Have you been invited to Zoom meetings, but don't know how to get started? How can you be the best attendee you can be? Zoom in and watch this recorded webinar to learn how to be an awesome meeting participant!
About this session
- Instructor: Beth Lynn Nolen
- Support: Jason Fickel, Rachel Frend, April Law, Jen Oakes
- Duration: 18 minutes 20 seconds
- Audience: IU instructors, staff, students, and the general public
Getting started with Zoom - Participant edition
Description of the video:
Hello, my name is Beth, and today I'll be walking you through what you need to know to participate in a Zoom meeting. As part of today's session will cover joining a meeting. How to check your audio, how to use video in a meeting, interacting with other participants, answering polls, using the question and answer tool, and participating and breakout rooms. One thing to note is that while Zoom has both a desktop and mobile app available, today's demonstration, we'll use the desktop version of zoom, or you can do many things I'll be demonstrating today on your mobile device. The process will likely be different due to differences in the mobile and desktop interfaces. Also, some other things I'm demonstrating today are specific to meeting rooms. If you attend a webinar in zoom, some of these options may not be available to you as a participant. Before you join your first Zoom meeting, you'll want to make sure the zoom client is installed on your computer or mobile device. You'll also want to make sure you're logged into the Zoom client. This will speed up the process of joining any Zoom meetings that require authentication. To download the zoom client for your computer. Go to zoom dot us slash download. If you want to get Zoom on your mobile device, visit the Apple App Store on your iOS device, or the Google Play store on your Android device. Once you've installed the zoom client on your computer or mobile device, want to login with your username and passphrase. I'll demonstrate how to do this on a desktop. The process is similar on a mobile device. First, open the zoom desktop client. When the desktop client opens, click on the Sign In button. On the sign-in screen. Click the sign-in with SSL button. The sign-in with SSL screen will display in this window in the company domain field, type an IU, and click the continue button. Zoom will open a browser window. If you haven't logged into any IU sites using IU login recently, you'll be redirected to the IU login page. Login with your username and passphrase here. Once you've logged in through IU login or if you were previously logged in, your web browser will display the zoom login with SSL page, and we'll attempt to open the zoom client. At this point, your browser may display a pop-up asking to open. Zoom. If this happens, go ahead and click the open button. Once you click open, you'll be redirected to the zoom client and you'll be logged in with your IU account. To join Zoom meeting, you'll likely start by clicking on a link you received from the meetings organizer. Depending on what security measures the host chose when setting up the meeting, you'll encounter one of the following situations. When joining a meeting. The meeting host may have chosen to require participants to be logged into a zoom account and may limit participant to only those logged in with an IU account. In this case, you'll need to make sure you're logged into zoom with your IU username and pass rays before joining the meeting. Additionally, the meeting host may require attendees to enter a password or a passphrase before entering the meeting. If they do so, they'll provide you with the passphrase ahead of time. And you'll be prompted to enter that passphrase when entering the room. Finally, a meeting host could setup a waiting room for participants. Depending on the settings chosen for the waiting room, one of two things might happen. Host chooses the option to automatically admit IU users. You'll be automatically admitted to the Zoom meeting and skip the waiting room entirely. If the host does not choose the option to automatically admit IU users, you'll be placed into the waiting room once you enter the meeting and the host will admit you into the main meeting room. From there. Your meetings host will likely communicate what security methods they're using ahead of time. So you have an idea of what to expect when joining a meeting. When you first enter zoom meeting, the room will load and a dialog box will appear, prompting you to choose how you want to connect to the meetings audio. Depending on the meeting settings, you can join the meetings audio by phone or by using your computer's audio. You can also test your speakers and microphone before using your computer's audio to make sure that everything is working. If you haven't, you zoom on your computer before, it's a good idea to test your speakers and microphone ahead of time to make sure you can hear in the meeting and to make sure people can hear you. Let's see how to test your audio when joining a meeting. To test your computer speaker and microphone in, they choose one of the audio conference options, dialog box, click Test, speaker and microphone. A dialog box asking Do you hear a ringtone appears and some audio will play. If you can hear the audio being played, click the yes money. If not, click the no button. If there are multiple sets of speakers or headphones hooked up to your computer, Zoom will test the next set available. If zoom goes through all of your available