1.2. Using Zoom for Advising Appointments and Drop-ins
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Using Zoom for Advising Appointments and Drop-ins
Advising staff in the Math Center want to encourage students to use
Zoom, an online meeting tool, when in-person appointments are not
feasible.
In case you are not familiar with Zoom, here are some basics to get you started:
Appointments
- If
a Zoom appointment is selected (in some cases, it may be the only
option available), your appointment confirmation email will include a
Zoom link, personalized for your meeting. You will use this link to
connect to your advisor. We suggest you click the link to log in (with
your NetID and password) a few minutes ahead of your appointment. Your
advisor should have set up a "waiting room" for you in Zoom, so you will
not need to worry about interrupting a previous appointment. If you
can't find your appointment confirmation or reminder email, log in to student.trellis.arizona.edu to view the appointment details including the link there.
Drop-ins
- If
Drop-ins are scheduled via Zoom, there will be a Zoom link in the
Drop-in calendar event - click on that to connect to your advisor once
the drop-in time has started.
- Note: As with appointments above,
the advisor should have set up a "waiting room" in Zoom. If the advisor
is already talking with a student, you may need to wait. There could
also be other students waiting "in line" for advising. We will do our
best to keep these sessions short (5-10 minutes). Please help us out
with this by scheduling an appointment if you have lots of questions or a
complicated situation that may need more time.
- Because of the nature of drop-ins, your advisor may have only one connection method available at a time; please send us an email to let us know if you need to connect by phone but are not able to find availability.
General
- There
is a Zoom app, which you may download and use if you choose. When
joining a meeting, you will likely be prompted to download the app, but
you are not required to do so.
- UA has chosen to purchase a campus license for Zoom, allowing faculty, staff, and students to use the software free of charge.
- While
Zoom allows for videoconferencing, you are not required to use a camera
to show video of yourself. In fact, your advisor will likely be sharing
their computer screen with you, so you can view relevant information
like course plans, etc. You do need the following attached to your computer or mobile device:
- A
good internet connection is important for Zoom to work well. Disabling
your video sharing can help some, and is not usually necessary anyway.
Keep in mind that you may use UAWifi when on campus, and there are also
computer labs available - please use headphones with a microphone (often
included with cell phones) to avoid disturbing others.
- To test that Zoom is set up correctly, you can join a test meeting at https://zoom.us/test. You can make sure your microphone input, speaker output, and camera (if you wish to use one) are working correctly.
- In case connecting by WiFi is a problem, it is possible to connect to some Zoom meetings by phone. Steps:
- Dial an in-country Zoom telephone number
- Enter
your meeting ID followed by a #. Your advisor will need to share this
meeting ID with you from their Zoom profile. If you don't have it,
please email to ask.
- If the meeting has not already started and
Join Before Host is not enabled, you will be prompted: If you are
participant, press # to wait.
Because
of the screen sharing feature and the ability to connect without phone
numbers (avoiding possible long distance charges) we think Zoom provides
a great alternative to a phone appointment for students who are not
able to visit their advisor in person, due to illness, scheduling, or
for students who are not yet in Tucson. It is also an option for
providing availability to students in some situations when an advisor is
unable to come to campus.
For more detailed
information about Zoom for student use (including how you can set up
your own Study Group using the tool), see https://help.d2l.arizona.edu/zoomforstudents
Need help? Try the 24/7 IT support center.