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brooke hutchins

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As a 100% remote company, we rely on Zoom to communicate with our global team. Today, we're sharing our favorite Zoom tips and tricks to help newly-remote teams get up to speed on video conferencing.

We build customer support software here at Groove.

We provide an inbox for customer service email collaboration, a knowledge base for self-service and training guides, and a reporting dashboard to help our customers scale appropriately.
And we do it all as an entirely remote team.
While, we don't have our meetings in a physical conference room, we do see each other every single day.

Our daily video meeting rhythm helps us to stay productive, happy and close-knit.

Each day, we huddle together via video chat, and the best tool that we've found for this so far is Zoom.

We spend hundreds of hours per year in Zoom. So time-saving hacks, even if they just save a few seconds, can make a meaningful difference in our productivity.

Even if you just use Zoom for the occasional meeting, the tips and tricks we've fallen in love with can still help you have a smoother, more pleasant experience.

Today, I'm sharing our favorite Zoom hacks, including keyboard shortcuts, non-obvious settings, integrations, and general video chat tips.

You'll learn:

How we save hours each year with shortcuts (e.g., invite someone to a meeting in less than 2 seconds)

Little-known integrations that can make scheduling meetings seamless

How to actually look better in your video meetings

And more...

Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts to save time on common tasks in Zoom.

1) Quick Invite

When you're in a meeting, type ⌘Cmd+I (PC: Alt+I) to open the Invite window.

From the Email tab, copy the URL, and send it to anyone who you want to invite to the meeting.

Or click on Contacts to directly invite a colleague if they're on your contact list.

Note: See Tip #10 for an even faster way to invite others

2) Record Meeting

Recording is a tremendously useful feature in Zoom.

Want to save key meetings or employee one-on-one's? Record them for reference.

Doing an interview and don't want to slow things down by taking notes? Record it and get it transcribed. We do this for all of our founder interviews.

Just type ⌘Cmd+Shift+R (PC: Alt+R) to start recording any meeting.

Type ⌘Cmd+Shift+P (PC: Alt+P) to pause/resume recording.

3) Share Screen

Screen sharing is one of the key features that Zoom does better than any other video conferencing platform we tried.

To start a screen share, type ⌘Cmd+Shift+S (PC: Alt+Shift+S).

To pause/resume a screen share, type ⌘Cmd+Shift+T (PC: Alt+T).

4) Mute Audio

Use ⌘Cmd+Shift+A (PC: Alt+A) to mute/unmute your audio.

5) Turn Off Video

To quickly turn video off/on, hit ⌘Cmd+Shift+V (PC: Alt+V).

6) Mute Everyone

Our daily huddles now involve 20 people.

Ambient or background noise can often get in the way of clear communication.

We found this trick where the meeting host can hit ⌘Cmd+Ctrl+M (PC: Alt+M) to mute everyone on the call at once.

This shortcut has single-handedly shaved minutes off of our daily meetings.

Zoom Settings

If you fix these settings once, they'll reward you with optimized Zoom meetings forever...

7) Always Mute Microphone

This setting ensures you enter meetings quietly without bringing sudden noise to the call.

You can access Audio Settings directly from a Zoom call by clicking the arrow next to the microphone.

Check "Mute microphone when joining a meeting ".

The same setting exists (and as a rule, should always be used) on the mobile app.

8) Always Turn Video Off

Unless video is a necessity, we've found that turning it off can help increase the clarity of the call.

This particular setting allows you to turn it off when entering a call (you can always turn it on later)-which is another helpful way to reduce sudden interruptions.

You can access Video Settings directly from a Zoom call by clicking the arrow next to the camera.

Check "Turn off my video when joining a meeting".

9) Display Names

This is less important when you're chatting with people you know well, but if you use Zoom to do a lot of sales calls, then this setting will ensure you never accidentally forget the name of the person you're talking to.

Go to Settings > Video and check "Always display participant's name on their videos."

10) Auto-copy Invite URL When Starting a Meeting

The Invite keyboard shortcut is great, but this setting takes things a step further.

Found in General settings, this option makes it super easy to invite people to any meeting, without even going through the process of manually copying the invite URL.

11) Enable Shortcuts Outside of Zoom

This setting will double the power of all of the keyboard shortcuts above, and that's not an exaggeration.

Do you often have other windows open while in Zoom meetings?

Well, with this setting, you can use your Zoom keyboard shortcuts even when you're in another window.

To turn it on, go to Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts and select "Enable Global Shortcut."

12) Meeting Reminder (Mobile)

When I'm on the go, I don't always know when a meeting is about to start.

On my phone, calendar reminders often go ignored (there are so many of them that it's just too noisy to keep up). So I set up Zoom reminders to ensure that I never miss an important scheduled meeting.

13) Disable Waiting Room

Zoom recently turned on a bunch of privacy-related settings by default. One of those is the waiting room, which requires you to admit each attendee individually.

Our calls are mostly internal anyway (and it can take a while to admit 10+ people individually), so we turned this setting off under Settings > In Meeting (Advanced) > Waiting room.