audio devices and you still can't hear the audio. The dialog box will say, we have tested all your speakers. From here to retest your speakers, click the test again button. If you instead want to join the meeting audio by phone, click the Join Audio by phone button. Once you've successfully completed the speaker test, the microphone tests will start and a dialog box saying Speak and pause. Do you hear a replay will appear. Go ahead and speak a few words, then we presumed to play your audio back to you. I am testing my microphone. I am testing my likeable. If you hear your voice playback to you, click the yes button. A dialog box with the text speaker and microphone. Looks good will appear. From here, you can click the Join with computer audio button. If you don't hear anything, click the no button. If you have multiple microphones hooked up to your computer. So you will test the next available one. If zoom tests all of your available microphones and you still can't hear any audio being replayed. The dialog box will say, we have tested all your microphones from here to retest your microphone's, click the test again button. If you instead want to join the meeting audio by phone, click the Join Audio by Phone button. After successfully completing the speaker and microphone test, you'll be brought back to the first dialogue box. From here, click the Join with computer audio button and you'll be connected to the meeting with your computer's audio. Once you've entered the meeting, what you see might look different depending on what's going on in the meeting. Soon may display one of the following. A white screen with some information about the meeting. Video feed from the other participants in the meeting or someone shared computer screen. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see the Zoom menu bar. After a few seconds of not moving your mouse or interacting with the zoom window, the menu will disappear. To make it visible again, just move your mouse and it will reappear. Once you're in a meeting, if you need to check your audio settings in the menu, click the arrow next to the microphone button. And then in the menu that appears, click Test speaker and microphone. This will take you through the same testing process I demonstrated earlier. When you're not speaking, it's a good idea to mute your microphone to help keep possible distractions from background noise to a minimum. To mute your microphone. In the Zoom menu. Click the mute button. To unmute your microphone. Click the unmute button. If you need to unmute your microphone quickly, you can press and hold down the spacebar to temporarily un-mute, and then release your space bar to mute your microphone again. You can also mute and unmute your microphone using the keyboard shortcut alt a. It's good to know how to turn your video feed on and off while in a meeting. When you have your video turned on, it's important to realize that people on the Zoom meeting will be able to see your surroundings, including people are pats walking by during a meeting. If something comes up that you need to deal with, you can always turn your webcam off and turn it back on later. To start your video in the Zoom menu, click start video to turn off your video in the Zoom menu, click stop video. You can also use the keyboard shortcut all the to turn your video on and off. If you want to be on camera, but would like a little more privacy. You can turn on a virtual background. The virtual background will show instead of your surroundings, some computers may not support virtual backgrounds. So you may want to check and see if virtual backgrounds work on your computer before joining a meeting. To turn on a virtual background in the Zoom menu, click the arrow next to the video button. In the menu that appears, click choose virtual background. The Settings window opens and displays the virtual background settings. This included preview of your video and the gallery of background images to choose from. From here, you can choose a background provided by zoom or upload an image or video of your own to add a background of your own to the right of the text. Choose virtual Background. Click the plus button and navigate to the image or video you want to use and open it. To use one of the virtual background shown in the gallery. Click the thumbnail of the background you want to use. When you're done, you can close the Settings window by clicking the close button in the upper right corner. If you want to turn off the virtual background, the process is simple. In the Zoom menu, click the arrow next to the video button. In the menu that appears, click choose virtual background. The Settings window opens and displays the virtual Background Settings again. To remove the background in the gallery of thumbnails, click on the one that says none. You may need to scroll up to see that option in the gallery. When you're done, you can close the Settings window by clicking the close button in the upper right corner. When at least one person's video camera is active in a meeting. There are two layouts we can choose from reviewing everyone's video. Gallery view, shows everyone's video feeds or profile photos all at once. Well, speaker view shows a large view of the active speakers video with a strip of thumbnails of video feeds across the top of the zoom window. If there are too many people to show all at once in that strip, arrows will appear that allow you to scroll through all of the active video feeds to switch between the