article How to create a virtual classroom and run online classes
Along with schools, universities, and companies coming back on track, the ClickMeeting team has also come together to help all of its customers reach their goals and needs. We have prepared the manual you’re currently reading to help teachers, didacticians, or trainers to make their online events even more efficient. Read on to find out how you can achieve your goals.
What should I know at the very beginning? Hosting an event is an exciting thing itself. However, choosing which event type is the best for your needs and goals seems to be a little bit more complicated. Read on to find out which event type is the best for you!
Live webinar
As the name suggests, it is an event that is hosted live, and you can gather there to even up to 1000 attendees. It is a great option if you hold lectures at universities or events for larger groups. You, as the host, and your presenters are the ones who talk, and your audience listens to you, watches your presentations, and interacts with you through chat, statuses, surveys or Q&A mode.
On-demand webinar
Share your pre-recorded event and let your audience watch it anytime and anywhere. Enrich your on-demand webinar with video files and an enticing CTA button.
Automated webinar
Create an automated event with an event recording, video, survey, and a CTA button. Set up a specific date and hour and run your event on autopilot.
Planned meeting
Schedule an online meeting with up to 40 attendees, where everyone can see, hear, and talk to each other. Plan and run your virtual class with your team, trainees, or students.
Meet now
A spontaneous and ad-hoc event where you invite your attendees and run the event on the move. Simply, meet with your audience now.
For the needs of this manual and our customers, we have decided to describe mainly online meetings on the upcoming pages. We hope this instruction will help you achieve your goals, and working with small groups will become an exceptional and flawless experience for you and your team. We wish you good luck and encourage you to continue reading until the very last page!
Secure your event first To get started, first create your online event by choosing the meeting option available on your Dashboard after logging in to your ClickMeeting account.
Provide all necessary elements for your event as its title and date and move on to event room access type . Choose one of the four available options keeping in mind that the security of your session should be the number one priority. In that case, choosing the password- or token-protected options would be the top choice.
A password will be the same for every person who receives the link to your event. Your attendees will find it in the email invitation from where they can copy it and paste it into the dedicated field when joining the conference.
To double-secure your event, the access type of your choice should be token . It is an individual code that enables each attendee to enter the event room. A token, just as a password, will be included in the email invitation but should not be shared with anyone. After After using it, the token expires just like a standard ticket, so it is safe to say that this is the most secure option of giving access to your events.
Please keep in mind that by choosing password- or token-protected events, you are avoiding the unwanted trolling or bombing of your event. To be sure that such behavior will not appear on one of your conferences, you can also lock your event room during the session by clicking the Lock icon.
Test your connection for the complete comfort of running an event Before starting the event, you can now check your settings and Internet connection with two different testers within the ClickMeeting platform.
Find your created meeting on the pain page of your account panel and view the Details of your session. Besides a general summary of your event, you will also find there the System configuration test at the bottom of the page. You can run the conference server connection test, check if your operating system and web browser are up to date, and also test your audio, microphone, and webcam.
Join the event room and wait a few seconds for the screen to load. The AV test will be displayed on your screen, where you can choose your video and audio devices. Choose the button on the left to immediately apply the settings of your microphone or camera and start the event. Choose the button on the right to prepare the event and let your attendees wait in the waiting room until you start.
Please note that you can access the AV test any time from your AV pod by clicking the gear icon.
Get ready for your event in advance Before you actually start your event, you can prepare the room set-up in advance . After joining the event room, please choose the Prepare event mode where you can get ready to host your conference. That way, you can upload your presentation files, videos, or any other piece of content that you would like to discuss. Then simply save the settings and close the window, without worrying it all disappears.
See, hear, and talk to 40 people at the same time To host efficient virtual classes with your students, trainees, or coworkers where you can see all of them, use the AV grid feature. Simply team up with a group of 40 people and conduct a virtual conference where everyone can see, hear, and talk to each other.
Join your meeting room and open the AV pod settings with 2 AV grid options to choose from. Choose the gallery view to display up to 25 video streams at once. Click the arrow to view the remaining video streams (if more than 25 people have their cameras enabled during the event). Choose the speaker’s view if you would like to highlight the camera stream of the speaker.
When you enter the event room, the voice auto-detection feature is enabled by default. It automatically adjusts the view and changes the main speaker’s camera view, depending on who is talking at the moment. You can disable this feature by clicking the designated option in the AV pod settings.
Note that 40 AV streams are only available in meetings where up to 40 people can gather to collaborate, and the CPU requirements will be high for each attendee.
Complement your virtual classroom with Edu mode to run efficient, distraction free online classes and presentations. Once enabled, presenters will see all the event attendees, while the attendees will only see the presenters and not one another.
As soon as an attendee enables camera, they will see their video stream in the event room. Presenter’s video stream will show up as larger compared to that of an attendee.
Note that presenters can ask an attendee (or multiple attendees) to speak to the entire group.
Synchronize the room layout for everyone The flow of the meeting, as well as the layout of the event room, is in your hands. You can choose how the room looks on your and your attendees’ screen. With layout synchronization , you can dock the AV pod to the right upper corner of the screen or undock it and leave it as a small window. Completely hide the AV pod if you do not need it and leave the bar with microphone and camera icons only. You can also hide the right-side panel or expand it, as well as stretch the chatbox vertically.
Decide if you would like to synchronize the layout or not by clicking the synchronization switch available in the top bar of the room. After switching it on, you and your viewers will have the same layout displayed on your screens.
Boost engagement with interactive features During your online meeting, it is always a good idea to keep your audience engaged and be at the top of your game. With below-described features, you can make the most of your conference:
Presentation
Each great meeting consists of a presentation where you can visualize ideas and show the audience your point of view. Upload the PowerPoint presentations, images, or any other files you need to run your event effectively.
Whiteboard
Sometimes drawing something will be much more self-explanatory than your words. Use the Whiteboard tools to draw, write, and erase your sketches.
Polls and surveys
If you would like to test your students’ knowledge or get help with making decisions regarding your projects, polls and surveys are coming to the rescue! Create them before hosting your event so everything will be at your fingertips. Come up with your questions, provide possible answers, and assign points.
Q&A mode
The name speaks for itself. After you are done with your part, now it is time to let the attendees do the talking and ask you valuable questions. After enabling this option, the attendees can write their inquiries in the chatbox, so your co-presenter can move them to the Q&A mode tab and display some of them on the main screen. That way, each and every one of you will be focused on one question at a time.
We highly encourage you to invite a second presenter to the event who will run and manage the Q&A session for you. That way, you will be able to continue your discussion while your co-presenter displays questions on the screen.
Please note that all questions followed by the question mark will automatically be added to the separate Q&A mode tab in the chatbox.
Screen sharing for your attendees Online meetings hosted on ClickMeeting enable up to 40 users not only to see and hear each other but also to share the screen. Besides standard microphone and camera icons, available in the AV pod, there’s one more additional icon with two screens for all attendees in the event room to share, show, and discuss things that matter and visualize ideas.
Please remember that only one person can share their screen at a time. If you do not want a certain attendee to share their screen, you would want to block this person by clicking on their name and choosing the right option. To block the screen sharing option for the whole audience, please change the event type to a webinar.
Please note that blocking the user (or changing the event type to the webinar) takes away the right to turn on the camera and microphone or share the screen.
Attendees can communicate with you not only by enabling their cameras and microphones or by writing messages in chat but also through statuses. In the chatbox, they will find a few options which will let you know that your audience agrees or disagrees with you, needs your help, or wants you to speak louder or softer.
Work in workshop groups If you would like to work in smaller, interactive groups, you can divide your audience into breakout rooms.
Click the menu on the left side of the event room and choose Breakout rooms. Decide how many breakout rooms you would like to create and how you want to assign attendees to them.
You can drag and drop your attendees to selected breakout rooms, assign them manually, or do it randomly. Decide how much time the attendees should spend in the breakout rooms while working on projects in smaller groups.
When the time is over, move all your attendees back to the main event room and discuss the results of their hard work.