KSOM faculty can reserve special ‘Zoom Teaching Studios’ for fall

August 18, 2020
KSOM faculty can reserve special ‘Zoom Teaching Studios’ for fall

Demonstrating one of the new Zoom teaching studios.

Last week Provost Zukoski sent a memo with guidelines and best practices for using Zoom this fall. To make this tool as easy to use and effective as possible for everyone, and to reduce the risk of “Zoom bombing” intrusions, faculty are encouraged to use auto-generated, pre-configured, auto-recorded USC Zoom meetings. Best practices can be found at Keepteaching@usc.edu

When it comes time to use Zoom to teach, there are a variety of venues faculty can teach from: from home; from a USC office; or they can reserve an empty USC classroom by contacting spaces@usc.edu.

Instructors might not know about one other venue that is only available to KSOM faculty: They can use one of KSOM’s five new Zoom teaching studios. Based on a design created at Johns Hopkins’ School of Engineering and designed specifically for teaching in Zoom, these five new Zoom teaching studios are high-tech workspaces pre-configured with two 55” televisions — one ideal for a gallery view of students and one for PowerPoints, notes, videos or other materials. The key benefit is that faculty will be able to organize your presentations more efficiently and see everything better — including students. No more human beings represented as postage-stamp-sized images! The Zoom teaching studios also feature

  • A desk where the instructor can sit or stand
  • A high-quality camera and microphone that provides the feel of a professional studio
  • A whiteboard positioned within the camera frame
  • Automatic lecture-capture capabilities
  • Onsite or IT-enabled remote support in near real-time

Going forward, the Zoom teaching studios can also be used to support student and faculty recruitment interviews, grand rounds, remote presentations, and any other high-level Zoom meeting.

 The new Zoom teaching studios are being rolled out as we speak, and faculty can begin reserving them based on this schedule:

  • The two Zoom teaching studios in KAM will be available to book starting Monday, Aug. 17.
  • The Zoom teaching studio in SSB will be available after Aug. 24.
  • The Zoom teaching studio in HSA (Alhambra) will also be available after Aug. 24.   
  • We are targeting the final Zoom teaching studio for BCC for Aug. 31, but this has yet to be confirmed.  ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

To reserve a Zoom teaching studio, use this link: https://usc-keck.emscloudservice.com.​​​​​​​

Anyone who has questions can email David Galassi, dgalassi@usc.edu.