different layout options. And the upper right corner of the zoom window. Click on speaker view or a gallery view. The button will be different depending on which view you're currently in. If you want, you can view a list of the other participants connected to the Zoom meeting. To view the list of participants in the Zoom menu, click participants. A panel with the list of participants will appear. If zoom is in full screen mode, a window will pop up containing the participant list. If you want to rename yourself, you can do that in the participant list. If the host is enable this feature to do this in the participant list, point to yourself. Then click the More button in the menu that appears, click rename. The renamed dialog box will open. Change your name as desired. And when you're done, click the OK button to close the window. If you're logged into your zoom account. You'll also see an option for editing your profile image when you click more, it's a good idea to set a profile image since it allows people to see you, but can be less distracting them. Video. At the bottom of the participant list, our options for interacting with the host and participants. You have the option to raise your hand, answer yes or no, or indicate that the speaker should go slower or faster. These reactions will display next to your name in the participants list. To use one of the interactions, Click on the interaction option. You want to use. Only one option at a time can be selected. So keep that in mind when using the interaction buttons. Raising your hand acts a little differently than the other options. When you use the Raise Hand option, not only will it display the raise hand icon next to your name in the participant list? It will also send a pop-up notification to the meeting host indicating that your hand is raised. You can also communicate with others in a zoo room using chat. This option can be turned on or off at the host discretion. To open the chat in the Zoom menu, click chat. The chat panel appears on the right side of the screen below the participants list. If the participants list is open, if necessary, to make more room for the chat, you can close the participants list. To close the participants list in the Zoom menu, click participants and the participants list will close. You can send messages to the entire group or just to a specific person. Chat with a specific person at the top of the text field in the chat panel. Next to the text, to click the dropdown menu and select the person you want to message. To switch back to chatting with everyone in the drop-down menu. Choose everyone to send a chat type and the message you want to send and press Enter on your keyboard descended. Reactions and zoom allow you to react to what's going on in a meeting without interrupting it.. reactions are a little bit different than the interactions I pointed out earlier. With reactions, we can show a thumbs up or a clapping reaction to what someone is presenting. To use a reaction. In the Zoom menu, click reactions. To select a reaction in the menu that appears, click on the reaction you want to use. Your chosen reaction will appear on the thumbnail of your profile picture or shared video for a brief time before disappearing. One tool that's available and webinars, but not in meetings is the Q and a tour. This allows participants to ask questions of our presenter, and also allows others to see what questions have been asked. An upvote them. If they have the same question, presenters can then respond using a text reply in the Q and a tool, or live during the webinar. After at least one question has been submitted to options for viewing, questions will appear at the top of the Q and a window. View all questions asked or just the questions you've submitted. It may be a good idea to read through all the questions asked before submitting a question to make sure it hasn't already been asked by somebody else. To open the Q and a tool in the Zoom menu, click Q and a. Q and a window will open to submit a question to the presenter. And the bottom of the Q and a window, type your question and press the Enter key. Breakout rooms allow the host to divide the participants into groups, each in their own separate Zoom meeting room that's still part of the main meeting. Break out rooms look and behave similarly to irregulars, a meeting room. They can be useful for small group discussion as part of a larger meeting. As a meeting host star to breakout room session, you'll see a dialog box asking you to join your assigned breakout room. When the session ends, another dialog box will appear, indicating that the breakout rooms will end in 60 seconds. Once the 60 seconds are up, you'll be returned to the main room. One of the most useful features of zoom is the ability to share your screen with others in a meeting. This is an option that can be turned off by the meeting host if desired. Before you start sharing your screen, you'll want to think about what's on your screen that will end up being visible to others. You can choose to share a specific program or share your entire screen if you'll be moving between multiple programs. To share your screen in the Zoom menu, click Share screen. If screen-sharing is turned off, you'll see a message saying that the host disabled participants screen-sharing. If screen-sharing has allowed a new window with options for sharing will open. Next, choose what you want to share and zoom from a list of sources. If you're sharing a video, there's