If you are new to hosting Zoom meetings it’s a good idea to do some testing first.
Zoom have a test meeting you can join to test audio, camera and speakers as well as giving you a chance to see what the controls look like.
Some good things to get used to:
- ‘Speaker’ and ‘Gallery’ view; this is about what people see on their screen. Each person can set it to their own preference in the meeting:
- Speaker view = the person speaking is visible. Good for presentation.
- Gallery view = everyone is visible (the person speaking at any given time has a coloured box around them). Gallery view tends to be best for meetings.
- Muting and unmuting
- Turning video on and off
- Waiting room
- Participants tab (including non-verbal feedback for older versions of Zoom)
- Reactions button (including non-verbal feedback for newer versions of Zoom)
- Chat tab
- Breakout rooms (if you are using them)
You should be aware that the controls can look different on different devices:
- On laptops and PCs they all tend to be visible and obvious
- On tablets and smartphones you normally have to tap the screen to see the controls, and sometimes swipe left to access them (for example on some tablets you have to swipe left to access the gallery view option)
You can also watch, and share, the Making Music video for people joining our events.
You could also set up your own trial meeting and ask one or two people to join you, so you can get used to having other people in the meeting.
Help others: once you are happy, think about others who might be unsure of the technology. You could do another trial meeting with just you and them so they know how it works on their device and will feel more confident about joining a meeting. Or you could provide support over the phone initially – talking them through what to do.
