Webex Meeting interface and features explained

In this article

• Webex Meetings: Signing In

• Using Webex for teaching

• Webex portal interface

• Scheduling an upcoming meeting

• Meeting interface basics

• Meeting roles

• Lobby Room and Office Hours

• Holding Office Hours within LEARN

• Screen sharing

• Breakout Rooms

• Panels

• Edit Audio and Video Features

• Viewing past session reports

• View and edit recordings

• Calibrating Audio

Webex Meetings: Signing In

Signing in

1. Go to: uwaterloo.webex.com and click on the blue Sign In button on top right.

   1. Use the same UW ADFS login as you would for LEARN: username@uwaterloo.ca (Your username is your 8 character UWaterloo username, ie. j25rober@uwaterloo.ca) and password
      
      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Using Webex for teaching

Webex is integrated into LEARN. This integration provides an easier gateway into the webex environment both for instructors and students, and automates some of the process.

To use webex in your teaching see the section on how to prepare your course here: Adding and using the Webex Widget to simplify WebEx managementarchived

You can also use Webex for office hours from within LEARN. See the details below in the section named Lobby Room and Office Hours

Your Webex account portal interface

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A. This is a list of the different pages on the main website.

1. Home – the homepage

2. Meetings – list of upcoming or past meetings

3. Recordings – list of all recordings you have taken/where you can download and share them

4. Preferences – account settings

   1. Recording layout

      1. Recording transcripts – create transcripts for all new MP4 recordings

      2. Select Recordings and indicate which layout option will be used when playing back new recordings. This will not affect old recordings.

5. Insights – meeting statistics (i.e. duration, # of participants, etc.)

6. Support – informs on who to contact for support

7. Downloads – download Webex Meetings and related applications

8. Feedback – where you can send feedback directly to Cisco

B. Start a Meeting – starts a meeting using your Personal Room.

• Your Personal Room is a Webex meeting room with a permanent ID and access link.

• You will not want to start meetings from here and instead use the Schedule

  • See E for more information on how to schedule meetings.

C. Links to setup for other modules of Webex (this document explains Webex Meetings only).

• Webex Training – for teaching courses and running workshops

• Webex Events – for webinars

D. Clicking Schedule brings you to the scheduling page:

Scheduling an upcoming meeting

1. On the left menu bar select Meetings.

2. On the top right select Schedule.

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Regular options

1. Meeting topic – title or topic for the meeting

2. Password – create an easy to remember password

   1. Minimum requirement: 4-letter word

3. Date and time – select date and time from the drop-down menu

   1. The date/time is not set in stone (i.e. you can start/stop whenever and go longer than the set duration)

4. Recurrence – choose if and when the meeting reoccurs

5. Attendees – invite people with their email addresses (optional). You can assign co-host role here if these participants have a host account on our system. You can also send a link for your session to your attendees directly via email later.

Advanced options

1. Audio connection options
   If you need to use and provide telephone call in option for your participants you need to make the following change; however, we recommend to use the default VoIP setting whenever possible, and your participants will use their computer audio instead.

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   1. Audio connection type - Toggle for how you want your audio to come through during meetings.

   2. Entry and exit tone - Upon entering and exiting meeting, a beep will sound, you can toggle this off from here.

   3. Select Canada toll free option as below
      
      

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2. Agenda

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3. Scheduling options

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Cohost host – if you would like other UW members with host accounts to be able to start/end the meeting
Automatic recording – meeting will automatically record when you start it
Exclude password – bypasses the password lock on the meeting
Join before host – allows participants to enter meeting before host
Breakout session – enable breakout sessions
Unlocked meeting – determine how guests can join the meeting
Automatic lock – indicate when the meeting will automatically lock
Registration – if you would like attendees to register for the event
Email reminder – will send an email to participants before the meeting starts
Meeting options – select options that you want participants to have when meeting begins
Attendee privileges – select options that you want attendees to have when meeting begins

Once you are satisfied with your meeting’s settings, you can either:

1. Schedule or save as template for future re-use.

2. You will receive a confirmation email, keep this email for your future reference.

Your scheduled sessions can be accessed by selecting Meetings from the left side panel of your Webex portal.

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Select the meeting you wish to review by selecting the title of the meeting and you will see a page as shown below. If you see Join button it means someone else is hosting this meeting and you can join it while Start button means you are the host and can start it.

