Headphones and Microphones
For best sound quality in a zoom meeting, it is important that everyone:
- wears headphones (this prevents audio “feedback” and echo caused when the sound from the computer speakers loops back into the computer microphone)
- mutes (silences) their microphones when not talking (this reduces background noise and distractions)
Zoom Meeting Screen
Before we start, you may want to look at this short Zoom tutorial video on Meeting Controls.
Let’s look at the main Zoom screen in Gallery View (n.b., the row of buttons at the bottom will disappear after a few seconds of mouse inactivity):
1. View Selection button: This toggles between Speaker and Gallery views. In Speaker View, the speaker’s video will occupy a larger part of the screen and the rest will appear as thumbnails.
2. Mute/Unmute button: This toggles your microphone on or off. If the host has muted everyone, you may not be able to unmute yourself.
3. Stop/Start Video button: This toggles your video camera on or off.
4. Participants button: When you click the “Participants” button a list of users that have joined your meeting will appear as a list. By clicking on the microphone icon, you can mute that person; or similarly you can turn their video off. At the bottom of the participant list there are “Mute all” and “Unmute all” buttons.
If students virtually “raise their hand” with a question during the meeting, you will see a blue hand icon next to their name.
When you place the mouse cursor on any one of the users, you will see a “More” button which displays a list of options. You can chat with that user (text messages between only you two), remove the user (kick the person out of your meeting), or transfer your “host” rights to that person.
5. Share button: Use this to show your computer screen, an application window, or another device screen to the participants. Participants can also share their screens with the meeting. See our page on Sharing your Screen.
6. Leave/End Meeting button: For the host, this button will appear as “End Meeting”. Once the host leaves, the meeting ends. You will be given the option to transfer host rights to another participant or “end meeting for all participants”.
7. Record button: Participants can record meetings onto their own computers’ hard disks as video and audio files. See our page on Recording a Meeting.
8. Participant’s microphone status. Check this if you can’t hear a participant (it may be muted), or if the meeting is very noisy (many participants microphones may be unmuted).
9. Participant’s name as he/she declared while joining the meeting.
10. Chat: Messages can be sent publicly to all participants or privately to one participant, and the whole chat can be downloaded as a .txt file. Chat messages between participants can be enabled/disabled in meeting settings.
For more or to learn about other zoom features and implementations, you may check the FAQ section.