There is a growing need to deliver lectures online and capture online live lectures with the new Blended and Connected learning approach, which was recently introduced by our University to help our students in this challenging time. The Blended and Connected learning approach is driven by our Content Capture policy which emphasizes that “…all students should have access to learning from all formal teaching sessions regardless of whether they are able to physically attend.” Furthermore, with the regulatory requirement that our content needs to meet the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications)(No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, it is now more important than ever to ensure that our online taught content is captured and captioned.
The University has a few online conferencing tools available to meet this need. They are all easy to use with some differences between them. This document compares and considers important teaching and learning features in each tool to hopefully help you find the best tool to use for your needs.
On top of that, the University has acquired Panopto which helps to pre-record lectures and has a built-in auto caption facility. It is advisable that all formal teaching sessions, including online live lectures, are captured, uploaded and stored in the Panopto server for caption, security and storage purposes.
But of course, it is almost impossible for any caption, generated by automated speech recognition tools, to achieve 100 per cent accuracy. So, please do check and edit your captions to ensure the accuracy, and add a disclaimer to the video or module site.
The following text has been officially signed off by Harriet Dunbar-Morris, Dean of Teaching and Learning.
“Currently our video content, delivered via Panopto, uses closed captions generated using automated speech recognition. This is about 70–80% accurate depending on the topic, audio quality and lecturer. We advise you not to rely solely on the captions when reviewing your video content. Make sure you check the captions against the PowerPoint and readings to ensure you have a good understanding of the topic and the terminology used. If you are reliant on these captions due to a disability or additional learning need then please contact ASDAC for advice on additional support for your study.“
Below is the list of online conferencing tools available in the University and their important learning and teaching features to compare and consider.
Zoom
Zoom is the new online conferencing tool that the University has acquired to support our Blended and Connected learning environment.
Screen or application sharing
- Zoom allows hosts to easily share their device screen with meeting participants. There’s an option to choose between sharing the complete screen or to share a specific app or document such as Powerpoint or MS word.
- Hosts can enable or disable the participant’s ability to share audio, video, and the screen in the meeting.
Mute/Unmute
- Hosts have a distinct level of control during the meeting. As the host or co-host in a meeting, you can manage your participants, including muting and unmuting participants, to manage background noise and distractions.
Breakout rooms
- Zoom breakout rooms allow hosts to split their Zoom meeting into up to 50 separate sessions. The host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually. Learn How to use Breakout rooms in Zoom for Teaching and learning. They can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when they schedule the meeting or manage them during the meeting. Hosts can also broadcast messages to participants in all breakout sessions.
- Breakout rooms are a great way of facilitating interaction between students during online teaching sessions. Refer to these practical tips for setting up and facilitating breakout room activities on how Zoom breakout rooms can be used to maximize your students’ engagement.
Remote control
- In Zoom sessions, hosts can give remote control of their screen or request remote control of another participant’s screen in a meeting. To request remote control of a participant’s screen, hosts need to first enable participants for screen sharing while in a meeting.
Storage and Caption
- All Zoom sessions recorded with the ‘cloud recording’ option are automatically uploaded to Panopto and captioned. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site.
Webex
Webex is a web conferencing and video conferencing application by Cisco Systems.
Screen or application sharing
- Hosts can easily share their device screen with meeting participants. There’s an option to choose between sharing the complete screen or to share a specific app or document such as Powerpoint or MS word.
Webex Meeting Center
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- Participants can share the content in the meeting by simply selecting ‘Share’ on the Quick Start tab, Menu Bar and Floating Icon Tray. This feature is enabled by default to make it easier to change presenters in a meeting and improves the overall collaboration experience. If hosts want more control over sharing, they can disable this feature while the meeting is in progress by selecting ‘Participant’ -> uncheck ‘Anyone Can Share’.
Webex Training Center
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- By default, the host has to designate participants as the presenter before they can share contents or screen. Hosts can reclaim the presenter role or change the presenter at any time by right-clicking the name on the Participants panel, including the host themselves, then select Change Role To -> Presenter.
Mute/Unmute
- As a host or co-host, you have options to help you moderate your meeting. You can mute individuals or everyone at once, prevent participants from unmuting themselves, and mute participants automatically when they join. Muting participants is useful when you hear background noise or when participants speak out of turn.
Webex Meeting Center
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- For Webex Meetings, you can choose to prevent attendees from unmuting themselves until you grant them permission to.
Webex Training Center
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- When you mute participants in Webex Training, only you can unmute them, they can’t unmute themselves.
Breakout rooms
- Webex breakout rooms facilitate small-group communications among participants. During a Webex session, the host can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms.
- Breakout rooms are a great way of facilitating interaction between students during online teaching sessions. Refer to these practical tips for setting up and facilitating breakout room activities on how to maximize your students’ engagement. Although the article used Zoom to facilitate the activity, most of the ideas discussed are achievable with Webex.
Remote control
- Both Webex Meeting and Training Center allow hosts to grant participants the ability to remotely control a shared desktop or application. This option is available only if participants are assigned ‘Control shared applications, Web browser, or desktop remotely’ privilege.
(To assign this privilege, while in the session -> select ‘Participant’ -> ‘Assign Privileges’ -> Control shared applications, Web browser, or desktop remotely).
To remote control another participant’s screen in the meeting, the host needs to assign them the presenter role then request them to grant remote access control to the host.
Storage and Caption
- All recorded Webex sessions should be downloaded and uploaded to Panopto for storage and captioning. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site.
Webex Meeting Center
Webex Meeting Center session is recorded in mp4 format. It can be easily uploaded to Panopto.
Webex Training Center
Webex Training Center session is recorded in a Cisco specific .arf format. It needs to be converted to mp4 before uploading to Panopto.
Google meet
Previously known as Hangout, is Google’s video conferencing solution.
Screen or application sharing
- By default, all participants can share their whole screen or a specific window, or chrome tab during the meeting. Through screen sharing, one can share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. When you share a Chrome tab, it shares the tab’s audio by default. Hence, you can play an online video as well.
- Hosts can prevent participants from sharing their screen but they need to update this setting for every new call, even if it is a recurring event.
To prevent sharing:
- Join a Meet video call.
- At the bottom, click ‘Host controls’.
- Turn off ‘Share their screen’.
Mute/Unmute
- Anyone in a Google Meet conference can mute anyone else.
- If you mute someone, no one in the conference will be able to hear them.
- When you mute someone, everyone will be notified that you have muted the person.
- You cannot unmute someone once they have been muted. They have to unmute themselves. Google says this is for privacy reasons.
Breakout rooms
- The version of Google Meet we have in the University does not have breakout rooms as a built-in feature. However, there is a workaround for this which can be achieved by using Chrome extension for Google Meet Breakout Rooms.
Remote control
- Google Meet does not have a built-in option to give remote control over to another person. However, Google has provided a tool that can be used right alongside Google Meet to accomplish this. That tool is called Chrome Remote Desktop.
Storage and Caption
- All recorded Google meet sessions should be downloaded from Google Drive and uploaded to Panopto for storage and caption. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site.
Credit Image: Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay
