Low-cost, Convenient, Portable Lighting Solution for Video Conferencing

There's nothing worse than bad lighting on a video call or while recording a video. Experts will tell you that you should buy a nice ring light, which provides a nice diffuse glow on your face as you record. However, most ring lights are eyesores on a modern desk and are generally pretty inconvenient, especially if you regularly use a laptop as your recording rig. For example, a good quality ring lamp might require clamping onto the edge of a desk, which might not be ideal for your desk setup. Fortunately, I've found a cheap solution (far cheaper than most ring lights) that does a great job, is super portable, and looks great on a desk.

This Sailstar Rechargable Reading Lamp is great. 

It is cheap (at the time of this post, it is $16.99 on Amazon and has an additional 10% coupon that can be applied), and it has an array of features that are great for any Zoom call or camera session in general. For example:

• 3 Lighting Modes
  (5000K, 4000K, and 3500K – pick your color temperatures for your complexion and camera)
• Continuously dimmable (800 lumens max)
  
• Diffuse disc of LED light (not a point source)
• Flexible gooseneck and weighted base allows for tipping up to vertical
• Uses a rechargeable battery, and so:
• It can be plugged in continuously
• It can be unplugged and moved for the best lighting experience (very portable!)

I don't know how long this little thing will last, but it seems pretty sturdy. My wife has an older version of what appears to be the same OEM product, and it is still going. I have several colleagues who have purchased this one after my recommendation, and they tell me it's working great for them.

Advanced Zoom: Using Slides as Virtual Background

There is a beta feature in Zoom (version 5.2.0 and higher) that is easy to miss but can make for a slightly more exciting way to share slides. When sharing your screen, try clicking on the "Advanced" tab (top center) to reveal several useful options:

There is a beta feature, "Slides as Virtual Background," that lets you choose a slide presentation. Sadly, it only supports PowerPoint presentations at the moment. This is strange because it first converts the PPTX to a PDF and then displays the PDF instead (which means your animations and slide transitions will be removed). So it seems like they should be able to support a PDF directly. I am hoping that will be added in the future.

Once you select a presentation, it will display behind you. It shows you a slide advancer (to move through your presentation). It also allows you to move yourself around the slide and re-scale your size. You can do this live, which lets you place yourself next to important features of the slide (or move yourself off of important features). By default, it scales you down and puts you in the bottom right corner.

Again, this will be much nicer when it supports PDF's in general (as opposed to just PPTX). 

CAVEAT ABOUT RECORDINGS: For now, the merged video (showing speaker on top of slides) will only record if you select to record locally. Cloud recordings will capture the unmerged view. I suspect that eventually they will implement this feature in their cloud backend and the merged view will be able to be seen there too. However, at least for now, if you do this and want it recorded, make sure that you record locally.

Zoom Virtual Background for Short/Coffee Breaks ("I'll be right back!")

You might know that Zoom has a non-verbal feedback option under the Participants list that includes a "need a break." You could use this to indicate when you have stepped away, but it is intended to indicate to the speaker that you are requesting a break.

So what is an option to indicate to everyone that you have stepped away and aren't just having video problems? One option is to create a virtual background that includes some status signage (or, alternatively, you can make the signage part of your profile picture that shows when your camera is off). Here is an image I put behind me to indicate to others that I've stepped away very briefly and will be back soon.

You can download and use the image above. You can also download the PowerPoint version so you can make edits to it. Here I am with my virtual background behind me. Of course, normally I would only put this up when I was out of the room. :-)

Another option is to print out a tiny version of the image above and hang it in front of your camera. :-)

UPDATE: Another option for this is to combine Zoom with a virtual camera from mmHmm. mmHmm has "Be right back" options that you can quickly switch on and off with far fewer steps than raw Zoom.

Teaching on Zoom: Fixing Problems with Students Joining Authentication-Only Rooms

To help prevent "#Zoombombing" while still allowing for all of the features that, when not being exploited, provide for productive digital classroom experiences, many universities have recommended that faculty turn on authentication-only Zoom rooms for their classes. For most students, this means that they may have to follow one extra click when joining their classrooms that leads them through the single-sign-on (SSO) process and handoff back to Zoom. Unfortunately, this process is not as simple for some students, especially if they already have their own non-University Zoom accounts.