an option for optimized the screen-sharing for video clip. You can check the box next to that to turn that on. If you want people to hear audio from your computer, you'll want to choose the option share computer sound. Once you've chosen a source to start sharing in the bottom right corner of the share window, click the share button. Once you click the share button, other people in the meeting will be able to see your screen and the video feeds for other participants will show as thumbnails on one side of your screen. Additionally, the zoom menu is now in a different location. To open the zoom menu while sharing your screen. Point to the tab at the top of the screen that displays the text. You are screen-sharing and stop share. The zoom menu will drop down. And you can access any needed options here. When you're ready to stop sharing your screen. You can stop sharing in the tab at the top of the screen. To stop sharing your screen in that tab, click the text that says stop share. Your screen will stop being shared and you'll be returned to the Zoom meeting View. Zoom meetings can be recorded if needed. However, it's unlikely that as a participant you will be recording a Zoom meeting. The meeting host will first have to grant you the ability to record the meeting to allow you to record that meeting to your computer. If the meeting host does allow you to record a meeting, the recorded file will be converted to an MP4 file and the meeting has ended. This process can take a long time to complete. The longer the meeting, the longer it will take to process it. If you want to learn more about recording meetings, check out the zoo recording meetings training on IT trainings website at the URL on the screen. This URL is also located in the video description. When a meeting is over or you need to leave a meeting, you can exit the meeting. To leave a meeting on the right side of the zoom menu, click the leave button. To confirm you want to leave. Click the leave Meeting button, the Zoom meeting window. We'll close. To learn more about all the features available and zoom visit IT trainings, zoom training page at the URL on the screen. This URL will also be included in the video's description. It training zoomed training page includes in-depth video walkthroughs of some of the content we cover today. Links to IU knowledge-based articles focusing on zoom and content from the zoom Help Center.All Zoom training
Getting Started with Zoom: Participant Edition – recording script
Hello! My name is Beth, and today, I’ll be walking you through what you need to know to participate in a Zoom meeting. As part of today’s session, we’ll cover:
- Joining a meeting,
- how to check your audio,
- how to use video in a meeting,
- interacting with other participants,
- answering polls,
- using the Q&A tool,
- and participating in breakout rooms.
One thing to note is that while Zoom has both a desktop and a mobile app available, today’s demonstration will use the desktop version of Zoom. While you can do many things I’ll be demonstrating on your mobile device, the process will likely be different due to differences in the mobile and desktop app interfaces. Also, some of the things I’m demonstrating are specific to meeting rooms – if you attend a webinar in Zoom, some of the options may not be available to you as a participant.
Before joining a meeting: installing the Zoom client and logging in
Before you join your first Zoom meeting, you’ll want to make sure the Zoom client is installed on your computer or mobile device. You’ll also want to make sure you’re logged into the Zoom client – this will speed up the process of joining any Zoom meetings that require authentication.
To download the Zoom client for your computer, go to https://zoom.us/download.
If you want to get Zoom on your mobile device, visit the Apple App Store on your iOS device, or the Google Play store on your Android device.
Once you’ve installed the Zoom client on your computer or mobile device, you’ll want to log in with your IU username and passphrase. I’ll demonstrate how to do this on a desktop – the process is similar on a mobile device.
- First, open the Zoom desktop client.
- When the desktop client is open, click on the Sign In
- On the Sign In screen, click on the Sign In with SSO
- The Sign in with SSO screen will display. In this window, in the Company Domain field, type in IU and click the Continue
- Zoom will open a browser window. If you haven’t logged into any IU sites using IU Login recently, you’ll be redirected to the IU Login page. Log in with your IU username and passphrase here.
- Once you’ve logged in through IU Login (or if you were previously logged in), your web browser will display the Zoom Login with SSO page and will attempt to open the Zoom client. If your browser asks to open Zoom, click the Open
Once you click open, you’ll be redirected to the Zoom client, and you’ll be logged in with your IU account.
Joining a meeting
To join a Zoom meeting, you’ll likely start by clicking on a link you’ve received from the meeting’s organizer. Depending on what security measures the host chose when setting up the meeting, you’ll encounter one of the following situations when joining a meeting:
- The meeting host may have chosen to require participants to be logged in to a Zoom account – and may limit participants to only those logged in with an IU account. In this case, you’ll need to make sure you’re logged in to Zoom with your IU username and passphrase before joining the meeting.
