STA101 Zoom Learning for Students

Conducting Labs in Zoom

Attending the Lab

Entering the Lab: the EST day/time that you normally have lab, please click on the corresponding zoom link for this lab. Please see the Sakai main page (or Sakai Zoom Video page) for the links. After clicking on the link, you will be asked to give your name and email address. Please enter this so we can take attendance. After you enter /submit these, you should see a link taking you to the meeting.

What to Expect When you Come to Lab:

• Video: video will be automatically on. You can turn it off if you'd like.

• Main Room Settings: When you first enter the lab, you will be in the "main room." In the "main room" the video chat will have the following settings.

  • Your microphone may be automatically muted (depending on the settings the TAs have set up).

    • If you have a question to ask the lab TA, you can "raise your hand" by clicking the participants button then selecting raise hand.
    • When the lab TA calls on you, s/he will either unmute your mic so you can ask the question or will chat with you privately over chat.

  • You will only be able to chat privately with the lab TAs (see the chat button) in Zoom.

• Lab TA Summary: At the beginning of the lab, your lab TA(s) will then go over announcements and give a summary of the lab.

• Go to "Breakout Rooms": After the summary, the lab TA(s) will send you all to "breakout rooms" with your teams.

  • Breakout Room Settings:

    • Your microphone will be unmuted so you can talk freely with your teammates.
    • You can also use the chat freely with your teammates.
    • You can share your screens freely with your teammates.

  • Work on the Labs: Once you are in your breakout rooms, you can nominate a "recorder" in your team. The recorder should go to rstudio and start coding the lab. The "recorder" should also share the web browser that they are using to code in Rstudio so the other teammates can offer input. Alternatively, you may try to have multiple recorders in your team and switch turns sharing/typing code.

• How to ask for help in your "breakout rooms": If you need help from your lab TA(s), click the button that says Ask for Help in your breakout room. The TA(s) (who will be in the "main room" or another team's "breakout room") will see this and join your room when they are free to help answer your question.

Wifi/Tech Issue Contingency Plans During Labs

• What should I do if the lab unexpectedly ends (before the end time)?

  • Try logging in again: Try clicking back on the Zoom url and see if you get back in.

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in. Is it just me? First check to see if it's just you that is no longer in the meeting. You can try to get in touch with your teammates via WhatsApp to double check. (I'd suggest downloading WhatsApp and creating a team group chat on WhatsApp if you haven't already.)

    • Alternatively there exist many other ways to get in touch with your teammates that you can use as well.

  • What if it's just me having issues? If it's just you having issues, you can post on Piazza, explaining the situation. Also let your teammates know, so they can reserve some work for you to do.

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in, it's not just you, and you've been trying to get back in for FIVE MINUTES. Try checking Piazza or email to see if your lab TA has left a message explaining the situation. If there are no messages, please have someone post on Piazza that your lab Zoom link is not working (for multiple people).

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in, it's not just you, and you've been trying to get back in for TEN MINUTES and you have not received any emails or Piazza messages from the TAs explaining how to get back in. You should have someone in your group open up a new zoom link meeting, and you should work on the lab with your group in this. But do periodically check back in on your email/piazza for information from either me or the TAs regarding the zoom meeting being back up.

Participating in the Lecture in Zoom

Attending the Lecture

Entering the Lecture: On TuTh 11:45 am EST please click on the corresponding zoom link for the lecture. Please see the Sakai main page (or Sakai Zoom Video page) for the links. After clicking on the link, you will be asked to give your name and email address. Please enter this so we can take attendance. After you enter /submit these, you should see a link taking you to the meeting.

What to Expect When you Come to Lecture:

• Video: Your video will be automatically on. You can turn it off if you'd like.

• Main Room Settings: When you first enter the lecture, you will be in the "main room." In the "main room" the video chat will have the following settings.

  • You will only be able to chat privately with the me or the lecture TAs (see the chat button) in Zoom.

  • Your microphone will be automatically muted.

    • If you have a question to ask me or the lecture TA, you can "raise your hand" by clicking the participants button then selecting raise hand.
    • Either the lecture TAs or I will call on you if we see your hand raised. If the lecture TA calls on your raised hand, s/he will chat with you privately over chat to try to answer the question. If it's a question that is being raised often, s/he doesn't know the answer, or there is a typo in the lecture s/he might raise your question to my attention. I may also call on raised hands, but I may unmute your mic (you can decline this option if you like), or just take a look at the private chat question you raised with me.

• Slides and Polls Part of the Lecture: At the beginning of the lecture I will go over the announcements. Next I will intersperse the lecture with slides, polls, and application exercises. The polls and the slides (shown via screen sharing) will be conducted in the "main room."

• Go to "Breakout Rooms": When it is time to work on the application exercises, I will send you all the to private "breakout rooms" with your teams.

  • Breakout Room Settings:

    • Your microphone will be unmuted so you can talk freely with your teammates.
    • You can also use the chat freely with your teammates.
    • You can share your screen freely with your teammates.

  • Work on the Application Exercises: Once you are in your breakout rooms, you can nominate a "recorder" in your team. Please reference the syllabus (https://www2.stat.duke.edu/courses/Spring20/sta101.002/syllabus.html) for how your teams should submit the application exercises.