Here are the instructions (also linked as a PDF or a DOCX) I have been giving to my students to help ensure that they access my authentication-only Zoom classroom using their university account. Of course, there are a few small aspects of these instructions that are customized for ASU, but it would be easy to modify the instructions for your institution.

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Instructions for Accessing Zoom Room as Authenticated ASU Zoom User

To help mitigate problems related to "Zoom-bombing", your course Zoom link may be configured to only allow authenticated ASU users into the room. If you are having trouble connecting to the Zoom class room with your properly authenticated ASU account, you should try following these steps:

1. DO NOT use the normal link to enter the room
2. Instead, go to https://asu.zoom.us/ and then click on the Log In button
3. Once you are logged in to ASU Zoom, click on the "JOIN A MEETING" link in the top right of ASU Zoom
4. Use the Zoom ID: (10-digit code from your instructor; also at the end of course link)
   

These steps are designed to ensure that you are logged in to Zoom with your ASU ID.

If the above steps still do not let you into the room, then you need to open your Zoom app and make sure to "Switch Account" to your ASU account. Follow these steps:

1. Open your Zoom application
2. Click on your profile image, as in the image below, and go to "Switch Account"
   
   
   
3. Select "Sign In with SSO", as shown below:
   
4. Use "asu" as the Company Domain, as shown below:
   
5. Follow the prompts to login to ASU Zoom and return to your application
6. Use your course’s meeting ID (or the normal course link) to connect to the Zoom room
   
   

Those steps should help ensure that you are able to get into the class Zoom room with your authenticated ASU Zoom account.

Teaching on Zoom: Automatic Subtitle Captions on a Whiteboard

In the wake of COVID-19, faculty are looking for ways in which they can extend their original in-class teaching approaches to on-line while maintaining high accessibility.

I recently saw a request by someone using Zoom for whiteboard capability with automatic, real-time captions that have subtitles for the audio. This capability does not currently exist in Zoom's native whiteboard. However, real-time subtitles are available in presentation applications like Microsoft Powerpoint. In addition, Zoom annotations (if enabled) allow a presenter (or anyone in a Zoom room) to annotate any shared screen as if it was a Zoom whiteboard. So I came up with the following solution to the whiteboard-with-subtitltes problem. Note that other variations on this solution exist, but this particular solution was crafted to be the most generalizable and prevent the most conflicts with Zoom and Microsoft competing for access to a single microphone.

Here are a list of steps to make it happen. You can also see the video below if you prefer to see a demo of these steps.

1. Open a Zoom room on a desktop machine that runs PowerPoint 2019 or later (including Office 365 versions of PowerPoint)
• Do not share audio or video
  
2. From the Zoom room, share the desktop that powerpoint will use when it goes into full-screen mode during a presentation
   
3. Start a blank PowerPoint presentation
   
4. Click on the "Toggle Subtitles" button shown in the bottom left corner of the PowerPoint presentation
• You should now see live subtitles being added to your presentation as you speak
  
5. Join your Zoom room from a tablet device
• This time, connect with audio so that your audience listens to you through your tablet presence
• You should see the shared, blank PowerPoint screen on the tablet device
  
6. Use the "Annotations" button in the bottom left of the tablet view to open the annotations
• Note that "Annotations" has to be enabled for your Zoom room
• You can find the setting to enable Annotations in the advanced settings on your Zoom web portal
• When annotations are enabled, anyone can use them, and so make sure you trust your audience
7. Use your tablet (perhaps with stylus) to draw on the white screen provided by PowerPoint as PowerPoint subtitles below your writing
• You can use the eraser and clear (trash can) buttons to get a blank screen
  
8. If you are going to record, I recommend using "Record to Cloud" from the tablet device
• Again, the goal is to take the load off of the desktop machine that is doing the live captioning

Here is a video I put together that demonstrates the above steps: