Hosting and managing a meeting

Zoom can be accessed from two distinct places:

The Zoom website

Accessed via a browser (Google Chrome, FireFox, Safari) by going to https://zoom.us/

Zoom program or Application (App)

That you download to your device (computer/laptop/tablet/phone)

This is how it looks on a PC and on a phone …

Both the Zoom website and the Zoom App allow you to …

• sign into your Zoom account
• join a meeting
• start a meeting
• schedule a meeting
• view all your meetings
• view your settings (although each control different settings – see ‘Settings’ below)
• and more

Important: You get more control/flexibility by starting and/or joining Zoom meetings directly from your Zoom App on your device rather than just on a browser

Hence, if you try to join or start a meeting from your web browser … you will be prompted/encouraged to start the Zoom Meetings App (Open Zoom Meetings) or to download Zoom and run it

You can click on the “join from your browser” link if you want to.

You can start an Instant Meeting or Schedule one for the future

Scheduled meetings can be one-off (set a date/time) or recurring (you can use the same ID and description many times and set daily or weekly occurrences, or simply choose not to set any dates or times and start it whenever you want)

From your Zoom App on your computer/device

From the Zoom website

If you can’t see these options at the top right of the screen, click on “My Account” (top right) first

Options for a Scheduled meeting

Some useful links

Scheduling A Meeting video (1:07 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhZW3iyXV9U

Zooms help page: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362413-How-Do-I-Schedule-Meetings-

Date and Time of scheduled meetings

The date and time for a scheduled meeting is mainly only relevant as a “description” for people you send the invite to.

You can actually start and join a scheduled meeting at any time, regardless of the date/time you set.

It does also define when that meeting ID expires (see table above)

A full Zoom invite looks something like this …

The important information is highlighted in red

You can generate/copy this from your App or your account on the Zoom website …

Where to find your ID and password

Top left of your Zoom screen you’ll see a small circle – click on this …

There are 3 types of settings

Application Settings

The settings that live within the application itself. e.g. When does Zoom goes full screen, dual monitor functions, audio, and video settings etc.

Access these from the Zoom App on your device.

Advanced Meeting Settings

These apply to every meeting on your account. e.g. Enabling and disabling chat, breakout sessions, etc.

Access these from the Zoom web site and your account (or open your Zoom App and click the “Cog” (top right) and then “View more Settings” (bottom right))

Individual Meeting Settings

This is where you control how a specific meeting behaves. e.g. Determining if Participants can join before the host, If a meeting is password protected, scheduling, etc.

Access these from your meeting, either on the Zoom app on your device OR from the Zoom web site and your account.

Settings on your ‘Zoom App’ on your device

If you’re using a tablet or a phone

Look for the Cog (see image far right) BEFORE you go into an event …

Your settings will be much more limited than if you’re using a computer.

If you’re using a computer

You can use any of these ways …

And then you’ll see this (and you’ll be on the General, Audio or Video Tab) …

Settings on the ‘Zoom website’ in your account

Go to the Zoom settings Web Page and (if necessary) log in to your Zoom account. If you still can’t see your Settings, click on ‘MY ACCOUNT’ (top right corner)

People can “join” your meeting at any time. Literally, any time!

If you haven’t started the meeting they will see a message similar to “Waiting for the host to start this meeting”

If you’ve set up a “Waiting Room” they will see a message similar to “Please wait, the meeting host will let you in soon”

Your options for starting meetings are many (all with their own pluses and minuses). They depend upon the type of meeting, who the participants are, the number of participants etc.

