Online meetings spaces

[jpjsavage]

I work for a university and like many here, I suspect, everything has gone online. I have been using Zoom for online meetings and interviews for next year's courses (in the optimistic hope that things will return to some sort of normality in late September, fingers crossed eh). I've found Zoom pretty good. The basic free account gives you plenty of features including the ability to host meetings with multiple folk, divide up into groups for smaller group discussions, and then reconvene, etc. From a teaching point of view, you can drop into the small group discussions and contribute if needed. Meetings for 3 or more are limited to 40 minutes but, to be honest, I've considered that a good thing so far. University meetings can go on for too long in my experience.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has been using Zoom or other online meeting spaces and what have been your experiences so far?

I'm also going to moving some piano teaching that I do online for obvious reasons so was wondering what I might use for that? Zoom again perhaps?

[AndyMilts]

There are so many good options for this now. Zoom is good and works well, as a company we use Microsoft Teams which has worked well for the last couple of weeks. Google hangouts is good and has some nice features

[MartynJC (UK)]

Zoom seems more stable than Skype. MS Teams may be geared more to the business space. Gareth Malone is using YouTube for his online world choir. Lots of choice

[wileeeeeey]

Zoom is the best by miles especially if you want to see more than 4 people at the same time which somehow you can't do on teams.

Google hangouts would be your typical go to for this but as the free trials for Zoom and Teams are so good right now I would keep with what you're doing.

However if you do want chatrooms of sorts Teams or Slack will be very good options.

[Alansmithee]

I work for a university and like many here, I suspect, everything has gone online. I have been using Zoom for online meetings and interviews for next year's courses (in the optimistic hope that things will return to some sort of normality in late September, fingers crossed eh). I've found Zoom pretty good. The basic free account gives you plenty of features including the ability to host meetings with multiple folk, divide up into groups for smaller group discussions, and then reconvene, etc.

It depends on your University but you really should not be using free third-party software with students because of various issues (which our UCU branch agrees with and has instructed members not to do) - My staff are instructed to stick to what the University provides (for us Blackboard collaborate for student facing and Teams for virtual organisation). I would not use free Zoom because of the privacy issues (the host for example can track if you are paying attention).

If your University is not providing such tools, they need to pull their finger out and not expect individual members of staff to put together their own infrastructure...

[Sean89]

Meetings for 3 or more are limited to 40 minutes but, to be honest, I've considered that a good thing so far. University meetings can go on for too long in my experience. :smug

Tell the dean to stop being so tight and get a corporate account! Then you can schedule meetings for 24hours!!!

I haven’t used zoom for teaching activities, but sat through plenty of meetings and I agree with all the points listed compared to Skype.

[TheFlyingBanana]

We are using Google Hangouts very successfully on a continual basis.

My wife, who is Senior Team for a large trust, has been leading Hangouts meetings for up to 19 Heads and Deptuties people simultaneously just this morning from home.

[gavsw20]

8x8 works well for basic calls / videos and doesn't need a dedicated app downloaded.

The host can also 'mute all' when needed.

https://www.8x8.com/uk/products/video-conferencing

[SimonK]

I'm moving between Skype, Zoom and Whereby. It seems I can have sound problems on one (crackly) but perfectly clear on another system, so if I start a Skype call and the sound is crap, I stop and send a Zoom link and the new connection is usually perfercty clear.

Skype can often be a pain to set up a call - won't find the other party - even if they are in your list of contacts or, as this morning, the other person was in front of her computer but I was getting the message she wasn't connected - which she patently was.

[Rob s]

ive been using Zoom for some meetings and also my gym is offering virtual training through Zoom. Seems to be working well. At work we use WEBEX teams and meetings which i think is very good but I have no idea what the cost of that is. Im guessing not cheap.

[jpjsavage]

Thanks for the feedback and ideas. I've found Zoom easy to use, but I agree entirely with those comments about organisations (like universities) maintaining security in their online interactions. It will be interesting to see how things develop in that respect.

[gorrie]

Avaya are providing their Avaya Spaces video conferencing app to education organisations, free of charge until August. https://www.avaya.com/en/avaya-remot...ing-solutions/

I’ve just started using it and so far it’s looking pretty good.
(Disclaimer.. I do work for them.. but not in sales 😂)

[Xantiagib]

Tried and can recommend: gotomeeting - you host the meeting and the guests don't need to sign up just download an app or run a file off the website

8x8.vc - no downloads, no sign up - it just works from the web - basic but does what it says on the tin.