Google Meet: Overview

Carleton College is a Google Campus. As such, Google Meet is our preferred video conferencing tool. 

Google Meet Overview & Training Videos

This article provides a broad overview of Google Meet. To view a video of the various tools in action, click here (video opens in a new tab.) Additional, more detailed, articles about specific Google Meet features are in the knowledge base. This article, and others, are also available in video form:

Google Meet for Educators Video Series with Dann Hurlbert (links to Panopto):

1. Overview [Panopto]
2. Installing the Web App + Integrating with Gmail [Panopto]
3. Captions, Translations, Recordings, & Transcripts [Panopto]
4. Scheduling and Privacy Settings [Panopto]
5. Breakout Rooms, Polling, & Annotations [Panopto]
6. Advanced Audio & Video Settings [Panopto]

SCHEDULING A MEETING:

1. After signing into the Google Universe using your Carleton email address, users can schedule meetings a couple different ways:
   1. Click on the Google Apps icon, which looks like a Rubik's Cube Menu, in the top right of your Google window.
      1. Click Google Meet > New Meeting > and either Start an Instant Meeting or Schedule in Google Calendar.  For both the instant meeting and scheduled meeting, you can copy tha meeting info & share it in other ways, such as in an email or a Moodle Course.
      2. When you or your attendees are ready to join, you’ll just click that URL, double-check your mic and camera, and then join.
   2. Open Google Calendar and create a new event.  Rather than clicking SAVE at the bottom of your event, click More Options.
      1. Click Add Google Meet Video Conferencing.
      2. With a meet in your invite, remember to click the cog, video call options, icon to adjust any settings in advance.

IN MEETING TOOLS:

1. Host Controls “lock” icon allows you to:
   1. Enable or disable participant tools, such as sharing their screens, turning on their own mics or cameras, or using the chat or other tools.
   2. Change meeting access. Carleton’s default access is set to Open. If you want non-carls to be able to join your meeting, be sure Meeting Access is set to Open. If you want a little more control over who enters when, Trusted is a good option, as it allows Carleton and gmail users to enter, and Restricted only lets invited attendees with gmail accounts to join. 
      1. These access settings are also available when you’re scheduling a meeting In Google Calendar. After adding Meet to your Meeting, just click the Gear Icon, Host Controls, Meeting Access, and make the appropriate selection for your meeting.
      2. For greater security, Carleton recommends that you don’t post your meeting URL on any publicly accessible website.  Instead, we recommend making those meeting links accessible through your Google Calendar invites or on a password-protected site, such as a Moodle Course page.
2. Mic/Video icon: allows you to mute/unmute your microphone and camera, or change to a different mic or camera. 
   1. Under video icon > Video Settings, you can also change or blur your background, and change your video resolution.  This video resolution setting can be important, since Google Meet is a web-based platform, and if you or your students are experiencing video or audio choppiness, and you’re confident you’re on decent wifi, lowering your send and receive resolution to a lower setting may be a quick and helpful fix.
3. General cog icon:
   1. you may want to turn on Raise Your Hand Automatically, which might help you or your students quickly notify the you that they’ve got a question.
   2. Share content from camera gives you the option of being on camera and displaying a second camera when you choose Share Screen, Instead of selecting a screen to share, you just choose your document camera or another attached camera.
   3. Caption & translation features allows users to set or change the auto-transcribe language under meeting records.
   4. Reaction features adjustments are available here, too.
4. Share Screen options. This includes sharing a second camera, if you’ve enabled it.  NOTE:  to share multiple screens, check out the KB article , which recommends re-joining your meeting using Companion Mode, for best sharing.
5. Three-dot, more options menu:
   1. Start a recording–and include captions or have Google Meet create a transcript. (Remember, those items land in your Google Drive > Meeting Reports folder.) NOTE: these items ALSO become available to all attendees of your meeting, and may even be automatically shared with those attendees, if they have been invited via Google Calendar.
   2. Adjust view is helpful–especially if you want to see thumbnails of all your participants. To do that, just flip the view from Auto to Tiled, and slide the bar to accommodate up to 49 different participant windows.
   3. Picture & a picture lets you pop out your meeting window.
   4. Information icon: allows you to view and copy your meeting URL.
6. Chat with Everyone icon: allows you to send-in-meeting messages, and, as the host, allows you to disable that ability for others by clicking Chat with Everyone and toggling on or off, Let Participants send messages.
7. Rubik’s Cube, MeetingMenu icon:
   1. Quickly create 2 or more Breakout Rooms, and even add a timer.  It’s where you’d close those rooms, too.  Participants can join a room of their choice once you launch them, or as the host, you can grab their name & quickly drag them into the rooms of your choice.
   2. Polls are a way to quickly take the temperature of the room by typing a question and answers and then launching... but you can also prep a more complex poll or survey outside of meet using a Google Form, and just sharing the link in the chat.
   3. Q & A feature is a way to collect questions, much like the chat, but with some variation in how they appear or are organized.
   4. Timer lives in this menu, too.
8. Leave Call is how you exit your meeting.

Additional Support and Resources:

• Additional articles are available in the ITS Knowledgebase, including those related to Installing the Web App, and Troubleshooting.
• Questions can be directed toward the ITS Helpdesk or Academic Technology.
• Additional support is available https://support.google.com/meet

For a cheat sheet (by Google) users can check out this link (link opens in a new tab)

Links to specific tools:

• Installing the web app (link opens in a new tab)

• Your video and audio (link opens in a new tab)

• Changing your view or layout (link opens in a new tab) (e.g. gallery view vs speaker view)

• Scheduling a meeting (link opens in a new tab)

• Meeting setup options are available here (link opens in a new tab) by clicking on the gear symbol in the upper right corner.

• Sharing your screen (link opens in a new tab)  (including sharing individual tabs, a specific window, or your entire screen)

  • Information about “co-presenting” Google Slides presentations within a Meet can be found here: Co-present slides (link opens in a new tab)

• Using Google Meet with Google Docs, Sheets & Slides (link opens in a new tab) (including joining a meeting directly from a doc, sheet, or slide presentation)

• Closed captioning (link opens in a new tab)

  • Translated captions (link opens in a new tab)

  • Transcripts (link opens in a new tab)

• Breakout Rooms (link opens in a new tab)

• Polling (link opens in a new tab)

• Participant reaction options (link opens in a new tab)

• Recording the meeting (link opens in a new tab

For an overview of additional Google Meet Features check-out Google’s knowledge base (link opens in a new tab).