Streaming Your Course Content

NEW: Balancing Synchronous and Asycnhronous Teaching: Effective strategies for enhancing flexibility without losing student engagement.

Balancing Synchronous and Asynchronous Teaching

For information on scheduling a Graduate Defense please click here.

Recommended Workflow

We are recommending Zoom to host live lectures and Microsoft Stream to share and caption videos and recorded streams. Recommended workflow using Zoom and Microsoft Stream.

Please review the information below on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx to determine which option will be best for your course delivery. 

Zoom: Web Conferencing

If you are planning on using Zoom in the Fall for synchronous lectures or labs, a Zoom Pro account will be needed. Basic Zoom accounts restrict the number of participants and limit meetings to 40 minutes. To learn how to integrate Zoom into CourseLink and schedule a meeting click here. 

Max Live Participants Capture/Record Lectures Share Presentation/Video Annotate Presentation Breakout Room CourseLink Integration Supported By
300* Yes Yes No 50 Yes OpenEd

*Add-ons for 500 and 1000 participants are available for additional costs. 

To obtain a Zoom Pro license for the Fall, contact courselink@uoguelph.ca with a request and a list of courses. Note: Lab technicians and teaching assistants will not be given Zoom Pro licenses.
Instructors who would like to share the account with their GTAs and support staff will need to register the Zoom account using an organizational email account. Please follow the steps below to set up an organizational account:
  • Request an organizational email account by emailing soeithelp@uoguelph.ca with a request.
  • Once the email is set up, create a (free) Zoom account at https://zoom.us/
  • Email Courselink Support with a request for a Zoom Pro account and for the account to be added to CourseLink.
  • Add the organizational account to your course site with Instructor permissions. 
For more information on sharing a Zoom licence, including best practices, scheduling classes and seminars, starting a meeting, and sharing recordings, visit OpenEd's Multi-Course Zoom Licence website.

Once an organizational account has been set up and added to a course site, Zoom meetings can be scheduled directly within CourseLink. To schedule a meeting, sign into CourseLink with the organizational account login and password and go to the course's Zoom module. If Zoom has not yet been added to your course follow the instructions to integrate Zoom.

Tips for organizing course content:

  • Schedule lectures in the Zoom module on CourseLink. Choose recurring meeting to prevent having to reschedule weekly meetings.
  • Create separate modules for labs/tutorials/seminars and add restricted access to individual lab sections. This way only students registered in each section can access a specific meeting.
  • To do this meetings need to be scheduled through the online Zoom webpage. Copy the meeting link into the separate module in Zoom  choosing to open the link as an external resource.
  • Joining and Configuring Audio (video): Joining a call with audio and problem-solving audio issues. 
  • Meeting Controls (video): Basic controls, inviting and managing participants, sharing screens, and chat room. 
  • Sharing your Screen (video): Sharing content such as presentation and documents with the meeting participants. 
  • Recording a Meeting (video): Recording to your computer or to the cloud and saving and accessing the recording.
  • Virtual Backgrounds (video): How to display an image or video as your background in a meeting. U of G themed backgrounds are available here. 

For more video tutorials on using Zoom controls and features visit the Zoom Help Centre. 

Microsoft Teams

All faculty, staff and students have access to Microsoft Teams through their Micosoft Office 365 accounts and can be used either directly within a browser or through the desktop applications for Mac and Windows computers. 

Max Live Participants Capture/Record Lectures Share Presentation/Video Annotate Presentation Breakout Room CourseLink Integration Supported By
250 Yes Yes No 0 No CCS
Teams allows custom background images to be used as a virtual backdrop during meetings. Communications and Public Affiars have a number of tested U of G-themed images that are sized to fit within Teams. These images can be accessed here. 

The Custom UoG Background Images for Teams document outlines how to add custom images to Teams.

WebEx

Webex is available to all faculty, full-time staff and students. While it can not be added to CourseLink, it can be integrated with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Teams for quick scheduling. 

Max Live Participants Capture/Record Lectures Share Presentation/Video Annotate Presentation Breakout Room CourseLink Integration Supported By
1000 Yes Yes Yes 0 No CCS
To learn more about Webex Meeting and Events, visit the Self-help tab on the CCS Webex page. For information on logging in, scheduling a class, starting a meeting and best practices, click here
Please see the following instructions on how to host graduate student defenses and qualifying exams.
Schedule a Graduate Defense on WebEx

 

For more information and a comparison of the available web conferencing options click here.