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Get started with remote activities over Zoom

Here, as a teacher, you will find the recommended first steps to get started with remote activities, such as lectures, group discussions and presentations.

Use KTH’s recommendations as support

Remote activities have different conditions than campus activities and require some adaptation. Feel free to use KTH’s recommendations when designing your remote activity.

Planning (chosen recommendations):

  • Start simple
  • Base your work on knowledge
  • Primarily use the digital tools supported by KTH
  • Use educational support resources

Implementation (chosen recommendations):

  • Provide clear instructions
  • Communicate your course layout and expectations to your students
  • Be available for your students
  • Create a social context.

For more detailed explanations on planning, implementation and evaluation, read Use existing knowledge and support .

Start from your students’ situation

The students in remote activities are in a different situation than during campus activities. For example, the students rarely sit in an area as free from distractions as a lecture hall, and the communication via screens reduces the interactivity.

Increase student interactivity

Activate your remote students  gives you recommendations and tips on how to get your students involved in the activity.

Keep in mind:

  • What needs to be changed in the format to work over Zoom?
  • What tools are needed?
  • How do you handle questions from students?
  • How long is it between the interactive moments?

If you start from the students’ situation when you design or adapt an activity, the risk of problems later on decreases. For more details, read Opportunities, challenges and proposed solutions for remote activities .

Plan for unexpected situations

As with campus activities, you should have a plan for dealing with unexpected situations that may arise during the activity you lead. For example, on campus this would be that you know the escape routes, have a telephone number for technicians or know what to do if a dispute would occur.

For remote activities it may be how to:

  • turn off students’ microphones and cameras.
  • control who is in the Zoom room.
  • solve technology problems.
  • proceed if you see a student get injured in their home.

Stay one step ahead by giving yourself time to find solutions before the situations arise. Feel free to take part of other teachers’ solutions.

Prepare the technology and the room

Remote activities stands or falls with the technology, so give yourself time to test the tools you intend to use. Test them both as a student and as a teacher.

Find a room with support for remote activities on campus, or prepare the intended environment to ensure the sound and image works. Like your students, you can participate in the remote activity from anywhere, but the arrangement and equipment is more important for the teacher than for the students.

When you get to the room you can:

  • Ensure that the sound works well and that the students can hear you.
  • Go through all the cameras you intend to use and make sure they work and are properly angled.
  • Start all programs and digital tools you will use during the activity.

More technical advice can be found in Technical guides for remote and hybrid activities . For more information about Zoom, read Digital meetings using Zoom  and its sub-pages.