Video Conferencing Resources: Platforms

While there are a few platform options for hosting virtual office hours, Teams offers these features: 

• Teams syncs seamlessly with your Outlook calendar and automatically sends calendar invites to any participants your invite.
• You can set Teams meetings to recur throughout the week like in-person office hours would.
• With Optional Attendees, students can join if they want to but are not required.
• In your call, you can see your students who join and interact with them live.
• When a student joins your office hours, they can share their screen with you if they need to show you a problem they are having.
• Students can join a Teams call even if they do not have Teams installed on their computer.
• Students can join a Teams call from a mobile app if they do not have access to a computer.

1. Open Teams and click on the Calendar menu. This is located on the left side of your screen. 

 2. In the upper right hand corner of your calendar, click on the New Meeting button. 

3. A new meeting window will pop up. Here, you can add a Title for your meeting. 

4. For office hours, you can add students as Optional Attendees here. You need to have at least one attendee (either optional or required) in order for Teams to generate a Join Meeting link. If you would like, you can add all of your students as optional attendees.

5. Choose the start date and time for your office hours as well as your end date and time. 

6. To set office hours that repeat throughout the week, click on the down arrow to the right of Does not repeat and choose Custom.

7. Select the day you would like your office hours to begin, how often you would like them to repeat, the days you would like to have office hours, and the day you would like your office hours to end. When you are done, click Save. 

8. Back in the new meeting window, click Send. This will add the office hours to your Calendar and send a calendar invite to any Optional or Required Attendees you listed.

If you did not include all of your students as Optional Attendees when you created your office hours, you can chare your meeting invitation with a link.

1. In your Teams Calendar, click on the office hours meeting you created. 

2. In the body of the meeting description, right-click on the large Join Microsoft Teams Meeting link and click Copy Link.

3. Paste this link in an e-mail to students or in your Blackboard course for your students to access. When students click on this link, Teams will open in a browser, but they can choose to join the meeting using the desktop app if they have it. 

1. Go to a browser, visit "winthrop-edu.zoom.us" and when you see the Winthrop sign-in page, click "Sign in." 

2. Log in using your Winthrop credentials. For the username, use your full Winthrop e-mail address. 

3. You will be directed to your Zoom profile page. Here you can confirm your contact information. If changes need to be made to your contact information, you can edit them by clicking on the edit link. 

1. Navigate to Zoom in your Start menu (for Windows) or on your Desktop. 

2. The Zoom Meetings window will appear and ask you to sign in. Choose Sign in with SSO.

3. Type "winthrop-edu" in the domain field and then click the blue Continue button. 

4. You will be directed to your Zoom Home screen.

When you visit winthrop-edu.zoom.us and choose "Sign In," You will be directed to your Meetings page.

Page Navigation

1. Profile: See your personal account information, add a profile photo, and integrate your Zoom account with your Winthrop Outlook account
2. Meetings: Schedule and manage your meetings. This will be your main page.
3. Webinars: Learn more about Zoom Webinars which are large scale meetings. If you are interested in hosting a webinar, please contact the Service Desk.
4. Recordings: Search and download any meeting recordings you initiated
5. Settings: Adjust meeting, recording, and phone settings
6. Account Profile: See a summary of the Winthrop Zoom account
7. Reports: Run usage and meeting reports

Meetings Page Navigation

The Meetings page will be your most used page. Here you can schedule and manage your Zoom meetings.

1. Upcoming Meetings: Schedule a new meeting and see upcoming meetings you've scheduled or been invited to 
2. Previous Meetings: Schedule a new meeting and see past meetings you've scheduled
3. Personal Meeting Room: Start a new impromptu meeting with the default title of "[Your Name]'s Personal Meeting Room"
4. Meeting Templates: See your existing Meeting Templates (To create a template, choose an existing meeting and save it as a template)

1. Schedule a New Meeting: Schedule a new meeting and adjust meeting options
2. Join a Meeting: Join an existing meeting using a link or MeetingID
3. Host a Meeting: Start an impromptu meeting
4. Get Training: This will open a Zoom Help Center tab in your browser with links to live training webinars and other help resources

When you launch the Zoom desktop app, you will see your Home screen.

