Using Zoom for Remote Meetings

Bee’s quick guide to success

Before the Meeting

Scheduling and Inviting

• Use “Schedule a Meeting” on zoom to book in advance
• If you are going to have a series of meetings, it is nice to have a Recurring Meeting so the same link is used every time
• When inviting, make sure that the link to the meeting is clickable so that people can easily join; having the url in the location of the meeting usually works well, as well as clearly highlighted in the message
• Make sure to specify that every participant is going to need their own computer, earphones and microphone. Conference-room type meetings make it very hard for people outside the room to hear well and participate. Laptops are great, but those joining from desktop computers may not have a microphone!
• People shouldn’t sit close together, especially if they are playing audio through the speakers. This can result in screechy audio feedback!

Testing Your Setup

• Run at least one test call to familiarise yourself with the functionality
• Practice screensharing if that is what you intend to do during the meeting
• If you want to share sound (e.g. play a video or music from your laptop), it is essential you test this before hand as you may need to do some setup the first time you try it.
• See later slides for more details on how to do these. :)

During the Meeting

Establishing Ground Rules

If your group is new to using Zoom, I would recommend taking a moment at the beginning of the meeting to establish some helpful practices:

• MUTE if you are not speaking! This helps prevent background noise.
• Use the “Raise Hand” functionality in Zoom to indicate you have something to add or ask - this is found in the Participants tab
• It can be really nice to have everyone’s video on - as a facilitator, being able to see reactions is very helpful! - but sometimes people’s internet speed makes this a struggle. I would invite people to turn their cameras on.

Managing Participants

• If someone has forgotten to mute their microphone, the Host of the meeting can mute them from the Participants tab. This can be a quieter way to handle background noise without interrupting the current speaker.
• Keep an eye on the chat. People often ask questions there if they are having trouble or don’t want to interrupt the speaker.
• Make sure that your instructions to participants are extra clear as it can be more difficult to detect if people are confused, especially if their video is off.

Screenshare

• When sharing screen, you have the option to share your desktop or a particular programme.
• If you need to switch between multiple programmes, I recommend sharing your desktop. HOWEVER; any messages or popups will be visible to the audience! So close any messaging apps (slack, whatsapp web, email, etc) before your meeting to avoid any awkward or personal messages being shared!
• Where possible, it is much less stressful to share the particular programme, e.g. Chrome or Word. Then only that will be visible on screen!

Sound

• Sharing music can be a great way to set the scene at the beginning of the meeting or during quiet thinking times. This is done through the screenshare functionality.
• To share sound and screen:
• Use the screensharing button
• Click the checkbox in the bottom left corner to share sound
• Go! Your screen and computer sound will be shared
• To share only sound:
• Use the screensharing button
• Go to the Advanced Tab
• Click “share sound only”
• The first time I shared sound (on a Mac) I had to install a plugin, so be aware that this may be necessary.

Google Slides

I strongly recommend using Google Slides or another co-editing tool if you have a collaborative meeting. It allows people to add things with writing (especially using shapes as sticky notes) and makes the meeting more visual.

Remote calls are harder to focus on as the distraction of your work, email & messaging are all right there. It is also harder for some people to focus on primarily audio information. Having some kind of visual and interactive way for them to engage can make a huge difference. See the next slide for some ideas.

Just make sure that when you share, you set it so that “anyone with the link can… EDIT”! (by default it is VIEW)

Use https://www.slidescarnival.com/ for slide themes to quickly and easily make your presentation prettier (I am using Aumerle here) - they’re great!

QUESTIONS

IDEAS

Grab a Sticky Note below and drag it to the appropriate column, then type your idea or question!