MODG News Reporter Gabrielle Olmstead interviewed Paula Lyons, MODG Learning Support, about the Zoom online platform the school is trying out on a limited basis this year.

Why is Mother of Divine Grace testing out Zoom this year?

When MODG first started our Learning Support classes, we met over the phone and didn’t have any visual component. A few years later, we found a better platform for Learning Support: Adobe Connect. At the time, Adobe Connect was a mainstream contender for online meetings and provided everything needed for a successful discussion.

The first couple years were filled with tech issues and bad audio quality compared to what we have now. But that was standard across all businesses at the time and we were pleased with how Adobe Connect worked.

However, as technology advances, other companies offer strong competition to Adobe Connect. We have found that Zoom has much better audio properties that make discussions more natural and fluid! And since Learning Support is intended to be interactive, this felt like a great solution!

Mother of Divine Grace school is trying Zoom this year because we want to see if it will enhance the experience of Learning Support classes and help students interact in their classes more easily.

Is Zoom being used for high school classes only? 

We are using Zoom for high school, middle school, and even elementary school classes. We wanted to test it out on all grade levels to see if it’s universally better than Adobe Connect.

There are several versions of Zoom, some of which have more teacher controls and we are using these stricter settings for the younger students who have less experience in online classes.

How many classes are using it?

We have just over 20 classes in Zoom so far! 

Is this new platform best suited to a particular type of class?

Since MODG has many different types of classes, it’s important to see if Zoom works across the board or if it’s more suited for one type of class. Because of this, Zoom is currently being used for Religion, Math, Science, Literature, History, Electives, Fine Arts and Latin. 

What, if any, feedback have you received thus far about Zoom?

Both students and teachers seem very pleased with Zoom so far! Most students are very enthusiastic about Zoom and have noticed better audio right away.

Teachers are communicating constantly about how to incorporate Zoom in their classrooms. Some teachers have been using Adobe Connect features for a long time and are experimenting with various Zoom features to see how they compare!