Zoom: Student Assistant Role and Responsibility

Instructions:

A “concurrent classroom”, with local and remote students attending at the same time, is best managed with an assistant to operate Zoom during the instruction. Instructors should set clear expectations with the assistant on the tasks they will perform, and how they should interact with the instructor and students.  This assigned assistant must be granted co-host privileges in the Zoom meeting so that they can manage the student interactions.

Making assigned assistant a co-host:

During a meeting: 

1. Hover over a user's video. 
2. Click the more icon. 
3. Click Make Co-Host. 

Using the Participants window: 

1. Click on Manage Participants in the meeting controls at the bottom of the Zoom window. 
2. Hover over the name of the participant who is going to be a co-host, and choose More. 
3. Click Make Co-Host. 
4. Once a participant has been made a co-host, they'll have access to the co-host controls. 

The student assistant may have any of the following responsibilities: 

1. Admit students into the class from the Zoom Waiting Room 
2. Confirm instructor is being seen and heard as expected 
3. Note attendance if required 
4. Monitor and manage microphone and camera activity from remote students 
5. Monitor Zoom chat and relay questions to the instructor at appropriate times 
6. Create and manage Zoom Breakout Rooms (student must have host privileges) 
7. Launch a Zoom Poll which has already been created by the instructor prior to class 
    

Admit students into the class from the Zoom Waiting Room 

Students entering a Zoom class meeting may be diverted to a “waiting room”. The Student Assistant will be responsible for admitting students from the waiting room into the Zoom classroom. 

To admit these individuals to the meeting, the meeting co-host needs to: 

1. Click on Manage Participants in the meeting controls at the bottom of the Zoom window. 
2. In the Participants pane, either click Admit for individual attendees, or Admit All to let in everyone who's waiting. 
    

Confirm instructor is being seen and heard as expected 

The instructor should ask if students can see and hear as expected at the beginning of the session. The student assistant may confirm student responses in chat and relay to the instructor if there are problems. 
 

Note attendance if required 

If the instructor requires attendance, the Student Assistant will note attendance in the Zoom session. Since not everyone is identifiable by their full name in Zoom, recommended practice is that students “sign in” in the Zoom chat by clicking the chat icon and typing their full name when they enter the room. At the end of the session, the Student Assistant can save the chat to capture the information (click on chat, then click the ellipsis in the chat window and select “save chat”). 
 

Monitor and manage microphone and camera activity from remote students 

Student Assistants should be prepared to mute the microphone or camera in case of a remote student disrupting the class. 

To mute audio or disable cameras for a Participants, the meeting co-host needs to: 

1. Click on Manage Participants in the meeting controls at the bottom of the Zoom window. 
2. Hover over the student's name and select: 
   • Mute to disable the audio 
   • More > Stop Video to disable the camera 
      

Monitor Zoom chat and relay questions to the instructor at appropriate times 

The best practice for managing questions in a concurrent classroom is to have students on Zoom ask their questions in chat. The Student Assistant in the classroom can relay the question at a moment when it won’t disrupt the class. Students may use microphones for followup questions or discussion, and during designated Q&A periods. The Student Assistant may also need to relay questions from students in the classroom into the Zoom chat, in case the in-class students cannot be heard. 
 

Create and manage Zoom Breakout Rooms 

The student assistant may, at the direction of the instructor, create and manage Zoom Breakout Rooms for class discussion periods. The instructor will need to transfer host privileges to the student. 

Create Breakout Rooms 

1. Locate the Breakout Rooms button in the Zoom toolbar and click on it to start with creating Breakout rooms. 
2. Select the number of rooms in which you want to split your participants. Also, select the appropriate option to automatically or manually assign guests into the breakout rooms. 
3. If opted for manually assigning guests to the meeting room, click on the Assign button in front of the Breakout rooms and select the respective guests to add it to the breakout room. 
4. After clicking on Assign, click on the checkbox in front of the name of participant that you want to add into the breakout room 
5. Hover over the names of the participants added into the breakout rooms to be able to see the options to move or exchange them with another participant in a different breakout room. Click on move and select the breakout room in which you want to transfer this participant. 
6. After adding all the participants and assigning them to their respective breakout rooms. Click on Open All Rooms to start the breakout room sessions. 
7. You can view which participants have accepted the breakout room invitation and with whom it is still pending. The active or inactive status in the breakout room can be used to infer this. Active users have a green circle in front of their name whereas the inactive users are greyed out 

Managing Breakout Rooms 

1. During a breakout room session, the host can broadcast a message in all the breakout rooms (like a warning of timeout or a reminder). To broadcast a message, click on breakout rooms button from the toolbar and click on the Broadcast Message To All option. 

Joining a Breakout Room as the Host 

1. If the host wants to join any breakout room, he or she can do that once the breakout rooms are opened for sessions. To join any breakout room, click on the Join link available in front of that breakout room and then click on yes to confirm. 

Ending Breakout Rooms 

1. To close the breakout room session, click on the Close All Rooms button. After clicking on the Close All Rooms button, the breakout room session will be active for 60 more seconds and then it will be closed automatically, or you can force it to close by clicking on Return to Main Session. 
    

Conduct Zoom Polling 

The student assistant may, at the direction of the instructor, conduct polls in Zoom. The poll questions must be created in advance of the session, by the instructor. 

Outcome:

User will know their role and responsibility as a Zoom Student Assistant

Further reading:

Instructions for Zoom Polls: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-for-meetings. 

Need additional help?

Please fill out the Zoom Web Conferencing help form with as much detail as possible, or contact the Technology Help Desk on your local campus.