Web & Video Conferencing FAQs

Zoom meetings are usually used when all participants are expected or have the ability to participate equally: depending on the way the Zoom meeting is configured, participants can turn their mics and cameras on and can share their content. Breakout rooms are possible in Zoom meetings, and Zoom meetings are available with the Basic Zoom license. Zoom account pricing is based on number of meeting participants; eg, up to 100, 300, 500, and 1000.

Zoom webinars are usually used when the format of the session is one-to-many; ie, one presenter will do most of the talking and sharing of their content and the audience is neither heard nor seen. Audience participation is usually limited to chat and asking questions via a Q & A tool. Webinars are an add-on to Zoom licenses, with pricing based on the number of webinar attendees from 500 to 10,000.

The large classrooms are now set up for hybrid teaching. Please contact Discovery Commons for more information.

Discovery Commons can webcast your event instead of using a webconference tool like Zoom. With webcasting, we use professional equipment that allows multiple cameras, and the transmission presented to online participants is much better quality than Zoom or a similar commercial tool can provide. The basic elements of the online experience are analogous to Zoom, with off-site participants viewing the presentation live at their own PCs, and using the text chat function to ask questions. Like with Zoom, your off-site participants are given (via advance email) a url to access the webcast site. During the Q and A, the moderator of the live session can read questions that have been sent by off-site participants and answer these along with questions from the live audience. The session can also be recorded (note that the recordings are also higher quality than a Zoom recordings) and made available on demand after the session.

Please fill out and submit this form: Request a Webconference

Zoom, Teams, and Skype are popular commercial tools for web conferencing. MSB 3174, one of the Discovery Commons meeting rooms, is equipped with a webcam, and the microphones and speakers in the room are configured to optimize audio for Zoom and Skype calls. 

Discovery Commons has a number of instructional technologies available such as software capture, web collaboration and presentation publishing programs. The department also has a multi-camera recording studio used to record lectures, interviews, and teaching scenarios. Our knowledgeable staff can work with you to create effective professional course material.