What are the best practices for holding large meetings/classes using Zoom?

What are the best practices for holding large meetings/classes using Zoom?



When you are in your Zoom meeting, there are some features you will want to become familiar with to manage a large number of participants in a meeting.


Before you begin your meeting, it is best to establish guidelines to all the participants in the meeting. For example, hold all questions till the end of your presentation or during question and answer portions of your presentation. This will help manage the amount of questions when dealing with a large number of participants.


Muting Participants

You will want to mute all participants when they have entered the meeting. Or ask them to mute their microphones.


Gallery View

Gallery View allows you to see up to 49 participants at once. For more information about Gallery View click here.


Chat

The chat functionality will allow you to address questions during your meeting. This is especially ideal when you are dealing with more than 49 participants in a meeting.



Standard Zoom Functions

You can also have participants answer questions using their microphones. This may take some organization on your part by setting up question and answer moments during your meeting.


Raise Hand Feature


Participants can raise their hand if they have a question. 


Click Raise Hand in the Webinar Controls.

The host will be notified that you've raised your hand.


Click Lower Hand to lower it if needed.


As the host or a panelist, you will be notified when an attendee raises their hand.


You can see who has their hands raised at any time by viewing the participants list:


Click Participants in the meeting controls.



Note: Participants are displayed in the following order.


  1. Participants allowed to talk.


  1. Participants with their hand raised. Participants that raised their hand first are displayed at the top.


  1. Participants without their hand raised.


Hover over a participant with their hand raised for these options:

Allow to talk: Allow the participant to talk and unmute their mic. The participant will receive a prompt to confirm if they want to unmute or stay muted. If you already allowed a participant to talk but they decided to stay muted, click Unmute to prompt them to unmute their mic.


Disable talking: If you allowed a participant to talk, this will revoke the participant's ability to talk. The participant will stay muted.


Lower Hand: Lower the participant's hand. Their position in the participants will move down after the participants with their hand raised.


Click Lower All Hands at the bottom of the participants list to lower all raised hands.


In summary, it is best to try out all the features and note which will work best for your situation.