Carpentries Instructors’ meeting
- Monday, July 6, 2020
- 9:30-11:00 AM
Present:
Albin, Brooks-Kieffer, Deakyne, Everman, Russell
Agenda
- Zoom practice for online workshop
- Using Qualtrics for feedback
- Questions
- Announcements & Resources
Discussions
Used a live shared document again; link upon request if you don’t have it. These notes summarize and organize the shared document.
Zoom Practice
The instructor group practiced using Zoom.
Zoom Settings
Zoom settings affect meetings you create yourself, not meetings you join that others create. Settings an instructor or helper might need to change:
- Include Zoom windows in screen share
- Change in desktop application settings AND in Advanced settings in the browser
- This change allows sharing Zoom windows, which can be helpful for showing people where to find a specific Zoom function
- Enable participant nonverbal feedback
- Change in Advanced settings
- This change enables the yes/no/faster/slower/need a break/away indicators in the participant window
- Enable polling
- Change in Advanced settings
- This change enables polling during a meeting
- We learned that polls work better when you create them ahead of time
- Polling for meetings is in Zoom’s documentation
- Rename yourself to include more information
- This is a change in a meeting, not a setting
- Click More by your name in the participant window or the … on your picture in the gallery
- This allows adding one more piece of information, e.g.: pronouns, “helper”, “instructor”
Test and change your settings before a meeting, not during. Settings changes don’t take effect in an active meeting. It’s also a good idea to get familiar with the security options ahead of time.
Hosts and Co-Hosts
Co-hosts do not have access to the following controls as they are only available as host controls in a meeting:
- Start closed captioning and assign someone or a third-party to provide closed captioning
- Start live streaming
- End meeting for all participants
- Make another participant a co-host
- Start breakout rooms or move participants from one breakout room to another
- Start waiting room (co-hosts can place participants in waiting room or admit/remove participants from the waiting room)
- Co-hosts also cannot start a meeting. If a host needs someone else to be able to start the meeting, they can assign an alternative host.
Jamene will create the recurring Zoom meeting for the workshop and will include several alternative hosts. Eventbrite can automatically release the Zoom connection information to registrants.
Screen Sharing
Each instructor for the upcoming workshop shared a screen similar to what they would be using during their session(s). Scaling controls in the browser work with Jupyter Notebook as a shared screen; scaling controls on Mac Terminal successfully adjust that shared screen. Scaling Git Bash seems to require changing the font size in the application properties. 48 pt font was visible to most people on the call, although those with larger monitors found it easier to read than those using laptop screens only.
Breakout Rooms
We passed around the host baton and practiced creating and sorting people into breakout rooms using automatic and manual rooms. We learned:
- Breakout rooms and chat - the chat in the breakout room is only visible to the people in the room, not to the host unless the host is in the room when the chat is happening. During this meeting, the main room chat persisted as we went in and out of breakout rooms.
- The host can send a broadcast message to all breakout rooms.
- Inside a breakout room, a participant can use the “Ask for Help” button to summon the host to the breakout room. Co-hosts cannot see this button at all. Only the host sees the message sent by the participant.
- If the host is busy, can hit “later” and the learner will get a message “the host is busy, check back in a few minutes”
- Host can reassign people to other breakout rooms - could be helpful with moving co-hosts/helpers into various rooms.
- In a breakout room, can hit “leave room” with options to return to the main room or leave the meeting. So attendees aren’t locked into their breakout room. When co-hosts leave a breakout room, they have the option to join other breakout rooms.
- Zoom warns you if you leave someone stranded without a breakout room
Zoom lessons learned
- Host has a lot of power/responsibility, since there are essential things that co-hosts can’t do
- Room host and instructor should not be the same person, for this reason
- Check your Zoom settings well in advance
- Intentionally introducing Zoom features to learners will be important:
- Participant window and nonverbal feedback options
- Chat
- “Ask for Help” if we use breakout rooms
- Save chat option if learners want to save the chat
- Rename yourself / add something to your name
Using Qualtrics for Feedback
Jamene shared a technique from OU for getting “sticky note” plus/delta feedback from learners at the end of a lesson or workshop. They use a two-question Qualtrics survey. Should we do this? Overwhelming opinion was yes. Jamene will make the survey.
Questions
Videos
Elizabeth is going to work on videos in the next week or two. Will ping Tami for Windows video help; a Libraries Communications person may be able to help, too. These videos will focus on software installation and testing. We will skip recording introduction videos this time.
How should we host videos? Recorded Zoom videos are automatically uploaded to Kaltura (KU license, unlimited storage); this is a little more curated and secure than YouTube. Matt can assist with using this feature if needed.
Breaks
What break schedule should we use in an online workshop? Consensus was that in online, more breaks are better. We’ll be keeping 5 minutes at the top of each hour as our break schedule.
Lessons
Instructor coverage is done. Elizabeth and Jamene will meet soon about merging Bash scripting with the Git lesson; Matt is prepping the Python Gapminder lesson and will be using locally-installed Anaconda/Jupyter Notebooks.
Helper recruitment is ongoing.
Announcements & Resources
- Casey is scheduling teaching demo today. Yay!
- Feel free to announce the workshop to your contacts. We can use KanREN and GPN to contact folks when we’re ready to advertise registration beyond KU.
- Carpentries instructions for Zoom rooms is in the Carpentries Handbook. These apply to Carpentries Zoom rooms, but some useful screenshots and advice are included.
Action Items
- Jamene will update the workshop syllabus page with new helpers, breaks schedule, lesson links, etc.
- Jamene will make the Qualtrics plus/delta survey
- Jamene will create the Zoom meeting for the workshop and include alternate hosts
- Elizabeth will work on installation videos, pulling in Tami and Matt as needed
- Casey will update the group when teaching demo is done
Notes by JBK