Introduction
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Welcome to this tutorial, today we are going to discuss recommendations for using the HyFlex classroom technology. Please review all of the following information to assist you with planning for your HyFlex class sessions.
Identify Classroom Equipment:
Traditional classrooms have been equipped with plug and play video conferencing technology. Note that this is different from the dedicated Distance Learning classrooms that are equipped with state of the art teleconferencing technology.
Meeting Owl
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The classroom will be furnished with a Meeting Owl which is an all-in-one camera, microphone, and speaker system. It has a 360 degree view as well as the ability to focus on the individual(s) in the room who are speaking.
The Meeting Owl should be positioned in the front of the classroom and turned so that both the instructor and students are all in view.
The Meeting Owl is connected to the classroom computer via a standard USB (Type-A) connector. The cable can easily be unplugged from the classroom computer and used with your computer if preferred. If your device only has a USB-C port, you can use an adapter, such as the Apple "USB-C to USB Adapter" or "USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter."
Projector or Display
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Turn the light closest to the projector screen off. This will help in-class students better see the content.
For rooms with a projector or external display, if no content (instructional video, presentation, graphic) is being shared, the instructor should display the participants attending via the Zoom meeting in Gallery view.
When content is being shared it should be visible on both the projector and Zoom meeting.
Computer
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Some rooms may already have a classroom computer installed where the instructor can run their instructional content and Zoom application.
For rooms that do not have a classroom computer, please bring your own device and host the content and Zoom meeting from your laptop. You can easily plug in and connect to the Meeting OWL via a USB cable. As mentioned, you may need a USB adaptor.
Zoom Meeting
Ahead of time you will want to make sure that you have a licensed ISU Zoom account. You can request your account through the Forms for ITRC Services page: isu.edu/itrc/forms.
Also you will want to create your Meeting link in Moodle ISU using the Zoom activity.
Connect Microphone and Speaker
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Verify that the Meeting Owl is connected to the computer. When you first join the Zoom meeting, click the test computer audio. In the Speaker dropdown menu, make sure that you can hear audio from the device. Click yes to continue.
In the Microphone dropdown menu, make sure that the Meeting Owl is selected. Speak into the mic and pause. You should hear your voice. Click yes to continue.
Click the (white) Join with computer audio button. Then again click the (blue) Join with computer audio button.
You can mute & unmute the room by clicking on the Mic icon. Note that the Meeting Owl device will have a red indicator when it is muted.
If you have any issues with the microphone, you can change the microphone to another source or you can even use your smartphone as the microphone with the Zoom Cloud meetings app. System Administrators in colleges and departments are the best resource to help with the classroom technology or the IT Service Desk can assist you with your ISU laptop audio issues.
Connect Camera
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In the Zoom meeting, click the up arrow that is associated with the camera icon. Select the Meeting Owl camera in the dropdown menu.
If you have any issues with the Meeting Owl camera simply keep the camera off, continue with your class session, and inform the System Administrator in your college or department or the IT Service Desk can assist you with your ISU laptop to resolve the camera issue.
Share Content
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Anything that you plan to share with your in-class participants should also be available to your Zoom participants. Please utilize the Share screen button in Zoom when sharing videos or presentations.
Anything that opens in an application window (Word, Chrome, etc) can be shared in Zoom. Any content that includes sound please click the “share computer sound” checkbox before you select share.
When applicable you’ll want to turn off the light that is closest to the projector. This makes it easier for students in the room to see the content on the screen.
Participation
Individual(s)
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The Meeting Owl has an audio radius of 18-feet, it is important that only a few people speak at a time. The camera will focus on any extra noise. If no one is speaking in the classroom, you can mute the Meeting Owl mic. Likewise, Zoom participants should mute their microphones unless they are speaking to prevent unwanted noise.
There are several ways that students can participate in a hyflex class. The in-class students will be fairly easy to identify as they can openly speak or raise their hand. As the instructor you will want to have a clear expectation of how students in the Zoom meeting will interact. For example, they can simply unmute and speak freely, they can raise their “virtual hand” in the participants pane, or they can post their question in the chat. However, this can be cumbersome and easy to miss questions if you're not focused on the zoom meeting.
We recommend designating specific slots of time in the class session for single or multiple Q&A segments. Have the students hold their questions specifically for the allotted time. This will help ensure that questions don't go unanswered. You might also have a discussion forum on your Moodle page that students can submit their questions to and that you can respond to after class.