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1. Left to right

   1. Copy meeting link. This will also copy the meeting number, password and any telephone options

   2. Edit Meeting.

   3. Cancel meeting. You can delete just this meeting or the entire series.

   4. Add meeting to calendar.

2. You can Start your previously scheduled meetings by clicking on green button below it.
   
   

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3. Send this link to anyone who needs to join the meeting

4. Send this to anyone will join the meeting via telephone

5. This is the number that should be used to join the meeting via telephone

Your meeting is setup, if you invited people during this setup, they will receive an invitation email, or you can extend your invitation during the live meeting to others that you had not included in your original invitation by going to Participants top menu bar > Invite and Remind and add their email and click on Send.

Meeting interface basics

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A. Begin the meeting your microphone off or on. You can change this by selecting the drop-down arrow to the right
B. Begin your meeting with the video off or on. When video is off you will not be able to change your background until you turn it on again.
C. When ready, start your meeting.
D. Default audio should be Use Computer Audio

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A. From here you can save chats and poll questions/results.
a. Open Poll Questions will let you open a poll you’ve already created (ATP file).

B. Hovering over View > Panels > Manage Panels lets you choose which panels are enabled or disabled.

C. From Audio & Video you can configure and test your audio/video devices.

D. Participant > Mute on entry mutes everyone as they join the meeting.
a. Anyone can share enabled means anyone can start sharing, disabled means the host has to enable them as the presenter.
b. Assign privileges lets you choose what participants can do in the meeting.

E. Content viewing area: webcams and shared content appear here

F. Meeting controls (left to right)
a. Mute/Unmute microphone
b. Enable/Disable webcam
c. Share content – choose an application, screen, or blank whiteboard to share with others
d. Recorder – lets you record (make sure its set to Record in cloud)
e. Reaction – lets you react with different emoticons to the meeting
f. More options – switch your audio, connect to a video system. More meeting options include locking meeting, inviting attendees and obtaining the meeting link and enable breakout sessions
g. End Meeting if you are host (forces everyone to exit) or Leave Meeting as a participant

G. Where all open panels appear – displays only Participants panel by default a. You can right click on someone’s name to mute, private chat, change their role (presenter, host), etc.

H. (left to right)
a. Hides or displays Participants panel – shows who is in the meeting
b. Hides or displays Chat panel – lets you chat with others in the meeting

Meeting roles

Participants can have different roles during a meeting. 

Host

• Sets up the meeting.

• Can give and take privileges from presenter and attendees, call breakout session, create a poll or start a test.

  • Choose when session starts and ends (must pass host role to someone else if you would like to end the session since a host must be present for a session to continue).

  • Right click on participant’s name > Change Role To > Host (You rarely need to pass this role to others)

Cohost

• Can be assigned by the Host and begin or end meetings, call breakout sessions, give or take privileges from the presenter and attendees.

• If the host leaves the session, the cohost will become the host.

• To change someone to host: Right click their name > Change Role To > Cohost

Presenter

• Indicated by the screensharing icon next to their name in the participant panel.

  • The presenter role can be passed to another panelist by clicking and dragging the screensharing icon over their name.

  • You can also right click > Change Role To > Presenter

Attendees

• Have the least amount of control but they can respond to chats and polls, as well as ask Q&A questions.

Lobby Room and Office Hours

Lobby Room

The Host can move participants into the Lobby by right clicking the person of choice and selecting Move to Lobby. This function is useful in events such as PhD defense. Attendees in the Lobby cannot see or hear the conversation happening in the main room.

• Once in the Lobby, the Host can readmit the participant by selecting Admit as seen in the image below
  
  

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Office Hours

• If the Host locks the meeting when in the room (select the three dot icon in the bottom control bar > Lock Meeting), any new attendee will be directed to the lobby room and the host will be notified.

  • The persons in lobby room can be admitted one at a time based on your scheduled office hours.

  • Alternate hosts can be added if you would like to use a single meeting room for multiple TAs for example (refer to Scheduling > Advanced options > Scheduling options on this document for adding alternate hosts).

Holding office hours within LEARN

Screen sharing

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• Clicking Screen will share your entire screen and desktop with the meeting

• Clicking a specific application allows for presenters to share only that application. Everything else will appear censored to meeting participants.

• Clicking File allows presenters to open and share a selected file from their desktop

• Clicking Whiteboard allows presenters to create a new whiteboard and share it with the meeting.

Note: if you are sharing a video, click the dropdown arrow beside Optimize for text and images and make sure that Optimize for motion and video is selected instead.

