5 Ways Zoom Rooms Improve Hybrid Classrooms

The pandemic showed us that education as we know it can change overnight. But with the right infrastructure and technology in place, learning can continue from virtually anywhere, whether students are in the classroom or at home. 

Zoom Rooms, our software-based room system, can play a critical role in bridging the gap between remote students and teachers in a hybrid classroom environment, and even provide new opportunities for engagement that go beyond your typical in-person learning experience.

Here are the benefits of using an integrated room system like Zoom Rooms in the classroom and how it can help improve teaching and learning for your faculty and students.

With Zoom Rooms, a teacher can simply walk into the classroom and tap one button to start a class session over Zoom, a platform they already know and are comfortable with. Teachers don’t need to worry about figuring out cables and connections or learning additional tools. And with features like wireless sharing, instructors can easily share content. This all helps minimize frustration and reduce the time spent on managing the technical aspects of virtual class. 

Zoom Rooms’ simplicity makes it even more accessible to educators, regardless of their level of comfort or experience with video technology. 

Teachers and faculty can feel confident knowing that they can walk into any Zoom Rooms-enabled classroom or lecture hall and start a meeting without having to learn a different system. Substitute teachers can quickly get up to speed and step in to teach in any hybrid classroom in your school. All this enables flexibility, giving educators the ability to easily adapt, whether they’re covering a class for a colleague, switching lecture halls last minute, or changing rooms over the summer.

Zoom Rooms provide interactive whiteboarding capabilities on a large digital canvas, which is easier for teachers to use and for in-person and remote students to follow. Students can use the co-annotation feature on desktop, mobile, or Zoom Rooms devices to contribute equally in real-time and provide valuable feedback on other students’ work. Students can even annotate on one document simultaneously for a dynamic experience that’s difficult to replicate in a physical classroom setting. When class is over, teachers can save whiteboard sessions and send them to the entire class or to absent students.

Zoom Rooms hardware provides teachers with flexible options that accommodate different teaching styles. Devices with auto-framing capabilities let educators move around the classroom naturally, instead of being confined to a fixed spot. The camera automatically keeps the instructor in frame, providing a better learning experience for students at home and in the physical classroom. Microphone arrays and advanced background noise suppression features allow everyone in the room to be heard clearly.

An all-in-one touch display on a mobile cart offers even greater flexibility. Teachers can move the display to different parts of the room depending on the lesson, or even let learning take place in a different part of campus. For institutions like Quinnipiac University, these mobile “Zoom Rooms on wheels” allow faculty members to engage with remote and in-person students equally.

Now that schools and campuses have experienced firsthand how effective virtual learning can be, investing in secure, long-term infrastructure is essential for future-proofing education. Institutions like La Salle-Ramon Llull University in Barcelona are using Zoom Rooms in their smart classrooms as part of a digitally connected smart learning model.

Equipping your hybrid classrooms with technology that enables secure, engaging, equitable experiences allows learning to continue in many different situations — from pandemic responses to weather emergencies. Hybrid learning can also serve students who can’t attend school in person due to illness, chronic conditions, or special needs. 

Zoom Rooms can provide a flexible room system that helps educators adapt to students’ different learning requirements and situations.

Learn how schools and universities are using Zoom for hybrid and virtual learning.