Zoom News: Sort Gallery View, Enhanced Chat Features, and More

In recent updates to Zoom, new features have been added that may enhance the learning experience when engaging with your students. These include the ability to sort your gallery view in several ways, new chat features which include expanded tools, a better chat experience in breakout rooms, and the inclusion of participant names and screen sharing in immersive view. To use these new features, be sure to first update Zoom so that you are using the latest version, and direct your students to do the same.

Zoom has recently added new ways to sort the gallery view in a meeting. You can still drag and drop participant tiles to a different order on the screen, as well as force participants to follow the host’s viewing order. You can also save and load a custom gallery view for future meetings if they are part of a recurring series of meetings. Now, you can also sort the view gallery alphabetically based on participants’ first or last names as well as sort by meeting entry time. These features can be useful for an instructor in various ways. For example, it may be easier to find and keep track of students if their tiles are organized alphabetically. The ability to sort by meeting entry time would allow an instructor to be more aware of who is joining late. Late students can be pushed to the back of the order or can be brought to the front so that the instructor is aware of when they join. This can be especially useful for large classes where every student may not appear on the first page of participants. As with the drag-and-drop, you can force participants to follow the host’s viewing order if desired.

To sort the gallery view, first, go to the web portal and enable the feature. Click on “settings” on the left side of the page, and then “In Meeting (Advanced).” Scroll down to find the “Sort Gallery View” option and turn it on.

To use the gallery sort feature, follow the directions below:

The Sort Gallery View allows participants to sort their gallery view order during a meeting. Gallery view order can be sorted by first name (ascending and descending), and meeting entry time (ascending and descending).

Note: Sorting gallery view order is only available with client version 5.14.0 or later.

For more information on sorting the gallery view, saving and loading a gallery view, reorganizing a gallery view, and settings, visit the Zoom support page here.

New capabilities in Zoom’s chat tool can expand the opportunities for student engagement during class meetings. The new tools allow participants to reply in threads and quote messages. There are additional formatting options for text as well as the ability to use emojis to respond. Participants can also delete messages. These tools can be used during a class session in multiple ways. For example, students can be asked to have a discussion related to the topic and respond in threads to other students. Formatting options and emojis can allow for fun or creative responses to prompts. As chats can be saved, if students are tasked with an exercise that will have future value, or be part of a larger assignment, the chat can be shared after a meeting. (Note: In order to save chats, the feature must be enabled in the web portal settings.)

Another feature of the New Meeting Chat Experience is that participants will continue to see the chat history from the main room when they enter a breakout room. Likewise, when returning to the main room, the chat history will remain from the breakout room. This will allow for continuous contact with students through the chat feature when they are in breakout rooms. Students can continue to receive guidance and ask questions. They can also refer to the chat from the breakout room when they return

to the main room. Finally, if the Zoom app crashes during a meeting, or there is a lost connection, users will see recovered messages they previously had access to.

To confirm that the New Meeting Chat Experience is enabled and to select the options that allow for deleting messages and using emojis go to your web portal settings. In the “In Meeting (Basic)” section, scroll down to where it says, “New Meeting Chat Experience”. Be sure to save your changes.

You will then see the new features options in your chat window.

For more information on the New Meeting Chat Experience, please visit the Zoom Support page here.

Zoom’s immersive view option is a great tool for role-playing and practice scenarios in a remote class setting. Students can be placed in a background that puts them in a courtroom, a doctor’s office, or a counseling session, for example. Participants can be automatically placed in Zoom’s provided scenes or instructors can use their own custom background. The most recent update from Zoom will now show participants’ display names when they are placed into immersive view, making it easier to find and manage participants. As always, display names can be changed by clicking on the three dots next to the name in the participant panel. This may be a creative way to enhance a role-playing scenario. Also in the recent update, you can now share a screen during the immersive view experience. The immersive view will shift to provide space for the shared content to be viewed. Previously, sharing a screen would cause the immersive view to be stopped. You can find the immersive view option at the top right-hand corner of your Zoom window with your other viewing options.

For more information on Zoom’s immersive view, visit the support page here.