Did you know that Zoom Meetings is in a state of perpetual updates? The software designers at Zoom are constantly bringing new features to Zoom meetings and working to improve existing tools. If you use Zoom on your smart phone, iPad, or other tablet, you should periodically check Zoom's Download Center to ensure that you have the latest Zoom Client for Meetings. As of this newsletter, the latest version is 5.8.3 (1581).
In addition to updating your Zoom client, here are some features that Zoom has added or enhanced in recent months:
- Two-way Chat with Waiting Room Participants - Until recently, you could only send a chat message to everyone in your meeting 's waiting room. Now, meeting Hosts and Co-hosts can chat back-and-forth with participants in the Waiting Room. Waiting Room messages can be sent to all participants in the Waiting Room or just individual participants. Only the host/co-host can see responses from those in the Waiting Room. This feature must be enabled in Waiting Room web settings and requires client version 5.8.0 or higher.
- Polling Enhancements for Quizzing - The IDT team has enabled advanced polling to allow meeting hosts to build advanced polls or quizzes that contain multiple question/answer types, allow for images, and automatically record answers. New question/answer types include match combinations, rank answers, and fill in the blank. For more information about Polling, including advanced options, visit Zoom's Advanced polling and quizzing for meetings support page.
- Focus Mode - Focus Mode has been officially released and is now available to be used in your Zoom meetings. Focus Mode is designed with the digital learning environment in mind, allowing students to stay attentive or work on their tasks while under supervision, without being distracted by others and their tasks. This feature gives the host and co-hosts view of all participants’ videos without other participants seeing each other. In focus mode, only the host can see participants’ videos and profile pictures. You can start Focus Mode from the “More” menu on the toolbar of the desktop client. This requires the desktop client for Windows or macOS version 5.7.3 or higher. For more information, refer to Zoom's Using focus mode support page.
- Share Screen to All Breakout Rooms - When sharing screen in the main session, the host or co-host can share their screen to all active Breakout Rooms. Any active sharing in the breakout sessions are interrupted and any annotation or whiteboarding prompts the sharer to save them before viewing the shared screen from the host. Additional information about this feature is located toward the bottom of Zoom's Managing Breakout Rooms support page.
