Digital Teaching Toolkit

Research and Instructional Technology Services, NYU Shanghai Library

Tips & Tricks

The following infographics will help you diagnose issues and improve the remote teaching & learning experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do faculty have to log in to NYU Classes in order to host/join Zoom meetings? Can we just download the Zoom App and log in from there using our NYU account? Can students do the same, or do they HAVE to log in to Classes first?

A: You don’t necessarily have to log into NYU Classes to use Zoom. To host a meeting, you can go to Zoom (VPN required), schedule a meeting on the page and share the meeting URL with your students. To join a meeting, simply click on the meeting URL and open your Zoom App/Client.

The same principle applies to students as well, they don’t have to log into NYU Classes to use Zoom. However, we do recommend using the Zoom tab on NYU Classes for lecture sessions, because you would not need to send the meeting URL to students separately, and cloud recordings will also be shared with students automatically.

Q: For Zoom, what is the media file used for saving our recordings? If faculty want to keep them for longer than 30 days, do we have to put them up in NYU Classes for streaming? If so, will we (faculty and students) be able to download and save those recordings on our own computers to watch later? Will there be functions that allow us to restrict students from doing so?

A: After sessions are recorded, the host can share the video links by going to https://nyu.zoom.us/ —> Recordings, and allowing users to download the mp4 files onto their own computers. You can also choose to disable the download function.

Q: Is there a time limit for class recordings in Zoom? My classes are 2.5 hours and I hope to record the entire duration.
 
A: There isn’t a limit on the length of the recording, but there is a 1G limit on cloud storage files. The file size of the cloud recording is dependent on factors such as the length of the recorded session and the multimedia file format shared during the session. If you are doing regular lectures during the 2.5 hour session without sharing any multimedia content, the file size should remain under 1G.
 
Q: What are some resources we can share with students on getting started with Zoom, and can you recommend some presentation recording applications?
A: Here is a useful article from Zoom to share with students. Zoom: Getting started Zoom FAQ
For presentation recordings, we recommend Kaltura Capture in NYU Stream. NYU Stream: Kaltura Capture Tool
 
Q: Is there a way for STEM faculty to efficiently collect handwritten homework and handwrite on the top of that? 
 
We recommend you try Gradescope, a tool designed for STEM courses and currently being piloted by NYU. Students can upload their work as images or PDF files, and instructors can grade them with a rubric and offer annotations by typing, handwriting, or highlighting the image or PDF. Also, since Gradescope is integrated with NYU Classes, it also links the grades back to Gradebook directly. You can enable the tool by going to Lesson Page > Add Content >Add External Tool > Gradescope. Find more instructional videos on Gradescope here.
 
Q: My students need a software license to do work online (for example SPSS), how can they get access to software? 
 
Student will be able to access software remotely through NYU Shanghai’s Virtual Computer Lab (VCL. Software available on VCL includes Adobe Creative Suite CC 2019, IBM SPSS Statistics 26, MATLAB R2019a, Microsoft Office 2019, Microsoft Visual C++ 2008, StataSE, Wolfram Mathematica 12, Python 2.7, Python 3.4, and ArcGIS.
 
To request other software to be added to the VCL, please contact shanghai.it.help@nyu.edu.