Google Meet is limited in what you can do as the creator to moderate or control a meeting within the call itself. Because of this, it is vital that you establish clear protocols of engagement and participation etiquette in advance of the meeting.
General Questions to Consider
Here are some general questions to consider before outlining policies to students:
- What is the size of your class?
- Is it primarily lecture or discussion-based?
- Do you need to see students’ video or will audio suffice?
- Do student’s need to participate audibly? Or is text chat okay?
- Do you have students who will need to call in via phone rather than via a web browser?
- Do you need to screen share? Will you need to share the whole time or will it be a mix of video and screen sharing? Do you need to share the whole screen or just a selected window?
- Do students need to screen share?
- How do you want to manage larger (audio) discussions? First to speak up? Will you moderate/select who speaks? Do you want to use text chat as a means of students signalling that they want to speak?
Answering these questions will help inform how you and your students engage with the platform.
As a general recommendation (regardless of class size), students should be expected to join the meeting in presentable attire with their audio mute, preferably with a hands-free listening and microphone device (earbuds with microphone should suffice).
Faculty should also have some sort of audio headset with a microphone–preferably one that cancels out background noise (especially in lecture-based classes).
Example Protocols
- Lecture-Based Class, no participation necessary, screen-shared powerpoint
- Students should enter the call with audio and video muted, still in appropriate attire in case video button toggles accidentally.
- Faculty decides to screen share a specific window (powerpoint).
- Faculty choice: how should text chat be used? Just be sure to communicate expectations ahead of time.
- Lecture/Discussion hybrid class, active participation needed in discussion section.
- Students should enter the call with audio and video muted, still in appropriate attire in case video button toggles accidentally. Students will toggle audio and/or video on when appropriate.
- Faculty decides on screen share/lecture format. In this example, let’s assume that the faculty lectures with screen share and leads the discussion with video.
- Faculty determines whether students need both audio and video or just audio for active participation. For smaller discussions, video adds a sense of personality to the discussion. For larger discussions, video may be disorienting.
- Faculty choice: how should text chat be used? Just be sure to communicate expectations ahead of time.
- Discussion only
- Students should enter the call with audio muted. Faculty should determine whether or not students should enter with video muted or on. Regardless, participants should still be in appropriate attire in case video button toggles accidentally.
- Faculty determines whether students need both audio and video or just audio for active participation. For smaller discussions, video adds a sense of personality to the discussion. For larger discussions, video may be disorienting.
- Faculty should state up front whether or not they will permit students to screen share (and, if so, for what reasons).
- Faculty needs to establish protocols for moderating discussion.
- Unmoderated: any student can speak up at any time
- Moderated: faculty decides speaking order.
- If video is used, students can raise their hands to be called on, like in a live classroom.
- If only audio is used, faculty can use the text chat as a way of seeing who wants to participate. In this case it is important to designate a signal in chat that users can type to show faculty that they have something to contribute.
- Lab/Workshop/Collaborative Session
- These sessions vary widely, and it is best to tailor expectations to exactly what you need out of the class. This example session is considering one where all participants need to screen share and need to speak with one another.
- Students should enter the call with audio muted. Faculty should determine whether or not students should enter with video muted or on. Regardless, participants should still be in appropriate attire (in case video button toggles accidentally).
- Students should screen share a selected window of the project they are working on (and turn notifications off/switch “do not disturb” on).
- Faculty can use text chat for either feedback between students or for determining speaking order.