Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

Tag: google meets

Zoom vs Webex vs Google Meet: Important Features to Compare and Consider

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

Remote control

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

    • 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’.

Screenshot showing that anyone can share

Webex Training Center

    • 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.

A screenshot of how to change the role to presenter

Mute/Unmute

Webex Meeting Center

    • For Webex Meetings, you can choose to prevent attendees from unmuting themselves until you grant them permission to. 

Webex Training Center

    • When you mute participants in Webex Training, only you can unmute them, they can’t unmute themselves.

Breakout rooms

Remote control

(To assign this privilege, while in the session -> select ‘Participant’ -> ‘Assign Privileges’ -> Control shared applications, Web browser, or desktop remotely).

A screenshot of the label showing where to assign privileges

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:

  1. Join a Meet video call.
  2. At the bottom, click ‘Host controls’.
  3. 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

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

Zoom Vs Meet Vs WebEx

With the new term fast approaching it can feel pretty daunting with all this new terminology and jargon to learn. Within the TEL team, we have received quite a few queries from staff about what’s the ‘best’ technology to use when it comes to online video conferencing and meetings, particularly when it comes to Zoom, Meet and WebEX. It’s a good question! The short answer is all of them, which doesn’t help I know. So firstly we advise to think about what you want to ‘achieve’, what’s the purpose of using the technology, is it to create an online classroom within Moodle? Is it to create an event, with conference-style presentations? Or is it just for a one-to-one chat? All have pros and cons which we have tried to outline in this post below. We hope you find it useful!

Let’s get started!

There are many articles that cover what each system does and the benefits of each one, some of which are featured below: 

From the University’s perspective, we have licences for all 3. So where articles talk about the limitations of a free licence, they do not apply to us for Zoom, WebEx or Meet. 

My quick summary of each tool from a “Virtual Classroom” and learning and teaching perspective is this:

Zoom
  • Can add a classroom directly in Moodle
  • Has video-enabled breakout rooms
  • There is no link between Moodle and the creation of the breakout sessions. 
  • 300 users with no time limit
  • Can be password protected
  • Has a waiting room
  • Can be set to allow access before the host
WebEx
  • The biggest issue with WebEx is it is actually four products with each version offering something different. 
    • WebEx Meeting – For Meetings, has no breakouts
    • WebEx Training Centre – For teaching, has breakouts but poor video share (most geared towards a virtual classroom with permissions etc)
    • WebEx Events – For conference-style presentations
    • WebEx Support – For providing a supportive environment.
  • Can add a classroom directly in Moodle
  • Has audio-only breakout rooms using WebEx Training centre.
  • 1000 users with no time limit
  • No waiting room
Google Meet
  • Not designed as a classroom
  • No admin features
  • No breakout sessions
  • No Moodle integration
  • Loads of plugin features such as Tactiq for a live transcription which saves to your Google Drive.

What I would like to offer, however, is the ability for you to share your experiences of each system, both positive and negative, so that a more realistic and natural picture can be shared between academic staff.

Made with Padlet

Remember we, the TEL team, are here to support you to get to grips with these new technologies, so please feel free to contact us at elearn@port.ac.uk if you do have a query. We also offer TEL Me How Surgeries twice quickly where we can go over any questions or queries you may have. The 2-hour sessions focus on supporting staff with the transition to online delivery and offering guidance around alternative forms of online assessment, please book your place here.

Credit Image: Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

© 2024 Tel Tales

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