14 DAY TRIAL // Unfortunately for the entire planet, it doesn’t look like things are returning to normal anytime soon, and the invisible enemy we’re still fighting with isn’t willing to give up despite everybody’s desire to return to their normal lives.
In other words, there’s a chance working from home and online classes would remain very common in the next half of the year, and as a company whose software has become a must-have tool in this regard, Zoom wants to improve its offering as much as possible.
So the firm has recently developed a so-called Focus mode that enhances the online learning process by allowing teachers to show only their video feeds and hide the ones of the other participants.
Also offered for free accounts
In other words, if you’re attending an online class, you’ll only see the teacher’s live stream, while everybody else is blanked. Zoom will continue to display only the thumbnails of each participant, along with emoji reactions, but the video feeds aren’t enabled until the teacher disables the Focus mode.
“Focus mode is designed with the digital learning environment in mind, allowing students to stay attentive or work on their tasks while under supervision, without being distracted by others and their tasks. This feature gives the host and co-hosts view of all participants’ videos without other participants seeing each other,” Zoom explains.
“This extends into screen sharing, as the host and co-host can view and switch between each participant’s shared screen, while the participants can only view their own content. If the host finds a participant’s content should be shared with others, they can easily begin sharing the participant’s screen with others.”
The good news is the feature will also be available for free accounts, and to enable it you need to be the host and run at least version 5.7.3 of the Zoom client on Windows or Mac.