- Additionally, the meeting host may require attendees to enter a password before entering a meeting. If they do so, they’ll provide you with the password ahead of time - and you’ll be prompted to enter that password when entering the room.
- Finally, a meeting host could set up a waiting room for participants. Depending on the settings chosen for the waiting room, one of two things might happen:
- If the host chooses the option to automatically admit IU users, you’ll be automatically admitted to the Zoom meeting.
- If the host does not choose the option to automatically admit IU users, you’ll be placed into the waiting room once you enter the meeting and the host will admit you into the main meeting room from there.
Your meeting’s host will likely communicate what security methods they’re using ahead of time, so you have an idea of what to expect when joining a meeting.
Audio in Zoom meetings
When you first enter a Zoom meeting, the room will load and a dialog box will appear prompting you to choose how you want to connect to the meeting’s audio. Depending on the meeting’s settings, you can join the meeting’s audio by phone or using your computer’s audio. You can also test your speakers and microphone before connecting using your computer’s audio, to make sure everything’s working. If you haven’t used Zoom on your computer before, it’s a good idea to test your speakers and microphone ahead of time to make sure you can hear the meeting – and to make sure people can hear you. Let’s see how to test your audio when joining a meeting.
Testing your audio
- To test your computer’s speaker and microphone, in the Choose ONE of the audio conference options dialog box, click Test Speaker & Microphone.
- A dialog box asking “Do you hear a ringtone?” appears, and some audio will play.
- If you can hear the audio being played, click the Yes
- If not, click the No
- If there are multiple sets of speakers or headphones hooked up to your computer, Zoom will test the next set available.
- If Zoom goes through all your available audio devices and you still can’t hear the audio, the dialog box will say “We have tested all your speakers”. From here, to re-test your speakers, click the Test Again If you instead want to join the meeting audio by phone, click the Join Audio by Phone button.
- Once you’ve successfully completed the speaker test, the microphone test will start and a dialog box saying “Speak and pause, do you hear a replay?” will appear.
- Go ahead and speak a few words, then wait for Zoom to play your audio back to you.
- If you hear your voice played back to you, click the Yes
- A dialog box with the text “Speaker and microphone looks good” will appear – from here, you can click the Join with Computer Audio
- If you don’t hear anything, click the No button.
- If you have multiple microphones hooked up to your computer, Zoom will test the next available one.
- If Zoom tests all your available microphones and you still can’t hear any audio being replayed, the dialog box will say “We have tested all your microphones.” From here, to re-test your microphones, click the Test Again If you instead want to join the meeting audio by phone, click the Join Audio by Phone button.
- After successfully completing the speaker and microphone test, you’ll be brought back to the first dialog box. From here, click the Join with Computer Audio button and you’ll be connected to the meeting with your computer’s audio.
Once you’ve entered the meeting, what you see might look different, depending on what’s going on in the meeting. Zoom may display one of the following:
- a white screen with information about the meeting,
- someone’s video,
- or someone’s shared computer screen.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the Zoom toolbar – after a few minutes of not moving your mouse or interacting with the Zoom window, the toolbar will minimize. To make it visible again, just move your mouse and it will reappear.
Once you’re in a meeting, if you need to check your audio settings, in the menu, click the arrow next to the microphone button, then in the menu that appears click Test Speaker and Microphone. This will take you through the same testing process I demonstrated earlier.
Muting and unmuting your microphone
When you’re not speaking, it’s a good idea to mute your microphone to help keep possible distractions from background noises to a minimum.
- To mute your microphone, in the Zoom menu, click the Mute
- To unmute your microphone, click the Unmute
- If you need to unmute quickly, you can press and hold your spacebar down to temporarily unmute and then release your spacebar to mute your microphone again.
- You can also mute and unmute your microphone by pressing Alt + A on the keyboard.
Using video in a meeting
In addition to interacting with others using audio, you can also use video to participate in a meeting.
Turning video on and off
It’s good to know how to turn your video feed on and off. When you have your video turned on, it’s important to realize that people in the Zoom meeting will be able to see your surroundings, such as people or pets walking by during a meeting. If something comes up that you need to deal with, you can always turn your webcam off and turn it back on later.
- To start your video, in the Zoom menu, click Start Video.