Attendance
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In your HyFlex classroom you're going to want to take attendance of those who are in the classroom and those in the zoom meeting.
Watch the video above or review the Attendance Activity [Faculty]
Group
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To keep social distancing intact, you will want to avoid putting the in-class students into small physical groups. Instead, we recommend all participants in the classroom are one group and stay in their assigned seating. The Breakout room feature in Zoom can be used for group activities for virtual students.
After the groups have had time to discuss, close the breakout room(s). This will return both the in-class and zoom students where you can continue your discussion as a whole class or move on to the next topic.
Another recommendation would be to have all group discussion done asynchronously using the Moodle ISU Discussion forum.
Zoom Activity in Moodle ISU
By utilizing the Zoom activity in Moodle ISU, you are going to bring some of the same functionality found on Zoom.us and have it easily available in your Moodle course. Users can still create their meetings on Zoom.us and place the meeting link in Moodle. The Zoom Activity allows you to manage all Zoom meetings related to the course, have access to reports like polling and attendance, and also make classroom recordings available to all students.
Review the following resources:
Recording Class Sessions
There are several different methods you can use to record your Zoom meeting and have it available to your students. Depending on your use case one method may be more preferable. In this guide, we will highlight the 3 main options.
- Zoom Cloud Recording
- Zoom Local Recording
- Youtube Live Stream
(1) Zoom Cloud Recording
The Zoom Cloud Recording feature has been made available to all ISU Zoom Licesend accounts. Any host can easily start a cloud recording from their Zoom Meeting. Cloud Recordings are stored on Zoom.us on the Recordings page. If the host uses the Zoom Activity in Moodle and schedules their meetings there. Recordings will automatically populate the "Cloud Recordings" tab in the activity. Because of limited storage, recordings are kept for 365 days and then are automatically deleted. There is the capability to download videos from the Zoom Cloud and store them on another storage platform.
Start Cloud Recording Automatically (Before Meeting)
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Sign in to Zoom.us with your ISU Gmail credentials. Go to My Meetings. Click on Schedule a meeting or Select a desired meeting from the Upcoming meetings list. Click Edit this meeting. Under Meeting options, enable Record the meeting automatically. Select Record in the cloud. Save your Changes.
During the meeting, you, as the host, will see the recording indicator in the top-left corner while the recording is active.
After the meeting has ended, you can locate your recording on Zoom.us on the Recording tab or in the Zoom activity under the Cloud Recording Tab.
Start Cloud Recording Manually (During Meeting)
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Start a Zoom meeting as the host. Click the option to Record. Select Record to Cloud, You will see the recording indicator in the top-left corner while the recording is active.
During a Zoom recording, you, as the host, can Stop or Pause the recording. If you stop the recording and start it again, a new video file will be created for the next recording segment. If you pause the recording and start it again, Zoom will record to the same video file for the recording segment.
After the meeting has ended, you can locate your recording on Zoom.us on the Recording tab or in the Zoom activity under the Cloud Recording Tab.
(2) Zoom Local Recordings
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This option allows you to start a local recording at the beginning of class or to have the recording start automatically in the meeting settings. When the meeting ends it will be converted into an mp4 file that is stored on your computer and can be uploaded to Google Drive and shared to Moodle ISU.
Start Local Recording Automatically (Before Meeting)
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Sign in to the isu.Zoom.us with your ISU gmail credentials. Go to My Meetings. Click on Schedule a meeting or Select a desired meeting from the Upcoming meetings list. Click Edit this meeting. Under Meeting options, enable Record the meeting automatically. Save your Changes.
During the meeting, you, as the host, will see the recording indicator in the top-left corner while the recording is active.
After the meeting has ended, Zoom will convert the recording so you can access the files on your computer.
Start Local Recording Manually (During Meeting)
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Start a Zoom meeting as the host. Click the option to Record. You will see the recording indicator in the top-left corner while the recording is active.
During a Zoom recording, you, as the host, can Stop or Pause the recording. If you stop the recording and start it again, a new video file will be created for the next recording segment. If you pause the recording and start it again, Zoom will record to the same video file for the recording segment.
After the meeting has ended, Zoom will convert the recording so you can access the files on your computer.
Converting Zoom Recording to MP4 (After meeting)
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By Default the Zoom meeting will convert and will be stored on the computer using the following path:
If you clicked the stop/start recording, during the meeting; you’ll have Zoom_0.mp4, Zoom_1.mp4, etc.