• Mute everyone?
• Start exactly on time OR open beforehand?
• Set up a Waiting Room? Which allows you to admit people only when you are ready – you have more control and can even deny someone entry
• Allow people entry at any time and set up a screen share so they can read something about the meeting before you start (remember people on phones – so keep writing and images large)
• Opening the meeting/allowing entry before the start of the meeting itself, allows:
  • you or co-host to welcome people
  • you or co-host to handle any technical issues / support people with their use of Zoom
  • people to talk amongst themselves (consider who will be attending and whether there’s a danger of people feeling left out, especially if most people know each other)

Waiting room with co-hosts

• Turn on “Waiting room” (Meeting settings)
• Allow co-hosts in early
• Have a pre-meeting meeting
• Then allow remaining participants in

More …

For a fuller discussion of Starting meetings go to Starting a meeting in ‘Facilitating meetings and creating participation’

You (or a co-host) could handle the screen sharing for them, leaving them free to concentrate on presenting the talk and being present to the audience (invaluable).

You would need copies of all images / PowerPoint / Google Slides from the speaker beforehand and to have talked this through with them.

Spotlight their video (see Managing a meeting).

You can make anyone a co-host at any time, and even make them the Host (and take it back later). Do this via the “Participants” button/list.

Ways they could support you:

• Welcoming people at the start
• As co-presenters – to break up style and flow of a meeting
• Keeping an eye on the Chat
• Keeping an eye on Participants – both on screen and in the Participants list (hands up, icon feedback etc.)
• Someone to write important notes, references, names, contact details etc. into Chat (being careful not to overwhelm the chat – e.g. not minuting what’s being said).

Consider sharing mobile numbers and communicating anything important via WhatsApp or text

More help on co-hosts here

You can use the following features to help you and/or co-hosts to manage the meeting

Pin a video

Allows you to disable active speaker view and view a single specific person/video. This will only affect your local view in the Zoom Room, not the view of other participants and will not affect cloud recordings. You can Unpin at any time.

Spotlight a video

Makes a specific person/video the “primary active speaker” for all participants in the meeting and cloud recordings. So this changes ‘Speaker View’ from switching between whoever is talking, to being fixed on one person (like a spotlight in the theatre).

You can actually add up to 9 people to the Spotlight. This is particularly useful for panel discussions etc.

Participants can still freely switch between Speaker and Gallery view.

There must be at least 3 participants in the meeting with their videos on to use this feature.

And, if you still need help with pinning and spotlighting videos, here is a 4 min video with demonstration of both https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsYvG-jkBJQ

M is for mute

To mute everyone (to reduce background noise): click on “Participants” button and “Mute All” (at the bottom)

OR press Alt+M (Windows) OR Cmd+Ctrl+M (macOS) when you are the meeting host.

You can also mute all attendees by default on entry using the meeting’s settings.

Dual monitors

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362583-Using-Dual-Monitors-with-the-Zoom-Desktop-Client

Click here to see a separate page on Recording Zoom meetings

Anyone can do this

• Open “Chat” and at the bottom click the three dots “…”
• “Save Chat”
• “Show in Folder” (opens the folder the Chat has been saved to)

Chat will automatically be saved if, the meeting is being recorded and you’ve set Chat to be saved in the recording.

Consider (depending upon your meeting and the participants)

• Telling people they can save the Chat (if relevant)
• An opportunity for feedback for people?
• Having some sort of formal or semi-formal closing (remember people’s last moments can often define an event)
• Leaving the meeting open for people to chat freely afterwards

More …

For a fuller discussion of Ending meetings go to Ending a meeting in ‘Facilitating meetings and creating participation’

• PageUp: View previous 25 video stream in gallery view
• PageDown: View next 25 video stream in gallery view

• Alt+A: Mute/unmute audio
• Alt+M: Mute/unmute audio for everyone except host Note: For the meeting host only
• Alt+S: Launch share screen window and stop screen share Note: Will only work when meeting control toolbar has focus
• Alt+Shift+S: Start/stop new screen share Note: Will only work when meeting control toolbar has focus
• Alt+T: Pause or resume screen share Note: Will only work when meeting control toolbar has focus

• Alt+H: Display/hide In-Meeting Chat panel
• Alt+U:Display/hide Participants panel

This contains ALL the Zoom shortcut keys https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205683899-Hot-Keys-and-Keyboard-Shortcuts-for-Zoom