A Brief Guide to Zoom Facilitation
There are a number of elements of a synchronous class session addressed in this guide, including convening and ending sessions, round-robin moments where all students are invited to participate, and thoughtful ways to use breakouts. Derek wrote this guide in 2022 and updated it in 2026 with input on accessibility topics from Luke. For more on accessibility, see the next resource in this collection.
Roll Call. One option for a round robin is to ask your question or give your prompt, then have students volunteer their responses in whatever order they want. This “popcorn” approach is easy to use, but it does tend to result in the same students starting the process every time. An alternative is to play “tag,” asking the first student who responds to call on a second student to respond. That second student responds and then calls on a third student to go next, and so on. This has the advantages of helping everyone learn each other’s names, but some students find it stressful not knowing when it will be their turn and mispronouncing a peer’s name can be awkward. Instead, consider posting an ordered list of students names in the text chat, and having students take turns responding to your question in that order. This will allow you to hear from every student, while giving students time to put together their thoughts. Note that a text chat response might be a better option than voice for some neurodivergent students, students with speech disabilities, or those experiencing background noise.