Synchronous Guest Speakers

Overview

Inviting guest speakers from other universities or from the field can help students receive insights about real-world practice and have their questions answered by experts and professionals. To do this synchronously online, you can invite guest speakers to present to your class remotely using Zoom. 

 

Enable Your Zoom Account

  1. Log in to Virginia Tech Zoom at https://virginiatech.zoom.us/ Links to an external site.. 
  2. On the computer you're teaching from, download and install the Zoom Client.

 

Show the Zoom Tool in Canvas

Video on adding Zoom in Canvas

  1. Go to the Canvas course site and click Settings. 
  2. Click the Navigation tab.  Course tools are sorted into two sections: top (visible to students) and bottom (hidden from students).
  3. Drag the Zoom tool from the bottom to the top section, scroll down, and Save.

 

Schedule and Start a Meeting

Video scheduling Zoom

You can't hold an instant meeting via Canvas. Instead, schedule a meeting. To hold the scheduled meeting instantly, schedule it for the current time. 

  1. Go to the Canvas course's Zoom tool.
  2. Under Upcoming Meetings, click Schedule a New Meeting.
  3. Set the meeting to start now and end one hour after the class ends.
    • You can end class whenever you want. This is to make sure Zoom doesn't stop the meeting before you're done. 
  4. Uncheck Enable join before host.
  5. Click Schedule.

 

Best Practices

  • Encourage students to think about some questions to ask the speaker.
  • Just like with your students and TA's, create and maintain solid communications with your guest speaker(s).
  • Have a follow-up activity such as a live discussion, assignment, or discussion board post for students to reflect their thoughts of the presentation.
  • Make sure the guest speaker is familiar with Zoom
  • Communicate with the guest speaker what the students are learning and see if the speaker can tie it to their talk.

 

Additional Resources