Pod), etc. A host can easily resize individual pods, move them around in our online classroom and even hide/call out them at any time.
Share Pod – This feature enables the host to share many kinds of content to the screen. The most commonly used ones are (1) a portion of the screen or the whole screen (for showing our PowerPoint files), (2) whiteboard (for illustration) and (3) an application. Besides the host, other participants can share their content to the screen upon being granted rights by the host. By default, participants are not granted with rights of screen sharing.
Layouts – VC provides a lot of options for users to preset a set of layouts for the coming meetings. The layouts contain various featuring pods for different purposes of activities, e.g., sharing, discussion, and collaboration. We can preset layouts in advance so that we can focus on our teaching and switch from one layout to another with one simple click.
Attendees list – By logging into the Adobe Connect Administration webpage with our VC account, we will be able to get a list of participants of meetings under Meetings / [Respective room folder] / Reports.
Recordings – By logging into the Adobe Connect Administration webpage with our VC account, we will be able to get a list of recordings of meetings under Meetings / [Respective room folder] / Recordings. Recordings can be edited by the build-in editor and then shared with participants.

Similar to Zoom, VC has a lot of features and controls for hosts to manage his/her meetings. The above is only the relatively commonly used features for teaching. We can easily find information and operation of each feature of different depths and formats (in text and video modes) on the web (https://helpx.adobe.com/hk_en/support/connect.html). To get started, teachers can refer to Virtual Classroom Start Guide for Teacher under the E-Learning Course at https://soul2.hkuspace.hku.hk.

The School also provides Microsoft Teams as online teaching app. The app also provides similar features in some ways. We can refer to the School's Teams Landing Page (http://teams.hkuspace.hku.hk) for more information and features about Teams. Furthermore, E-learning Team has prepared some tutorial videos on these online teaching apps which are available at https://soul2.hkuspace.hku.hk under the E-learning Training Course. (https://soul2.hkuspace.hku.hk/course/view.php?id=15652&section=1).

Besides, there are many articles and videos on the topic of tips for carrying out online teaching successfully in different depths, specialties and aspects on the web. We are encouraged to browse around and refer to them based on our own interests and needs.

A final advice that it is desirable to get our equipment setup at home ready, to practise the operation of the required features of the apps and to run some trials with some colleagues or friends as early as possible. Then, we will be ready to teach from home at any time if needed, while the pandemic status may go worse suddenly at any time.

For any further queries on the above matters, please contact the ITS Unit.

Dr CL Chan
Chief Information Officer

HKU SPACE