- Scheduling actions for university-sponsored virtual events are suggested using these instructions.
- For the hosts and co-hosts (and presenters), be sure to practice, preferably using the same link you will use on the day of the event. Practice in advance with your presenters. Inquire with the online meeting platform vendor if they have a self-guided test that attendees may use on their own schedule (for example, attendees can use a practice/test Zoom meeting available to the public)
- Consider making the internet a little more accessible by utilizing George Mason’s Assistive Technologies Initiative (ATI) services. ATI intakes captioning and translation requests for the George Mason community. Please visit the ATI website or email [email protected]. Automated transcription has recently been added to Zoom. To turn on transcription, log into your account at gmu.zoom.us and navigate to your settings. From there, select In Meeting (Advanced), then toggle on “Closed Captioning‘ and check the box for “Enable live transcription.”
- You may submit your contact information and the virtual event details to ITS Support via this online form. This will provide ITS Support with important event details should your attendees experience issues, such as joining the meeting or audio and video. It will also provide ITS with your contact information should they need to reach you to warn you of anything imperative your attendees have reported. After submitting this form, you may include ITS Support contact information in your communication to your attendees. (Note: ITS Support staff WILL NOT assign someone to monitor your event. ITS Support will answer calls, emails, etc., in the order received.)
ITS offers these supported conferencing solutions:
- Zoom Meetings & Zoom Webinar: (up to 100-500 participants)
- Zoom Meetings: Students have a Basic account with a default 100-participant limit. Employees have a Pro account with a default 300-participant limit. Please inquire about increasing your personal participant capacity (or license type) to allow up to 300 or 500 participants, respectively.
- Zoom Webinar: Webinar has a capacity of 500 participants. More information about Zoom Webinar.
- Microsoft Teams Meetings: (up to 300 participants)
Tips and Tricks
- Framing of webcams is important. The lighting and angle of webcams make or break credibility. Work with your practicing presenters and hosts, so that (if enabled) video is optimally framed with minimal distractions. Determining framing and virtual backgrounds is key during practice sessions before the event.
See: More information to make your presenters look professional - Use a “welcome slide” any way you would like. For example, one person shares them before the presenter starts their slide deck, or you can ask to include this as the first slide of the presenter’s deck. These are editable templates for a Meeting-Style Welcome Slide and a Webinar-Style Welcome Slide you can edit, make changes, translate to another language, etc.
- Familiarize yourself with in-meeting techniques to mute, expel, lock meetings, enable waiting rooms, disable sharing, etc. Conference “bombers” have been known to spread chaos through their microphones, webcams, screen sharing, file sharing, and chat.
See: How do I secure my online meeting? as a starting place to protect your event
Zoom Specific Details
- Zoom training materials and videos:
- Information about managing Zoom breakout rooms. Only Zoom Meetings offer breakout rooms.
- Zoom offers a self-guided test that users may try. Both Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings allow the host to start the scheduled meeting days or weeks in advance and then start it again on the day of the event. Consider having your presenters test in the “real” Zoom link (with the host) when possible.
- George Mason Zoom hosts and their guests must use up-to-date Zoom applications. You may wish to communicate this to your attendees, asking them to ensure their Zoom application is up-to-date to prevent delays when entering the event. For more information on upgrading or updating your Zoom client, see the Zoom help article Upgrade/update to the latest version.
- Zoom offers an ebook for Running Engaging Online Events.
- Zoom Meetings: Students have a Basic account with a default 100-participant limit. Employees have a Pro account with a default 300-participant limit. Please inquire about increasing your personal participant capacity (or license type) to allow up to 300 or 500 participants, respectively.
- Zoom Webinar: Zoom Webinar currently has a capacity of 1,000 participants; however, as of April 2, 2023, the capacity has decreased to 500 participants. More information about Zoom Webinar.There are unique differences among Mason Zoom licenses:
- See How can I get Webinar added to my Zoom account?
- Zoom Integrations are limited to only Kaltura content distribution. See What happens to my Zoom recordings?