Photo of a laptop screen showing a mosaic of individuals in a Zoom class

Updates coming to increase interactivity on Zoom

Zoom recently made significant updates to its platform, offering more interactive options for virtual meetings.

Whiteboard

Now, you can create whiteboards before your meeting and then share them during the meeting. Changes are automatically saved to your Whiteboard library. Later, you can share these whiteboards with your team.

Access the Whiteboard feature through the Zoom web portal or update your Zoom client.

Polls

Another sought-after feature allows hosts to create polls and use them in multiple meetings. To create new polls, sign into the Zoom web portal, select “Meetings” from the left side menu and click on “Polls” in the horizontal menu.

If you have a poll from another meeting you wish to reuse, find the poll in the Zoom web portal, click on the three horizontal dots next to it and select “Add to Library.” It will then appear in the Polls tab. From that tab you can enable each poll so it appears as one of your choices during your next meeting.

Breakout Rooms

An enhancement to Breakout Rooms allows the host to view participant status and activity level from the main session. This means the host can see participants’ audio, video, screen-sharing status and their reactions during the breakout room session.

Reactions

Zoom’s latest update allows participants to raise their physical hand or give a thumbs up in front of the camera and the corresponding reaction is shown in Zoom. Gesture Reaction requires users to enable this in their Zoom client by opening the settings and under the “General” tab selecting “Active the following emojis based on hand gesture recognition.”


To get the most out of Zoom, keep your Zoom software up to date. Learn how to update your Zoom desktop client on the University Technology website.

For assistance with any technology product or service at Case Western Reserve University, contact the University Technology Service Desk at help@case.edu, 216.368.HELP (4357) or visit help.case.edu.