Here is your periodic reminder to check for updates for your Webex and Zoom desktop applications.
For instructions on how to update your applications, visit the following support sites:
Make sure your applications are never more than a month out of date!
As always, visit our dashboard at MiamiOH.edu/ITStatus for up-to-date status information on your favorite Miami applications.
For this Tuesday edition of the Remote Tools Blog, we want to make a different kind of statement.
This year, we have a lot to be grateful for. Our IT family is growing, we’re improving as professionals and as people, and we continue to be successful in providing the services the campus needs while at the same time taking care of ourselves and our emotional well-being.
We’re grateful for you: our readers and clients who keep us going. Thank you for your support and your camaraderie.
Thank you.
We’re all pros at conducting virtual meetings by now, but it never hurts to brush up on our skills! Here are five quick tips for you to incorporate into your meeting routine.
You’re at home — but this is still a professional venue! You may or may not have fuzzy socks on, but make sure at least your top half is presentable and isn’t distracting to your coworkers, students, or instructors.
Also, make sure to check your surroundings and, if possible, use a naturally well lit area (try not to have light behind you, because that can overwhelm your webcam).
Open the Zoom or Webex desktop app five to 10 minutes before your meeting, just in case the app needs to update. Nothing like needing to update your app and then being late to an important meeting.
This helps keep the background noise level down and prevents crosstalk. Of course, you’ll have to remember to unmute when you want to say something!
Before you press the “share” button when you need to have your coworkers see your screen, make sure any private or sensitive information is hidden and you have closed all the extra tabs you may have open.
You can be more visible during online meetings than you are in face-to-face settings, especially if coworkers and friends have their app set up to display everyone in the same panel (Hollywood Squares style). So pay attention to the meeting and stay focused — and definitely no eating.
There you have it: five tips for you to try out next time you’re on a video conference call. Subscribe for twice-weekly updates!
The following updates are now available:
Zoom: November 9, 2020 version 5.4.2 (58740.1105)
Webex: November 2020 version 40.11
For instructions on how to update your applications, visit the following support sites:
Make sure your applications are never more than a month out of date!
As always, visit our dashboard at MiamiOH.edu/ITStatus for up-to-date status information on your favorite Miami applications.
This update is for the group of folks in the Miami IT Slack instance. The Zoom plug-in has been enabled in Slack by our administrators, and you can now go zooming right along straight from the window you use the most.
Check out this helpful video for information on how to use the plug-in.
The Miami University IT Services Diversity Committee is excited to invite you to our November event: DEI in IT with Cisco’s Trey Boynton.
Trey is the Global Lead, Inclusion and Collaboration Strategy and Alignment for Cisco Systems. For nearly 20 years, she worked in equity and inclusion at the University of Michigan.
She shifted to the tech industry in 2017 at Duo Security as their first head of diversity and inclusion. In her current role at Cisco, as the Global Lead for Inclusion Strategy & Alignment, she delivers on inclusion promises at scale.
The conversation will take place Thursday, November 5, from 2 to 3 pm. You must register to attend this event.
For more information and to register, visit the IT News site.
Please check the update notes on the Zoom website for details about the October upgrade!
Recently, IT administrators have been receiving notices about Zoom meetings that have been posted to Twitter. Social media is a great way to advertise your event! We do want to caution you, however, that if you are going to post the meeting link publicly, you make sure to take a second to take a look at the security settings.
You probably know why we make this caution: “Zoom Bombings” have become a problem both locally and nationally. Troublemakers have shown their stripes, and we need to be vigilant about keeping disruptions out.
It is strongly recommended that you enable the following settings to reduce the risk of a malicious meeting interruption:
Please also change meetings to requiring “authenticated users only.”
To enable this setting when creating a meeting:
Please also visit our new and improved security site for web conferencing tools. The site includes much more information about both Webex and Zoom security options.
Stay safe out there, folks!
We know you’re using Zoom and Webex to engage with students, coworkers, and even family members during these interesting times. The “new normal” is giving us all an opportunity to be flexible and learn new ways to communicate with one another.
For instructors, it’s integral to use the tools available to their fullest capacity — because students are attending classes and doing work in various ways. In light of that, the Miami Online group is offering a virtual event this coming Thursday to help guide faculty members who need more resources for their hybrid classes.
From the events page:
In this session, we’ll explore ways to optimize teaching and learning for your students regardless of location and chosen mode of participation. Connect with us on Thursday, October 15, at 3pm.
You will need to register to see the meeting invite on your calendar.
You heard it here first, folks: Breakout Rooms are available in Webex.
Assign small groups and then bring them back to the larger group when you want. This capability has been available in Zoom, but you can now use them in Webex too.
Watch this corny video from ExplaiNerds for a walkthrough of how to use Breakout Rooms.