Getting Started with Online Meetings on Zoom

By Nermin Soyalp, Ph.D.
Curriculum Design and Development Consultant

Workshop facilitators, teachers, yoga instructors, and so on, those of us who were spending most of their day with face to face interactions, have been required to transform their practices to online, rapidly. Some of us were already experienced users of online platforms such as Zoom. Still, for many others, the learning curve has been steep. Those who were not familiar with Zoom and heard about it recently, given the changes we are all experiencing, approached me with a similar question “Is this something I can do?” I respond, “Yes, you can do it.”

In this article, I will give some tips to get you started with Zoom because that is the platform I am most familiar with. You have many other options, some of which I will list below as well. Most platforms have similar features. So, whether you use Zoom or not, you may find this article helpful to navigate the challenges of getting started with an online learning platform.

If you are an educator, I know some schools are also considering BigBlueButton. You might want to check them out as well.

A few other known and heavily used options are: Google Hangouts, join me, Mikogo, Zoho meeting, Webex, and GoToMeeting. Some friends recently criticized platforms that are asking for the email address and other personal information. They suggest MyFirst technology to protect the privacy of users if that is something you are concerned about.

I have been using Zoom for work even before the health concerns of Covid-19 caused the global shift to interacting virtually; therefore I will share some Zoom tips for new users.

With Zoom, a few helpful tools are (these would be helpful with any platform you use):

Video: Everyone can be on video.
Share: You can share your screen and slides
Annotate: Participants can annotate on the shared screen or whiteboard, put a checkmark, write text, etc.
Quiz: Single choice or multiple choice polls.
Breakout rooms: You can assign participants to breakout rooms to have smaller group or pairs conversations
Mute/unmute: You can mute or unmute everyone at the same time or individuals separately. Muting everyone and unmuting when there is a question is a good practice so as not to have too much background noise.
Raise hand: Participants can raise their hand when they have a question or comment, and you can call on them to unmute and hear their questions
Chat: Participants can chat as they listen to you speak, write their questions down as a chat, and you can integrate their questions and answers during your lecture. Participants can also chat with other participants or you privately.
Recording: You can record your entire session to the Zoom cloud or your computer. Then you can share the link from the Zoom cloud directly, or upload the recording to YouTube or other video sharing platforms and share it that way.

Participants can join from their computer or any smart device for free.
For all these functions I mentioned, Zoom has a detailed support guide.

If you use Zoom:

Make sure the function you need is enabled before the class. The default does not come with all features enabled (such as a breakout room or polling).
A technical support person, or sometimes called a producer, might be helpful during the session. If you have one person in your department who could be trained for tech support, they can attend the class with you. It really helps during the course, so you can focus on the content, and the second person answers any technical issues participants may be having. Almost always, some technical issues need to be addressed. I use private chat for these functions. Without interrupting the class, participants send a private chat to the technical support person. You can do it alone, too, if you don’t have the funds. It is just that over the years, I have found having the tech support/producer is useful during the class.
Zoom does not rely on your internet speed as they have a more centralized system, but still, you need a good internet connection.

Cyberattack Concerns:

Since most of us could not meet face to face for public gatherings, we had to turn to virtual platforms. Unfortunately, some people used this as an opportunity to hijack other people's public spaces with inappropriate screen sharing, bullying, or harassing other participants or the host. It is more accessible for bullies to login to a public gathering, hide their identity, and make the lives miserable virtually for webinar participants. Since this is a growing concern, I will add a few tips on that.

Go to the advance settings of your Zoom account. There you can make various changes such as:

Allow only authenticated users
Require a password,
Allow or not allow participants to chat with one another
Allow or not allow participants to attach a file
Allow or not allow participants to share their screen
Allow or not allow annotation, and etc.

Recently Zoom sent an email to their active users, and let them know that some default settings will be changed. So, Zoom appears to be aware of security issues, and they are in the process of changing security options to prevent cyberattacks. You will want to review your advanced settings, compare them to the new and more secure default options, and create the most useful set-up for your purposes.

If you share the Zoom link for your event publicly, e.g., in social media- I recommend going through advanced settings and control participants' features. If you have members whom you want to have more flexibility, you can assign them as a co-host after the call begins.

Also, I recommend setting-up anti-harassment norms and policies at the beginning of your meeting. In summary for public calls that are widely distributed, make sure that you have control of:

Who can mute or unmute
Who can annotate
Who can share their screen
Who can send a chat to everyone or individually
Who can turn on or off their video
Who can share a file with others, etc.

Zoom Webinar option also has more control functions. It is more expensive but worth checking out.

Zoom Webinar versus Zoom pro:

I have a Zoom Pro account, not the Webinar. I can comfortably hold around 18 people per class. As the number gets higher, let’s say more than 50 or 100, you may want to have more control, and Webinar may be more efficient.

Follow this link to read about the differences between Zoom Webinar and Zoom pro.

A few highlights:

The Webinar does not have a breakout option, so that is not good if you want participants to have breakout discussions.
Meeting (pro) seems much more interactive to me.

I have provided some basic information to get you started. I hope you find this post helpful. Please feel free to reach out for further questions and comments. Best wishes to you all in these unprecedented and uncertain times.

Editors’ note: This article is not intended to be a blanket endorsement of Zoom over other virtual platforms. Zoom is the platform we’re most familiar with and the one that best meets our needs. We believe the article is relevant to whichever platform you may choose.