1. Home: Your default screen
2. Chat: Send messages to other Zoom users and see files that have been shared in Zoom meetings
3. Meetings: See a list of your meetings, edit meetings you've scheduled, and access recorded meetings to which you have access
4. Contacts: See contacts with whom you have had previous Zoom meetings

1. New Meeting: Start impromptu Zoom meeting now
2. Join: Join a scheduled Zoom meeting using a Meeting ID
3. Schedule: Schedule a new Zoom meeting
4. Share Screen: Share your screen in an existing meeting using a Meeting ID
5. Schedule Preview: See the current date and time as well as a preview of upcoming events and meetings (can be synced with your Outlook Calendar)

1. Launch the Zoom desktop app and sign into your account using your Winthrop credentials. 

2. On the Home screen, click on the orange New Meeting button. 

3. A new meeting will instantly launch. To invite participants to your meeting, click on the up arrow in the Participants tab at the bottom of the window and select Invite. 

4. A pop-up window will appear. Here you can invite participants in four ways: 

1. Choose participants from your contacts list
2. Send the invitation information via e-mail (requires e-mail integration)
3. Copy and share the Invite Link or Invitation
4. See and share the Meeting ID and Passcode with participants

5. When a participant joins the meeting, you will see them appear in the Participants pane. To open the Participants pane, click on the Participants tab at the bottom of the window.

6. To end the meeting, click the red End button. You can choose to End Meeting for All participants or Leave Meeting which will remove you from the meeting while keeping the meeting active for the remaining participants. 

1. Visit winthrop-edu.zoom-us and sign into your account using your Winthrop credentials. 

2. In the upper right corner of your screen, click on Host a Meeting. Choose whether to start the meeting with video on or off (you can change this once you are in the meeting).

3. Your new meeting will open in a new window. If prompted, click Join with Computer Audio.

4. If you chose to start the meeting without video, you will see this screen. Here you can share the meeting password, copy and share the meeting invite link, choose to share your screen, or invite others from your contacts. 

5. To start sharing your video, click Start Video at the bottom of the screen. To end the meeting, click the red End button. Here, you can choose to End Meeting for All or Leave Meeting if you want the other participants to be able to continue the meeting without you. 

1. Launch the Zoom desktop app and sign into your account using your Winthrop credentials.

2. On the Home screen, click on the Schedule button.

3. The Schedule Meeting pop-up window will appear. Here you can enter your meeting details and adjust some meeting settings. When you have entered all of your information, click Schedule.

4. The meeting is now scheduled. Go to the Meetings tab to see your meetings. Here, you can Start the meeting Copy Invitation and send it to participants, Edit the meeting details, or Delete the meeting. 

1. visit winthrop-edu.zoom.us and sign into your account using your Winthrop credentials. 

2. On your Meetings page, click Schedule a New Meeting.

3. The Schedule a Meeting window will open. Here, you can enter your meeting information. You can adjust several meeting settings, but at minimum, you should enter the Topic, date and time, and Duration. Your meeting can begin before your start time and can last longer than your set duration, but the information you enter will be used to generate the meeting invitation. 

4. When you have enteres all of your meeting information, click Save. 

5. You will be directed to the Meeting Summary page. Here, you can see the information you entered as well as the Meeting ID, Passcode, and Invite Link. You can also start the meeting from here. 

6. To invite participants, you can click on Copy Invitation and send it in an e-mail or other platform or you can give participants the Meeting ID and Passcode they can use to join your meeting. 

