Virtual Meetings |
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IntroductionVirtual meetings can be a really useful tool to bring people together across multiple locations. We've compiled advice for staff, managers and leaders to understand how to set up, manage, and get the best out of virtual meetings. |
Tips for Virtual MeetingsPlease see the help video on this page to pick up some useful tips on how to run and attend successful and useful virtual meetings. |
Getting started |
Start a meetingYou can use Google Meet to either instantly create a virtual meeting, or to schedule a meeting through Google Calendar depending on your need. Schedule a meetingIf you are scheduling a meeting a Google Meet will be automatically added to any Google Calendar event you create, inviting all your attendees to your virtual meeting. Start an ad hoc meetingYou can also start an ad-hoc meeting, directly through Google Meet:
Privacy:Please ensure you are comfortable with the background view those attending virtual meetings will have of your surroundings, e.g pictures, books, or items that might release personal or confidential information you would not want to share. Please ensure all attendees of Google Meet sessions have been legitimately invited and that data being shared in meetings is appropriate and not excessive. Top tip: If it is your first time setting up a virtual meeting you may want to do a dry run with a friendly colleague to check everything works as you expect. Join a meetingYou can join Google Meet video meetings either from a Google Calendar event, or directly through Google Meet on your computer, phone or tablet. Join from a calendar event:
Join from an invite:
Note: only join a meeting if you know what the meeting is / who it’s from. Join from Google Meet:Google Meet shows you a schedule of all virtual meetings you have coming up that day. To join one, simply click the meeting you want to join and click Join now. Top Tips:
Basic controlsAudio and VideoYou can easily control whether people can see and hear you by turning your camera and microphone on or off. AudioYou can mute your microphone by clicking the microphone icon on the meeting screen. Once muted the microphone icon will turn red. To unmute, click the microphone icon again. If you’re using headphones or a headset then you may need to click on the Cog and change which device to use for sound. Top Tip: if you are somewhere with a lot of background noise or interference, mute your microphone when you are not speaking. VideoYou can turn your camera on and off by clicking the video camera icon. When turned off, the video camera icon will turn red, and your video will be replaced by your google avatar, or initials. Top Tip: If you haven't got a webcam you could use your mobile phone to take part in a video call/conference via the Google meet app. The Google meet app is available to download from your phones app store. Screen layoutGoogle Meet automatically shows the most active participants in a meeting. You can change the page setup on Google Meet by clicking the 3 circles on the bottom right hand side of the page (on the pop-up bar). You can then choose from the following layouts:
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Collaborating |
Advice to improve collaboration in virtual meetings1. Use attachmentsAttaching any relevant documents to a scheduled meeting in Google Calendar means that your attendees will be able to see and access them from the bottom left corner of the virtual meeting screen. Top Tip: Have a shared Google Doc for meetings so people can follow along with the conversation and keep track of what’s been agreed/asked. 2. Use videoAll participants sharing their video and audio is great for collaboration as it will help members to stay engaged and to know when people want to speak or have finished speaking. 3. Share your screen or present during a video meetingYou can share your entire screen or a specific window in a meeting to deliver presentations, or share documents, web pages and other useful content. Presenting
Presenting Using ChromeThe Chrome browser has an additional feature, used to present higher quality video.
Top Tip: When you start sharing your screen, allow notifications so that you know when your screen is visible. 4. Use other appsUsing collaborative apps alongside your virtual meeting can really bring collaborative focus, particularly when working on specific ideas. Some apps worth trying include:
These can be created and shared from your Google Drive. |
Managing your meeting |
Advice to help you manage meetingsPlanning your meeting
During the meeting
Top Tip: If you've never used the solution before or want to check everything works ok then we recommend having a practice with a colleague you trust. |
Record your meeting |
Recording and sharing meetingsGoogle have enabled meeting recording and sharing for the University until 30 September, 2020, to support us in working remotely in response to COVID-19, Record a meetingRecording is only available with the computer version of Meet. Mobile app users get notified when the recording starts or stops, but cannot control recording.You can’t record if you join only to present, such as from a laptop while already in a video conference room. Before you start recording:
Start recording:
Finish recording:
View and share your recordingWhen your recording has been generated and added to your Google Drive, you can view and share it from within Drive as any other file. You can also download your mp4 video file to your computer if you want to edit or add production to the video. |