With more classes than ever moving to hybrid, "Hyflex", and all-online formats, educators are also utilizing online tools more than ever before. In a recent post, we discussed how the abundant choice of tools can be daunting. However, for the public speaking educator it is clear that Pops Classroom and Zoom® are essential elements to teaching and learning public speaking today. But why, why do you need Pops Classroom if you are using Zoom and vice versa? Let us explain...
Why use Pops Classroom with Zoom?
Pops Classroom is a toolset designed to teach and learn public speaking... From writing an outline and speaking notes (Outiner), to receiving AI feedback on speech practice (Advisor), to easily presenting visual aids in class (Presenter), and quickly recording/uploading, grading, and reviewing speech videos (Capture). Pops Classroom is meant to guide students through the entire process of becoming a better speaker, from the preparation stage to reviewing afterwards. Pops Classroom has been popular for years for in-person, hybrid, and online public speaking courses. In the past, many online public speaking courses have been asynchronous, meaning that students record and submit videos for an instructor to score at a later time. As many in-person speech courses have recently migrated online, they are bringing with them their synchronous format and increasing the need for tools to accommodate this in a remote setting.
Enter Zoom... Zoom is a video-conferencing platform used for live online/remote meetings, webinars, product demos and now more than ever: class meetings and presentations. Think of Zoom as your classroom with it's four walls, desks, chairs, projector... but in a completely digital and remote setting, with bandwidth, kitchen tables, and screen-sharing instead. For the public speaking classes, Zoom-like tools can be the next best thing to an in-person audience. (For now, we'll not delve into the pedagogical debate on this.) So, if you are looking to teach a synchronous online public speaking course with Zoom and you want to utilize Pops Classroom to help your students through outlining, practicing, and reviewing their speeches, you have several methods to do so.
How To Use Pops Classroom with Zoom
After a student has written their preparation outline, speaking notes, and practiced their speech using Pops Classroom, it's now time to present to the instructor/class on Zoom. For a student to be able to go back later and watch/learn from their speech and compare it to their instructor's/peers' feedback, they'll want to record or upload it to Pops Classroom. Let's take a look at two simple methods:
(A) Have Students Record Their Speeches in Zoom, Then Upload to Pops Classroom
Zoom makes it very easy to record sessions. In a public speaking class though, you'll want each student to only record themselves giving their own speech presentation. To do so, follow this workflow:
Host a "speech day" class meeting on Zoom
As each student gives their presentation, allow them to record their speech by assigning recording privileges to a participant next to their name in the participant list.
Just before they begin their speech, each student starts recording
When they are finished speaking, the student stops recording, or you can stop their recording privileges by clicking "Forbid Record" next to their name in the participant list.
After the class meeting is over, each student who gave their speech and recorded it via Zoom will be able to access the video recording and upload it to Pops Classroom.
(B) Have Students Record Their Speech Using Pops Classroom While On Zoom
Students can record straight to Pops Classroom while on Zoom. To do so, follow this workflow:
Host a "speech day" class meeting on Zoom
As each student gives their presentation, allow them to record their speech using Pops Capture on a different device (phone, tablet, etc.).
Just before they begin their speech, each student starts recording themselves after signing into Pops Classroom on their browser, or using the Pops Capture companion recorder app.
When they are finished speaking, the student stops recording.
After the class meeting is over, each student who gave their speech and recorded it will be able to access the recording via the Speech Video, Self Review, and Instructor Feedback areas of Pops Classroom.
Overall
By using Pops Classroom in conjunction with Zoom, your students will experience the highest quality synchronous online speech class and move further toward becoming an outstanding speaker and communicator. While Zoom seems to be the most popular choice, you can follow similar steps to achieve this outcome using most any of the major video-conferencing platforms: Microsoft Teams®, Google Meet®, etc.
The Pops Classroom team is here to help you. If you would like assistance with teaching your course online in the best way, please reach out to our team at contact@powerofpublicspeaking.com
Pops Classroom™, Pops Outliner™, Pops Advisor™, Pops Presenter™, and Pops Capture™ are products and trademarks of Advanced Solutions Visual Collaboration Systems, LLC.
Zoom® is a registered trademark of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and is not affiliated or endorsed by Advanced Solutions Visual Collaboration Systems, LLC.
Microsoft Teams® is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation and is not affiliated or endorsed by Advanced Solutions Visual Collaboration Systems, LLC.
Google Meet® is a registered trademark of Google, LLC and is not affiliated or endorsed by Advanced Solutions Visual Collaboration Systems, LLC.