While there are a few platform options for hosting virtual office hours, Zoom offers these features: 

• Zoom offers a Waiting Room feature which allows you to use the same meeting link for all students, but only admit one student at a time for privacy.
• You can customize the Waiting Room your students will enter when they join your meeting.
• Connect with your students from the office or at home.
• In your call, you can see your students who join and interact with them live.
• When a student joins your office hours, they can share their screen with you if they need to show you a problem they are having.
• A whiteboard feature allows you to collaborate and share ideas with students.
• Students can join a Zoom call even if they do not have Zoom installed on their computer.

This option for creating virtual office hours uses a waiting room feature where students can join the meeting at any time, but you can admint them one at a time for privacy. This is the virtual equivalent of students waiting outside your office door to meet with you one-on-one.

1. Log into winthrop-edu.zoom.us using your Winthrop credentials

2. Select Schedule a Meeting. You can also choose Sign in and schedule a meeting from your Meetings page.

3. Enter your Meeting Details. Be sure to leave Require Registration unchecked and to check Enable Waiting Room.

4. Click Save

5. From the Summary/Invite screen, copy the Invite link. Send this link to students via e-mail or make it available on your syllabus or Blackboard course.

6. Customize your Waiting Room experience. On the left side of the screen, click Settings. You should default to the Security section, but if not, click on Security.

7. In the Security section, click "Customize Waiting Room."

8. A new dialog box titled Customize Waiting Room will appear. Here, you can adjust your Waiting Room settings to customize what your students will see when they join your meeting. You can change the waiting room message, upload a default thumbnail photo, and edit the description of the waiting room by clicking the pencil icons and blue text shown by the circles.

• Winthrop recommends that you edit the title and description to give students more information about what they are waiting for and why. This information will display to students as a pop-up window when they join your meeting. You can ask students to please wait to be admitted to the meeting or to e-mail you directly to schedule an appointment.
• If you would like to upload a logo or image to appear in the Waiting Room, please note the file restrictions listed at the bottom of the window.

9. When you have changed the waiting room message and/or description, click the check marks shown by the arrows to save your changes. Then click Close to close the window. 

This option is ideal for by-appointment style office hours. Pair this with a scheduling tool such as Doodle and you can let students register for specific time slots. This is the virtual equivalent of having students sign up for a specific time slot to meet with you. For academic advising, this may be an ideal option.

1. Log into winthrop-edu.zoom.us using your Winthrop credentials.

2. On your Meetings page, select Schedule a New Meeting.

3. Enter your meeting details. Be sure to check the Registration Required checkbox and select Attendees need to register for each occurance to attend. If you would like your office hours to repeat weekly, check Recurring Meeting and fill out the recurrance information. You may also want to enable the Waiting Room. This ensures that students who may join your office hours before their appointment time do not immediately join your conversation with another student. 

4. Click Save to save the meeting.

5. The Meeting Summary page should open for you. Here, copy the Registration Link shown by the arrow and share this link with your students via e-mail or make it available in your syllabus of Blackboard course. 

6. At the bottom of the summary page, go to the Registration tab and click Edit.

7. A registration pop-up window will appear. On the Registration tab, select Manually Approve, check the Send an e-mail to host when someone registers option, and uncheck Show social share buttons on registration page.

8. Before clicking Save All, go to the Custom Questions tab. There, click New Question.

9. Use the options presented to ask a question about what the student would like to discuss with you during your meeting. You can make this an open-ended short answer question or you can use single answer to provide options for your students to choose from such as “assignment review,” “test prep,” grade inquiry,” etc. When you have completed the fields, click Create.

10. When you click Create, you will be given the option to add additional questions. If you wish, you can add a single answer question as in the example below. To add more answer choices, you can click Add another answer. Click Create to add the question to your meeting registration. When you are finished with your changes, click Save All.

11. After clicking Save All, you will be taken back to the Meeting Summary page. From here, you can share your registration link with students if you have not already. Now, your office hours have been created and students are ready to register for appointments. Each time a tudent registers, you will receive an e-mail with their answer choices (if you set up questions) so you can better prepare for your discussion with them.