Considerations

Ensuring your initial meeting settings are correct is important. Most of this is a one-time setup, but it does take time. Once you have configured your settings, you can save them as a template and reuse them for each quiz to ensure consistency. Before you set up the preferred Zoom settings you want to use for your quiz, there are a few options to consider.

Large cohorts and multiple markers

For larger courses or where multiple markers are involved, a single Zoom session may not be the most practical approach. There are two main options to consider.

Multiple Zoom sessions (parallel rooms)
Breakout rooms within a single session

1. Multiple Zoom sessions (parallel rooms)

Each marker, administration staff member or teaching assistant hosts a separate Zoom meeting covering a subset of the cohort. Students are allocated to a specific session in advance (e.g. by student ID range, tutorial group, or campus).

When to use?

With large cohorts where the students cannot be in a single Zoom session for supervision.
Where students sit the assessment at different scheduled times.
Where you have a large cohort and want to use the optional features not available in breakout rooms (e.g., all-screens mode, recording to the cloud, focus mode)

What to coordinate?

All sessions will need the same settings applied. Agree on a common setup in advance to ensure the experience is consistent for students. A host can only host one meeting at a time, so individual markers or tutors will need to set up a Zoom for their allocated session.

Note: Each session host needs their own Zoom account. Confirm all markers have institutional accounts and appropriate permissions.

2. Breakout rooms within a single session

A single host runs one Zoom session and uses breakout rooms to divide students into smaller groups. Each breakout room should be monitored by marker or teaching assistant with co-host permissions. The main session host can move between rooms to assist.

When to use?

Cohorts of moderate size where a single coordinated session with multiple supervisors is needed, and where you do not want to make use of optional features such as all screens mode, focus mode, or cloud recording.

What to coordinate?

Follow the instructions on setting up breakout rooms. You can pre-allocate breakout rooms before the session. You will need to assign the co-hosts to the room. Note that some settings do not transfer into breakout rooms. For recordings you will need to manually activate the recording in the zoom session and record locally. All screens mode and focus mode do not work in breakout rooms. It’s a good idea to get a practice run in with your colleagues prior to the live session.

Note: Co-hosts assigned to a breakout room have host-level controls within that room (mute, remove). Confirm co-hosts are familiar with these controls before the session.

If you are coordinating multiple staff across multiple sessions we recommend you:

Use consistent settings to reduce confusion for students
Communicate with students in advance where to find their Zoom link and who to contact if they have issues joining.
Advise students to confirm they have their Zoom settings checked and have updated the Zoom application prior to the test.
Ask each staff member to log any in-session issues separately if you will need to review.

All Screens Mode – Additional monitoring

If you would like to monitor student screens during the session, All Screens Mode allows you to request that all participants share their desktop simultaneously. You will see each student's video feed and screen side by side in a scrollable view and be able to see three students at a time. For more detail, see Zoom's support article on All Screens Mode.

When setting up the meeting settings ensure All Screens Mode is enabled. Within the meeting, to enable all screens mode click the small up arrow next to the green ‘Share Screen’ icon. Select ‘Start All Screens Mode’ from the options. A prompt will appear — DO NOT tick Allow participants to view shares (this would let students see each other's screens). Click Start to continue.

Participants will see a prompt asking them to share their screen. They can choose to Start Sharing or decline by selecting Not Now. Students who have not shared will appear at the top of your window. Note that screen shares are not captured in any meeting recording.

Note: The use of the Zoom web app is not supported for All Screens Mode. Students must be using an up-to-date device and logging in via the Zoom desktop or mobile app.

Screen sharing (host to participants)

As the host, you can share your screen to display instructions, a countdown timer, or reference materials to all participants simultaneously. This can reduce the need to type instructions within the chat.

Focus mode

Focus mode restricts what participants can see during a meeting. When enabled, students can only see the host and co-hosts — they cannot see other participants' video. The host retains full visibility of everyone.

Enable focus mode in your meeting settings (scroll to ‘User’ instructions). Within the meeting you can activate focus mode to allow students to work on their quiz without being distracted by others in the zoom.

Note: Focus mode requires Zoom version 5.7.3 or later. Check that your Zoom is up to date before relying on this feature.

Spotlight

Spotlight pins a specific participant's video to the top of the gallery for all attendees (or just for you, using Pin). This is useful if you want to focus on a particular student's environment without disrupting anyone else.

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