Tips on how to set up your home workspace for video conferencing, integrate Google Meet with Classroom and basic Meet features. Will cover some intermediate skills like Meet Extensions and Live streaming.
Home setup
- Background and lighting: appropriate backdrop and well light room (consider front lights)
- Sound: headphones and microphone. Avoid tapping on your computer (or other distracting sounds…)
- Managing distractions: Keep the kids away!
Google Meet – Quick Start
Link to Quick Start Guide (4 pages)
- Sign in with your Google account
- Create a Meet:
- from meet.google.com
- from creating a Calendar event and adding Video conferencing
- from Gmail
- from Classroom
- Share with students
- Link in Google Classroom
- Nickname in meet.google.com
- Email Calendar invitation
- Participate in Meet
- Mute/un mute microphone (Mac OS: Cmd + D)
- Turn on/off camera (Mac OS: Cmd + E)
- Traps
- Talking in Meet while your are muted
- Thinking you are sharing your screen for a demonstration when you haven’t (ask “Can you seen my screen” before starting)
Online Meeting Etiquette
- Sign in before the meeting starts
- Say ‘Hello’ then mute
- Be an active listener with gestures etc.
- Utilise the chat to ask questions and make comments
- Talk to the camera!
Google Meet – Extensions
These are installed in your Chrome browser and extend the function of Google Meet:
Google Meet Grid View: Enables you to see all participants on a Meet
Meet Attendance: Allows you to collect attendance in a Google Sheet from a Google Meet.
Nod: Allows quick emoji reactions for muted team members
Google Meet – Recording
There will be times, especially when having a Meet with a class, where you want to record the Meet to share with others who weren’t online at that time. Or you may just want to easily create a resoure/screencast of a demonstration you gave during the Meet. Here are the steps:
- Start the Meet
- Go to More (three dots) and Start Recording
- Select Stop Recording when finished
- A movie file will be created in a folder called Meet Recordings in your Drive
- You will receive an email 10ish minutes later with a link to the recording an a transcript of the Chat.
Note: this feature must be enabled in the Admin console
Google Meet – Live Streaming
Because you can’t have control over muting and unmuting participants in a Meet, there may be times when creating a live stream and sharing with students will minimize distractions. This feature can only be created in a Calendar event. Go to this Google Meet support page for detailed steps but below are the basics:
- Create a Calendar event
- Select Add conferencing Hangouts Meet to add the video meeting.
- Next to Join Hangouts Meet, click the Down arrow Add live stream.
- Share this link with participants
- Start the Meet
- Select More and then Start streaming.
Note: this feature must be enabled in the Admin console