(Note: It takes a while to scroll through all the options on this page, so we suggest you CTRL+F "waiting room" to find it quickly.)

Toggle this off to remove the waiting room

14) Touch Up My Appearance

This is more on the spectrum of "fun" than "useful," but I love that it's a feature.

In Settings > Video, check "Touch up my appearance," and Zoom will soften the focus on your camera, theoretically minimizing any issues with your skin.

Zoom Integrations

Zoom works seamlessly with other products you may already use.

15) Slack

We meet in Zoom, but we live in Slack.

Which is why the Zoom/Slack integration is so helpful. You can use it to start Zoom meetings right from Slack. Just type "/zoom" in Slack to see all the options.

We also use Slack's recurring reminder feature to remind our team when the daily huddle is about to start, both 5 minutes in advance and right as the meeting is starting.

To set this up, just type this into Slackbot:/remind #[roomname] every weekday at 9:55am that Daily Huddle is starting in 5 minutes! [zoom link]

16) Zapier

Zapier connects Zoom with hundreds of other apps, but perhaps the most useful integration of all is scheduling tools.

When you schedule a meeting with someone, whether using Calendly or Google Calendar, rather than following up with that person to send them a Zoom meeting link, or manually updating the calendar invite with the link, you can have Zapier automatically add your Zoom link to the event, making meeting scheduling hands-free.
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How to Apply This to Your Business

We love Zoom, and recommend it to anyone looking for a video meeting tool. I hope these tips help you get as much out of it as we do.

Soon enough, you'll be able to meet just as easily as you did in person.

Share these tips with everyone in your organization so no one is left in the dark in this new remote world. We can all make the transition a bit easier by sharing what we know!

120-day free trial

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Due to the recent pandemic, we're offering a 120-day free trial (which includes all our features) on every plan-No strings attached.

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Access to all our features

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16 Advanced Zoom Tips for Better Video Meetings | Groove Blog

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As a 100% remote company, we rely on Zoom to communicate with our global team. Today, we're sharing our favorite Zoom tips and tricks to help newly-remote teams get up to speed on video conferencing. We build customer support software here at Groove.

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-Hannah

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How to Create a Multimedia Map With Padlet

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Padlet, in case you aren't aware, is a fantastic live posting board you can utilize with your students or colleagues to collect, curate, interact, and comment on anything from documents, posts, ideas, or web links. All this collaboration happens in real-time, and anyone can access it from anywhere as long as they have the link to your Padlet. We use this for "parking lot" discussions during trainings, allowing participants to share questions, ideas, or concerns during a session. This way, if you're in a training with us and a questions pops in your head while we're in the middle of covering something important, you can throw it into Padlet, so you don't forget about it. We then take time to address everything on the Padlet. We also bring in our entire team, digitally. So even when Tiffany (@techieteachott) is not at a training, she can be helping teachers with questions, and sharing ideas in real-time with them. It's been a truly awesome tool for us.

That's how we utilize Padlet during trainings, but what we've found is that teachers all over the country are utilizing this awesome tech tool to do a lot of really great things in their classrooms. Let's look at 5 ways you can utilize Padlet in your classroom to increase engagement and accountability.

Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment is a great way to utilize Padlet. Whether you are trying to figure out if your students understood a lesson, or you just want to check in and see if they remember content, you can create a single Padlet site that gets reused daily, or a new Padlet site for each individual assessment. Students can participate live or you can use the built-in moderator settings to approve answers, posting them when you are ready to release them to the public "board." Either way allows for great discussion of student responses and identification of misconceptions. This can greatly enhance any teachers ability to review, comment on, and quickly measure student understanding using.

The real-time interaction opens the door to so many possibilities, and we've found that it is a great tool for all classrooms, especially those that are mastery-based. Click To Tweet

Group Projects

Padlet is also a great way to help students collaborate. Each group can create their own Padlet site to curate and collect their progress and work. It can then be accessed by you, so that you have a source for live updates on student progress and work. An additional benefit is that you can track who is posting to the project site and evaluate individual contributions to the final product and process very easily. This is a great way to encourage discussion or reflect on project progress with the entire class. Have groups provide "status updates" and use the Padlet to the allow the entire class to share ideas and collaborate with other groups.

[scroll down to keep reading]

Class Discussions

Facilitating classroom discussions can be difficult. Making sure everyone is participating, keeping the conversation on track, and keeping students engaged can be challenging. Padlet can help with all of these by holding students accountable and keeping them engaged in the process. By creating a Padlet site you can have your students post their talking points, ideas, and feedback during the discussion LIVE, or potentially prior to the discussion.

This helps ensure that everyone gets to provide input, even if during the discussion they choose not to vocalize a response or idea. This also makes "grading" the discussion and student input much easier! Another great idea is to call out positive ideas / thoughts to increase engagement. Because the discussion is live, it makes a normal class discussion much more interactive and engaging for both the teacher and students.

