Introduction
The purpose of this document is to help students and instructors become familiar with Zoom’s features. The sections in this document will go over basic and some more advanced features.
Zoom is a video conferencing software that allows multiple users to participate in virtual meetings in real-time. There are both paid and free features; however this document will only cover the free features intended to be used for classroom purposes.
Table of contents
Who This Guide is For
This guide is for both students and instructors that want to use Zoom for educational purposes. The user is assumed to have some basic knowledge on how to operate computers and browse the internet. This guide will provide instructions for people that are new to Zoom and will help to navigate the software’s main features.
This guide will provide instructions for the following topics:
- How to Host a Meeting
- Basic Meeting Features
- Screen Sharing
Software Versions
The instructions in this guide apply to the latest Windows version of Zoom at the time of writing (Version 5.6.1). There may be slight differences for other versions of Zoom. Please note that there could be differences for iOS and mobile versions of the app.
Note: The Zoom web client does not have access to many features such as screen sharing, remote control, etc. We recommend using the desktop client to take advantage of all of the available features of Zoom.
The latest version of Zoom can be downloaded here.
Prerequisites
To follow this guide’s instructions completely, you will need the following:
- a Zoom account
- the latest desktop version of Zoom
- a stable internet connection
- a working webcam and microphone
- sufficient storage space if recording videos
Typographical Conventions
This guide uses the following typographic conventions:
| Convention | Typeface | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Buttons / Menu Options | “Button” | “Mute”, “Backgrounds & Filters”, “Start Video” |
Note: This is a note icon which indicates to take note of the following point.
Caution: This a caution icon which indicates to give a warning about the following point.
Conclusion
Zoom can be a powerful software that can greatly enhance the online learning experience. As more traditional processes become digitalized and done virtually, software like Zoom will continue to become more prevalent.
Let’s get started and become familiar with this useful application! We recommend starting with How to Host a Meeting.