    • . The "recorder" should also share the application that they are using to write the answers to the application exercise so the other teammates can offer input. Alternatively, you may try to have multiple recorders in your team and switch turns sharing/typing things.

• How to ask for help in your "breakout rooms": If you need help from me or the lecture TAs, click the button that says Ask for Help in your breakout room. I will see this request, and will either send a lecture TA (or go myself) to assist you in your breakout room.

Wifi/Tech Issue Contingency Plans During Lecture

• What should I do if the lecture unexpectedly ends (before the end time)?

  • Try logging in again: Try clicking back on the Zoom url and see if you get back in.

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in. Is it just me? First check to see if it's just you that is no longer in the meeting. You can try to get in touch with your teammates via WhatsApp to double check. (I'd suggest downloading WhatsApp and creating a team group chat on WhatsApp if you haven't already.)

    • Alternatively there exist many other ways to get in touch with your teammates as well.

  • What if it's just me having issues? If it's just you having issues, please post on Piazza, explaining the situation.

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in, it's not just you, and you've been trying to get back in for FIVE MINUTES. Try checking Piazza or email to see if the lecture TAs (or I) have left a message explaining the situation. If there are no messages, please have someone post on Piazza that your lecture Zoom link is not working (for multiple people).

  • Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in, it's not just you, and you've been trying to get back in for TEN MINUTES and you have not received any emails or Piazza messages from the lecture TAs (or me) explaining how to get back in. You should have someone in your group open up a new zoom link meeting, and you should work on the application exercise with your group in this. But do periodically check back in on your email/piazza for information from either me or the TAs regarding the zoom meeting being back up.

Attending Office Hours in Zoom

Attending the Office Hours in Zoom

Coming to Office Hours: Please check the Sakai main page (or Sakai Zoom Video page) for the links to TA (and my) office hours. Just click on the link that corresponds to the time you'd like to visit office hours.

Wifi/Tech Issue Contingency Plans During Office Hours

What should I do if the lecture unexpectedly ends (before the end time)?

• Try logging in again: Try clicking back on the Zoom url and see if you get back in.
• Suppose the Zoom url is still not working when you try to get back in and you've been trying to get back in for TEN MINUTES. Try checking Piazza or email to see if the lecture TAs (or I) have left a message explaining the situation. If there are no messages, please post on Piazza that the office hour Zoom link for this TA is not working for you.

Starting your own Zoom meeting

Lecture, lab, and office hour meetings will be pre-arranged by Dr. Ellison and the TAs. To log on to these zoom meetings, please click on the links that correspond.

If you would like to start your own unplanned zoom meeting with your teammates (or other STA101 students), you can do so using the following steps. (Please note that you can only attend one zoom meeting at a time. So if you try to enter/create another zoom meeting during the "lecture zoom meeting," the "lab zoom meeting," or a "office hour zoom meeting" then you will get kicked out of the first one that you were in.)

Setting Up and Inviting Others to Your Own Personal/Group Zoom Meeting

1. In our STA101 Sakai page, click on the Zoom Meetings tab on the left.

2. Click Schedule a new meeting.

   • Enter the desired name/time/date/settings of your meeting and press save.

3. On the next page, you should see a url link to your meeting. Copy this url link and send it to anyone you would like to come to your meeting.

4. When you're ready to enter the meeting, just click this url.

General Online Learning Tips for STA101 Students

Collaborating and Getting Help with Zoom

Here are some ways you can help get guidance from me/the TAs/your classmates with Zoom:

• Video camera: You and who your collaborating with/getting help from can write down work on a sheet of paper, and hold up the work to the video camera.

• Text Editor/Screen Sharing: In the zoom meeting you can share a text editor that you have open and write out what you're trying to say. If you're good/fast using LaTeX, you can use a LaTeX editor if you'd like.

  • • How-to: In the Zoom meeting, select share and then click on the currently open application you would like to share.

• Whiteboard: If you have a touch screen you can use the Zoom Whiteboard feature, you and your collaborators can collaboratively write on the screen (either with your finger/a stylus/or by writing things in text boxes etc)

  • How-to: In the Zoom meeting, select share and then click whiteboard

• Email: You can also picture of your current work, email it to someone, and you can go through it together on zoom screen sharing.

Musts for Conducting University-Related Activities via Zoom

• Before logging on to zoom for any class related activity, please ensure that you do the following.

  • Make sure that your video and microphone are properly working.
  • Make sure that you have a quiet, distraction-free place to host the meeting.
  • Make sure that there is nothing in the background of your video that you don't want anyone to see.
  • Make sure that there are no windows/applications on your laptop that you don't want STA101 anyone to see.

• While going to office hours/instruction/labs in zoom.

  • I would suggest not sharing your whole screen. Instead I would suggest just sharing the application that you intend on displaying. For instance:

    • The browser that has rstudio opened up in your window.
    • A text editor that you might have open for showing off code.
    • The Zoom whiteboard.

  • Don't forget that the camera is on or if you are sharing your screen!

• After office hours/instructions/lab is over, don't forget to shut the zoom window down.

  • If you would like more time to talk to someone you are always welcome to open a new zoom conference (in Sakai Zoom Conference option) and invite them to chat with that link.