Good practice in running meetings online

(Source: Digital Unite’s No-Nonsense Guide to Hosting Zoom Meetings)

The challenge, even with videos, is to ensure that all voices are heard and that where possible people don’t talk over each other. Some ideas to help with this:

– Where possible, participants need to be using their own device and in a separate room. If two people are sat next to each other, you can get a lot of interference as both devices pick up the sound. If two people need to be in the same room, try and encourage them to use headphone sets.

– Allow time for everyone to get into the meeting before starting.

– Where possible, have someone other than the host/chair monitoring the chat for questions or comments.

– Encourage participants to mute themselves when not speaking as this helps with issues around background noise.

– The presenter should make sure their mobile phone is on silent, and any computer notifications are turned off, so not to disrupt the call.

– Where possible ask everyone to have their video on – it can be quite tricky if some people aren’t visible and others are.

– If a participant has a poor internet connection, ask them to turn off their video. They can still contribute via the hand signals, chat and audio.

– Make use of the interactive features.

– Have regular check-ins to give people opportunity to ask questions or make a contribution.