Parent Communication

Creating a parent focused Padlet is a great way to engage all stakeholders. You can share the link at the beginning of the year and create a running log of discussions and reflections. It's also great for any announcements or events that you'd like to communicate to parents. You can also share feedback and additional support for students after they've left your room. And it's a great way to send out reminders as well! Parents can also share thoughts, ideas, and even concerns with you, so you can stay aware of any changes that may need to change in your classroom.

Padlet is just one of many awesome tech tools out there, but it's simplicity, intuitiveness is really nice. The real-time interaction opens the door to so many possibilities, and we've found that it is a great tool for all classrooms, especially those that are mastery-based. Check out Padlet here!

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Padlet, in case you aren't aware, is a fantastic live posting board you can utilize with your students or colleagues to collect, curate, interact, and comment on anything from documents, posts, ideas, or web links. All this collaboration happens in real-time, and anyone can access it from anywhere as long as they have the link to your Padlet.

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30+ creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students

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I’m always excited when I’m using Padlet. Is it the interface, the way everything is designed, its purpose or the fact that I’m organizing things smoothly? I don’t know. It just makes me happy.

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Classroom Solutions for STEM and STEAM | LEGO® Education

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LEGO® Education solutions teach children 21st century skills for future success, starting with preschool and moving through elementary, middle and high school.

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Here's a padlet with ideas of how to use pad

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Here's a padlet with ideas of how to use pad

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thought this was cool

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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Dyan Branstetter | August 2016
A few weeks ago, I shared a list of my current "top five" of free or low-cost technology tools that I use in my classroom for Arts-Integration or STEAM lessons. Throughout the fall, I will focus on ideas for using each classroom tool like Padlet in the classroom. Find the original list here.
If you haven't heard of in the classroom and you're looking to add more technology to your classroom, this is a great way to start. First of all, it allows students (or teachers) to collaborate. Think of it as a large bulletin board. Anyone with the link can place a post-it on the bulletin board. The post-it note can include a note, a picture, a video, or a website. I've used Padlet for teacher book studies and anything that I want students to collaborate on.

Secondly, it is SIMPLE to create and does not require many devices. It is so simple, in fact, that you can create one on the fly in response to a lesson that changes direction mid-class. Not even close to a 1:1 classroom? Leave a the Padlet open on a classroom computer and allow students to type their answer during independent work time, station time, or during transitions.

1. Getting to know your "audience"

Create a Padlet in the classroom for students (or faculty) to get to know one another. This could also be useful at a back-to-school night. Ask students to post a note with their name and something they did over the summer or something they are looking forward to learning during the upcoming school year. At a back to school night or open house, it could be part of a scavenger hunt. Leave the Padlet projected for all to see, and have families post their name and a picture of themselves.

2. Formative Assessment

After teaching a lesson, post a "ticket out the door" question to find what students learned that day. You can post a big question, such as your lesson's essential question, or a specific question to determine who has met an exact objective. This is a great time to figure out what students' perceive to be the important points about their learning, and it also highlights the misconceptions. (I don't typically project these Padlets because sometimes students are sensitive of their work when it is new learning. It is best to generate a culture in the classroom that celebrates mistakes so that students see them as the very best way to learn and grow.)

3. Collaborative Research

Padlet can be a great classroom tool for small groups of students participating in collaborative research. To help organize the board, students can post driving questions about their topic, and as they find answers (or more questions) during the research process, they can post them under each driving question. Students can also post links, video clips, and images, making it more effective than traditional notecards.

4. Book Studies and Discussion Points

Padlet is an incredibly useful discussion board for discussion. Whether it is a student-run literature circle or reciprocal teaching groups, or a staff development book study, Padlet is an effective classroom tool. The leader posts a question about the chapter, and participants respond to that question. Students can have literature discussions even when the classroom needs to be quiet, or in the evening from their own homes. Teachers can prepare for professional development book studies by posting thoughts from a chapter prior to meeting in person, which helps the leader of the book study better prepare for the focus of the next session.

5. Student Sharing

Provide students with an opportunity to share their work without taking the instructional time to share one at a time in front of the room. (Presenting has definite value, but realistically there just isn't enough time to do this for everything students create.) Allow students to take a picture of what they are working on and post it to a Padlet you've set up for them. Have other class members view the posted items, and respond below it by sharing a "Praise" and a "Polish"- one thing they love, and one thing they would have done differently. A reminder to train students about writing effective comments, both positive and constructive, and to teach students how to use those comments once they are received. You could organize this by setting up a Padlet for each project/piece students create, or you could set up a Padlet for each student to post their creations throughout the year.
Have you used Padlet in the classroom? How have you used it effectively?

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5 Ideas For Using Padlet in the Classroom

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Dyan Branstetter | August 2016 A few weeks ago, I shared a list of my current "top five" of free or low-cost technology tools that I use in my classroom for Arts-Integration or STEAM lessons. Throughout the fall, I will focus on ideas for using each classroom tool like Padlet in the classroom.

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Check this out! -Mark

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30+ creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students

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I’m always excited when I’m using Padlet. Is it the interface, the way everything is designed, its purpose or the fact that I’m organizing things smoothly? I don’t know. It just makes me happy.

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This is a great research tool for students!

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How to use the Explore tool in Google Slides