If the video conversion is stopped or interrupted, you will see a file with the following name: double_click_to_convert_01.Zoom
The complexity of the recording (number of participants, amount of audio, video, content shared) will influence the amount of time the conversion takes to complete.
Share Local recording (After meeting)
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Your recording is an MP4 video file that can be uploaded anywhere. We recommend uploading the video to Google Drive and sharing the link in your Moodle ISU Course.
Video Captioning (After meeting)
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To meet accessibility standards, your recording should include closed captions. The Instructional Technology Resource Center can support your video captioning needs.
(3) YouTube Live Stream
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There are several different methods you can use to record your Zoom meeting. With the YouTube Live Stream you to start a live stream at the beginning of class, the recording will be stored on Youtube and then you can share the link of the YouTube video on Moodle ISU.
Even if you get disconnected from the meeting; the Live Stream recording will remain intact. The Live stream stops if you, as the Zoom meeting host, manually stop the stream, end the meeting, or leave the meeting along with all other participants.
Set up Youtube Account and Live Stream (Before the Semester Start Date)
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It takes 24 hours for Youtube to activate your account for live streaming. Once activated, you can go live instantly.
If this is your first time using Youtube, Go to Youtube.com and sign in using your ISU Gmail credentials. Once you have authenticated, click on the upload button, and select Go live. A “how to create your channel pop-up window” will appear. Select the “Use your name” option. You can choose to set up your channel or to scroll to the bottom and select Set up later.
You will be brought to the channel page. Click on the Upload button and select Go Live. Youtube will want to verify your account. Select your country and then choose either “Call me with an automated voice message” or “Text me a verification code option”.
Enter your phone number. Google will send you a verification code depending on the previous method that you choose. Enter the verification code.
After the code is entered, the page will update and you will get a verification message that your account has been verified.
If you try to live stream immediately after verification, you’ll get the following message, “It takes 24 hours to activate your account for live streaming. Once activated, you can go live instantly.”
Due to the pandemic and various stay at home policies, any time frame mentioned on Official YouTube site should be ignored. Account verification for Live stream will happen but at a slower pace.
Turn on Live Stream in Zoom (Before your meeting)
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Go to your ISU Zoom account at isu.Zoom.us and sign in using the Sign in with Google Option. On your account page, click on Settings. Under In meeting (Advanced) find the option Allow live streaming meetings and turn it on. Enable Youtube and click save
Start & End Live Stream (During your Meeting)
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Start the Meeting. Open the More… tab in the Meeting Controls.Click Live on YouTube.
A browser will open taking you to the sign in page. Use your ISU Gmail credentials to login into Youtube. After you authenticate successfully, the following page displays:
Specify the following settings on the Broadcasting to YouTube Live page:
Verify the Zoom meeting title on Youtube. We recommend that you include the class name and date to help differentiate from other class sessions.
Change the Privacy to unlisted. Only people with the link can view.
Click the Go Live! Button.
You can close the browser window and return to your Zoom meeting. In the top of the Zoom window you can see the Youtube Live indicator.
Once the Class session is ended, Click the More… tab and select Stop Live Stream. Click the End Meeting for All button.
Note: Add Blocking browser extensions have been discovered to prevent the YouTube Live Stream from working properly. Work with the classroom computer's sysadmin or the IT Service Desk for personal computer assistance.
Share Your Youtube Recording (After the meeting)
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Go to Youtube.com, and Sign in using your ISU Gmail credentials (the same credentials you used during your meeting to sign into YouTube). Click on the Youtube menu in the top left to expand the menu and click Your videos. To find your most recent video click the Sort by and select Date added (Newest). Click on your desired video. On the video page, click the Share button. In the Popup menu click the Copy link button. The link will be copied to your clipboard.
Go to Moodle ISU and sign in. Go to your desired course. Turn Editing on and click add an activity or resource. Choose the URL resource. Give the resource a name. Paste the copied link into the external URL field. Click Save and return to course.
Video Captioning (After the meeting)
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Because the streaming feature is through YouTube, the video should include YouTube’s automated captions. You can manage your own captions by Signing into YouTube.com.
The Instructional Technology Resource Center can also support your video captioning needs.
Classroom Support
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It is highly recommended that you practice often and get familiar with the HyFlex model to avoid potential issues. In meetings where there is a clear technical issue and you need support, please work directly with the classroom’s System Administrator to resolve these issues, If you are not sure who that is you can reach out to IT Service Desk 282-HELP. Please refer to the document version of this Tutorial for any updates, changes, or recommendations.