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Only users with the presenter role, showing a screensharing icon in front of their name in the participant list can share their screen.

These are your functions while sharing:

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From left to right:

1. Stop sharing

2. Pause sharing – freeze your screen from being shared

3. Share – change the program/file you’re sharing if you selected a specific one

4. Assign – allow panelists to annotate on the screen (refer to Annotate)

5. Mute – mute/unmute your mic

6. Video – enable/disable your webcam

7. Recorder – begin recording your training session

8. Participants – bring up participants floating panel

9. Chat – bring up chat floating panel

10. Annotate – annotate directly on the screen

To record your session

You can record your live meeting for later review by clicking on the button at the bottom of meeting window

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• Recording session can be stopped or paused by clicking on the same button.

• These recordings can be access under Recording on Webex portal.

• It recommended you store your recording in the cloud rather than your local computer. Go to Meeting menu tab > Recorder Settings > and select Record in Cloud.

Breakout Rooms

For more information, please see Breakout Rooms in Webex Meeting.

• Hosts and cohosts can create, start breakout groups, assign attendees to the groups and end break out groups

To start a breakout session:

1. Click on Breakout

2. Select Enable Breakout Session which will add a new button to the bottom screen options labeled “Breakout Sessions” to create the rooms manually or automatically.

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3. Indicate how many groups you would like to have

4. To create breakout sessions manually, select Manually then select “create Assignments”

   1. Under “Not assigned” Select a participant (You can select multiple at a time) and then in the bottom of the pop-up window select “Move to Session” and indicate which breakout you would like to assign them too.

5. To create rooms automatically, select Automatically then select “create Assignments”

   1. In the pop-up window rearrange any participants and place them into different groups if you would like

6. Once you’re all set up select “Start Assignment”

Panels

Panels offer optional functions within the main session window.

You can Hide any of the panels by selecting the X in the top right corner of the panel.

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Participants and chat panel can be toggled on an off by selecting these buttons:

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 Not all panels are turned on by default.

• If a panel is not visible either on the right side of Meetings interface or in the three dot icon menu then you will have to manually add them.

To add panels to the layout:

Go to the View tab in the top bar > Panels > Manage Panels

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• From the menu, you can add panels to your Current panels from Available panels.

  • Deselect Allow participants to change the sequence of panels if you want to keep your arrangement locked.

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• Your panels will now be available from the dot icon in the bottom right under the panels section of the meetings interface.

Participants Panel

This is where all participants in the meeting will be displayed. In this panel, the host has access to the following:

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• Screensharing icon allows you to transfer the sharing content rights to another participant in the meeting by clicking on the icon and dragging it to their name.

• Attentiveness (exclamation mark): will appear next to the attendee’s name when they are viewing anything other than the Meetings interface.

Features

• Names are organized alphabetically, but the option to search for a specific attendee is available.

• The users who have their microphone enabled will have a headset icon beside their name.

Attendee status

• If an attendee wants to communicate with the speaker, they can use the Raise hand function.

  • A hand icon will be displayed next to one’s name in the participant’s panel.

  • By selecting this icon, one raises their hand (which will make the hand icon appear public to all participants. 

Chat Panel

The chat panel can have multiple conversations; one with everyone, groups, and private conversations. Type the message in the text box and select who you would like to send it to.

To edit chat capabilities for participants…

• To edit chat capabilities for participants Participant > Assign Privileges > Communicate
  

Notes Panel

Notes can be written by users with privileges. This panel can be accessed from the three-dot icon in the bottom right control bar.

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Features

• To save notes to your computer for later viewing select the save button in the bottom right corner of the notes panel

  • Notes are for personal use and can only be seen by the individual writing them.

Multimedia Viewer Panel

Gives you the ability to share URL links directly in the meeting interface.

Features

• Can be used to link videos for smoother playback.

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Polling Panel

Edit Audio and Video Features

Viewing past session reports

View and edit recordings

Additional Options (three-dot icon)

Calibrating Audio

Turn on microphone

• If the icon says “unmute”, your microphone is off – you are muted

• Select the icon, say “mute”, your microphone is on – you are no longer muted

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Adjust microphone settings

• To adjust the microphone settings, you can select the Audio tab in the top bar > Computer Audio Settings.

• You can also find these settings by selecting the three-dot icon > Audio Connection

• Select the drop- down arrow beside the mute button on the bottom menu bar to further change microphone settings.

Top Bar Functions Explained

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