- To turn off your video, in the Zoom menu, click Stop Video.
- You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt + V to turn your video on and off.
Using a virtual background
If you want to be on camera but would like a little more privacy, you can turn on a virtual background. The virtual background will show instead of your surroundings. Some computers may not support virtual backgrounds, so you may want to check and see if virtual backgrounds work on your computer before joining a meeting.
- To turn on a virtual background, on the Zoom toolbar, click the arrow next to the Video button.
- In the menu that appears, click Choose Virtual Background.
- The Settings window opens, and displays the Virtual Background settings – this includes a preview of your video, and a gallery of background images to choose from. From here, you can choose a background provided by Zoom or upload an image or video of your own.
- To add a background of your own, to the right of the text Choose Virtual Background, click the plus button and navigate to the image or video you want to use and open it.
- To use one of the virtual backgrounds shown in the gallery, click the thumbnail of the background you want to use.
- When you’re done, you can close the Settings window by clicking the Close button in the upper right corner.
If you want to turn off the virtual background, the process is simple.
- On the Zoom toolbar, click the arrow next to the Video button.
- In the menu that appears, click Choose Virtual Background.
- The settings window opens and displays the Virtual Background settings.
- To remove the background, in the gallery of thumbnails, click the one that says None. You may need to scroll up to see that option in the gallery.
- When you’re done, you can close the Settings window by clicking the Close button in the upper right corner.
Switching between video feed layouts
When at least one person’s camera is active in a meeting, there are two layouts we can choose from for viewing everyone’s video: Gallery View and Speaker View. Gallery View shows everyone’s video feeds or profile photos all at once, while Speaker View shows a large view of the active speaker’s video with a strip of thumbnails of video feeds across the top of the Zoom window. If there are too many people to show all at once, arrows will appear that allow you to scroll through all the active video feeds.
- To switch between the different layout options, in the upper right corner of the Zoom window, click on Speaker View or Gallery View – the button will be different depending on which view you’re currently in.
Using the participants list
If you want, you can view a list of the other participants connected to the Zoom meeting.
- To view the participants, in the Zoom menu, click Participants.
On the right side of the screen, a panel with a list of participants will appear. If Zoom is in full-screen mode, a window will pop up containing the participant list.
Renaming yourself in the participants list
If you want to rename yourself, you can do that in the Participant list if the host has enabled this feature.
- To do this, in the participant list, point to yourself, then click the More button.
- In the menu that appears, click Rename. The Rename dialog box will open.
- Change your name as desired, and when you’re done, click the OK button to close the window.
If you’re logged into your Zoom account, you’ll also see an option for editing your profile image when you click More. It is a good idea to set a profile image since it allows people to see you, but can be less distracting than video.
Communicating with the host and participants
Interaction buttons
At the bottom of the Participant list are options for interacting with the host and participants. You have the option to raise your hand, answer yes or no, or indicate that the speaker should go slower or faster. These reactions will display next to your name in the Participants list.
To use one of the interactions, click on the interaction option you want to use. Only one option at a time can be selected, so keep that in mind when using the interaction buttons.
Raising your hand acts a little differently than the other options. When you use the Raise Hand option, not only will it display the Raise Hand icon next to your name in the participant list, it will also send a pop-up notification to the meeting host indicating that your hand is raised.
Chatting with others
You can also communicate with others in a Zoom room using chat. This option can be turned on or off at the host’s discretion.
- To open the chat, in the Zoom menu, click Chat.
The chat panel appears on the right side of the screen below the Participants list, if the participants list is open. If necessary, to make more room for the chat, you can close the participants list.
- To close the participants list, in the Zoom menu, click Participants and the participants list will close.
You can send messages to the entire group or to a specific person.
- To chat with a specific person, at the top of the text field in the Chat panel, next to the text To:, click the drop-down menu and select the person you want to message.
- To switch back to chatting with everyone, in the drop-down menu, choose Everyone.
- To send a chat, type in the message you want to send and press Enter on your keyboard to send it.
Reactions
Reactions in Zoom allow you to react to what’s going on in a meeting without interrupting it. Reactions are a little bit different than the interactions I pointed out earlier – with reactions, we can show a thumbs-up or clapping reaction to what someone is presenting.
