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.
We continue to hear stories, both locally and nationally, about unwanted visitors “bombing” web conferencing (Zoom, Webex, etc.) meetings and events. This behavior can be extremely disruptive to the meetings, and in some cases, even illegal.
Many of the same security recommendations apply to Zoom, Webex, and Google Meet as are used for other online applications. In order to keep uninvited guests from disrupting class gatherings and meetings, we have gathered some tips to keep in mind for Zooming safely and responsibly.
Please read the full list of recommendations on the IT News site.
Hot off the presses! Zoom has just rolled out four new features that educators can use to improve the remote learning experience. Update your Zoom client to access these latest features:
We’ve all been there. It’s time for your meeting to start — whether in Webex, Zoom, or Google Meet — and it just doesn’t work.
Here are just a few ways to troubleshoot your meeting and get in on time.
For platform-specific troubleshooting, please see the following:
If you want to host a meeting with hundreds of participants, Zoom Webinar is an easy way to engage with an audience without unnecessary distractions. Webinar hosts can designate a few participants (panelists) to share screens and audio content. Webinars do allow hosts to unmute attendees, but in general participants are mostly there to listen to one or more presenters.
Webinars are ideal for large audiences or events that are open to the public. Typically, webinar attendees do not interact with one another. This is a great idea for events like panel events or featured readings. Not sure how you should host your event? Zoom has great content on their site about whether you should choose a Meeting or Webinar.
In our Miami domain, we have two available licenses. That means you need to request permission to host a webinar.
Also see this blog post about participant limits in all of our web conferencing tools, including Webex, Zoom, and Google Meet.
This month’s list of updates for Webex includes:
Check out the full list and explanations on the Webex admin site!
Like Zoom and Webex before them, Google Meet is improving safety features for hosts and participants. Hosts will have more control over who joins their meetings!
Google is giving hosts something called “Quick access,” which will be the default from now on in meetings.
“Quick access” makes it so that participants in the same domain as the host (i.e., using their @MiamiOH.edu email address to join) do not need to request to join the meeting. However, if the host turns “Quick access” off, every participant will need to request — it will essentially put everyone in a waiting room so that the host can determine who all can enter the meeting.
This feature will be gradually rolled out to our domain on Google’s timetable, but everyone should start seeing the option in their meetings within the next few weeks.
Read more about the update to Google Meet on the G Suite blog.
This is a quick one for your Tuesday Remote Tools Update.
HD video is now available in 1-on-1 Zoom meetings. Huzzah! Now you can see your classmates and coworkers in better, crisper quality.
Note: This only applies to 1-on-1 meetings for the time being. To preserve bandwidth in light of the COVID-19 situation, Zoom is restricting full and standard HD.
Please be sure to use the desktop application in order to take advantage of HD during your Zoom meetings.
Further reading: more of the nuts and bolts about HD video and prerequisites on Zoom’s support blog.
Sometimes, you need to get information and content to a large audience. Webex Events and Zoom Webinars are available for big groups, but there are only so many licenses available for use at a time. So, what do you do?
In Webex and Zoom, you have the capability to stream your meetings to Facebook Live. This will give you a little more leeway to have as many viewers as you want. There are some differences, however. Please see the following support articles for more information on streaming events to your University-affiliated Facebook page.
Important note: It is highly recommended that if you need to stream your meeting or event to Facebook Live, you should use a verified and official institutional Facebook page.
Attendee calling in to Zoom Webinars doesn’t work properly at the moment, so they have disabled that function.
In the meantime, attendees may connect to Webinar audio through the Zoom desktop client, web client, or mobile app. Panelists are unaffected; this is only for attendees.
You can read more about this on Zoom’s status page.
They say they are hoping to turn on this capability again in the next few weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience!