Case Study: University of Miami achieves global collaboration and remote filmmaking with Zoom Video Communications

University of Miami Reimagines Global Educational Experience with Zoom

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus in spring 2020, the mostly residential university had to quickly support fully remote, fully on-campus, and hybrid learning while preserving hands-on programs like cinematic arts. Leaders needed flexible tools to keep students engaged and enable collaboration across distances.

Faculty adopted Zoom as a creative collaboration platform—using it for production meetings, location scouting, live direction, and virtual festivals—allowing students to produce an entire film with team members in Miami and Shanghai. The approach sustained global peer-to-peer learning, expanded students’ international experience, and demonstrated a hybrid model that blends residential education with new digital capabilities.

University of Miami

Ali Habashi

Assistant Professor of Cinematic Arts