ASU leverages Zoom to provide a richer educational experience for students

Adrienne Wooten is a senior instructional designer at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and as part of the Office of Digital Learning, the team helps faculty put their courses online, manage the courses, and enhance learning experiences for students.

“Our mission is to create knowledge, mobilize people, and take action to improve education, and Zoom is one of the products that allows us to do that,” Wooten said.

She described several specific benefits Zoom can provide to higher-education institutions like ASU. They include:

Building a deeper connection

“Online education has come a very long way. It used to be, ‘here’s a PowerPoint … answer a quiz.’’ There was no connection between people at all, and with tools like Zoom, we’re able to actually connect people and make it a more real experience.”

Easy setup & greater adoption

“We had a different product before to connect virtually, and there was a lot of setup to it. It wasn’t user-friendly. [Zoom] is so much easier that it just runs itself. There’s no setup, the students don’t have any trouble using it, and we get nothing but great reviews.”

More instructor-student interaction

“Because Zoom is so easy, it actually takes the burden off of instructors. They’re able to spend more time providing feedback to students, meeting with them virtually, and providing a richer educational experience.”

Virtual faculty offices with Zoom + Slack

“We set up private channels in Slack, which operate as their virtual offices. And we use Zoom within that integration to reach out to students specifically in those small groups.”