- To use a reaction, in the Zoom menu, click Reactions.
- To select a reaction, in the menu that appears, click on the reaction you want to use.
Your chosen reaction will appear on the thumbnail of your profile picture or shared video for a brief time before disappearing.
Asking questions with the Q&A tool
One tool that’s available in webinars but not in meetings is the Q&A tool. This allows participants to ask questions of a presenter, and also allows others to see what questions have been asked and upvote them if they have the same question. Presenters can respond using a text reply in the Q&A tool or live during the webinar. After at least one question has been submitted, two options for viewing questions will appear: view all questions asked, or just the questions you’ve submitted. It may be a good idea to read through all the questions asked before submitting a question, to make sure it hasn’t already been asked.
- To open the Q&A tool, in the Zoom menu, click Q&A. The Q&A window will open.
- To submit a question to the presenter, in the bottom of the Q&A window, type your question and press the Enter key.
Participating in breakout rooms
Breakout Rooms allow the host to divide the participants into groups, each in their own separate Zoom meeting room that’s still part of the main meeting. Breakout rooms look and behave similarly to a regular Zoom meeting room. They can be useful for small group discussion as part of a larger meeting.
If a meeting host starts a breakout room session, you’ll see a dialog box asking you to join your assigned breakout room. When the session ends, another dialog box will appear indicating that breakout rooms will end in 60 seconds. Once the 60 seconds are up, you’ll be returned to the main room.
Sharing your screen
One of the most useful features of Zoom is the ability to share your screen with others in a meeting. This is an option that can turned off by the meeting host if desired. Before you start sharing your screen, you’ll want to think about what’s on your screen that will end up being visible to others. You can choose to share a specific program, or share your entire screen if you’ll be moving between multiple programs.
- To share your screen, in the Zoom menu, click Share Screen.
- If screen sharing is turned off, you will see a message saying that the host disabled participant screen sharing. If screen sharing is allowed, a new window with options for sharing will open.
- Choose what you want to share in Zoom from the list of sources.
- If you are sharing a video, there is an option for “Optimize the Screen Sharing for Video Clip”. If you want people to hear audio from your computer, you’ll want to choose the option “Share computer sound”.
- Once you’ve chosen a source, to start sharing, in the bottom right corner of the Share window, click the Share
Once you click the Share button, other people in the meeting will be able to see your screen, and the video feeds for other participants will show as thumbnails on one side of your screen. Additionally, the Zoom menu is now in a different location.
- To open the Zoom menu while sharing your screen, point to the tab at the top of the screen that displays the text “You are screen sharing” and “Stop Share”.
- The Zoom menu will drop down, and you can access any needed options now.
When you’re ready to stop sharing your screen, you can stop sharing in the tab at the top of the screen.
- To stop sharing your screen, in the tab at the top of the screen, click the text that says Stop Share.
- Your screen will stop being shared, and you’ll be returned to the Zoom meeting view.
Record a meeting
Zoom meetings can be recorded if need be. However, it’s unlikely that as a participant you will be recording a zoom meeting. The meeting host would first have to grant you the ability to record the meeting to allow you to record a meeting to your computer.
If the meeting host does allow you to record a meeting, the recorded file will be converted to an mp4 file when the meeting is ended. This can process can take a long time to complete - the longer the recording, the longer it’ll take to process a meeting. If you want to learn more about recording meetings, check out the Zoom: Recording Meetings training on IT Training’s website at https://ittraining.iu.edu/explore-topics/titles/zoom-recording/.
Exiting a meeting
When a meeting is over, or you need to leave a meeting, you can exit the meeting.
- To leave a meeting, on the right side of the Zoom toolbar, click the Leave button.
- To confirm you want to leave, click the Leave Meeting button.
- The Zoom meeting window will close.
Additional Zoom training
To learn more about all the features available in Zoom, visit IT Training’s Zoom training page at https://ittraining.iu.edu/explore-topics/show-all/by-developer/zoom-titles.html. IT Training’s Zoom training page includes in-depth video walkthroughs of some of the content we covered today, links to IU Knowledge Base articles focusing on Zoom, and content from the Zoom Help Center.