In today’s modern era, everything around us is evolving in an enormous way. This change occurs inevitably. In the last few decades this change is particularly evident in scientific and technological fields. Therefore, in the interest of our benefit, we need to adopt new tactics, techniques, and methods in order to adjust and acquaint with the ever evolving technological advancements. In the current pandemic, online management of education, business and almost everything proved it profoundly important.
Particularly, in this regard, Zoom meetings have been exceptionally significant. Online facilities have made it possible to manage countless things (jobs, meetings, educational classes etc.) sitting right under your roof. It is a multipurpose way to handle situations which are otherwise impossible to sustain without physical locomotion. In the current scenario, with the outbreak of corona virus, almost every person including students and professionals made use of it.
However, it does have some principles to follow and terms to adopt in order to sustain its maximum output. The etiquette of zoom meetings includes basic options that are provided for the sake of convenience and can be altered according to the situation. The current pandemic outbreak compelled those people too who were not acquainted with the concept of online meetings. For the purpose, a demand rose for the better understanding.
1. Camera and Mike Checking
First of all, in order to ensure the smooth proceeding of the meeting, you need to check the functionality of camera and mike. Before starting a meeting online, therefore, it is best to confirm the effectiveness of the video and audio quality by checking the camera and mike. Otherwise the meeting can be disrupted by any of the two mentioned functions that can be lag in the video and its quality and inaudibility.
2. Explicit Rules Before the Meeting Commencement
After ensuring the audio and video quality functioning of the zoom meeting, now, it is time to start it. Depending on the purpose of meeting the setting must be adjusted accordingly. For example, the features of screen sharing, documents display, and comments section are allowed according to the agendas of the meeting. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the meetings credibility that basic rules should be made explicit to the participating people before the meeting commences.
For instance, if one participant is speaking then the rest of the participants should mute their audio just to avoid unnecessary noises that can prove to be disturbing for the whole meeting. Similarly, there are occasions where the participants are asked to join with video-off and audio-on and vice versa depending on the nature of meeting.
3. Background Importance
The background of your video during the meeting is also important. Always try to maintain a professional, neat and clean background for the meeting. Virtual backgrounds are also helpful in this regard. Another important point is to look in the camera while participating in the meeting. Sometimes your eyes are fixed at the screen or elsewhere that gives an unprofessional impression. It also gives the impression that you are not attentive in the meeting.
4. Be Concise
Meetings are generally regarded as boring tasks if they are prolonged or not managed properly according to the situation. In similar way, online meetings are more likely to get you distracted if prolonged from the normal duration. Therefore, it is advised in the interest of meeting’s integrity that you should be concise in your contribution to the meeting. However, it is subject to the number of attendees.
5. Avoid Whispering and Side Conversations
Whispering and side conversation create real disturbance as they can be easily picked by microphones. To avoid disturbance, one should strictly ignore whispering or side conversation. They can also be extremely distracting causing the shift from the main task and purpose.
6. Equal Contribution
As a facilitator of the meeting, it is of significant importance that contribution of every attendee is ensured to maintain the constructive environment.Therefore, unnecessary and prolonged talks by some participants who like to talk endlessly can be discarded.
7. Alteration of Speech Sound
While contributing to the meeting, the participants are advised to avoid monotone of their voices. One should use high and low pitches of the sound and intonation as it is needed accordingly. Avoiding the intonation and stress patterns can really aid to the tediousness of the meeting, therefore it can create a reason of inactiveness by the participants.
8. Assign Roles
To handle unforeseen circumstances, roles of facilitator or moderator should be assigned to other participants i.e. in case of some technical or internet issue. However, if the interruption is necessary at some point, one should make it slowly and smoothly during the online meeting.
9. How to Avoid Zoom-bombing?
There are unwanted interruptions that can cause interruption in the middle of the meeting. A term is used for such uninvited and unwanted interruption that is called Zoom-bombing. To avoid such nuisance, invitation of the meeting should not be shared with everyone or on social media because in that case anyone who get access to the link can interrupt. Therefore, keep only the concerned people informed about the invitation links of the meeting.
10. Avail Zoom Meeting Features
For the sake of convenience and conducting a secure meeting, always keep the waiting room turned on that can also be disabled in the setting according to the nature of meeting. This will help the host to manage the meeting effectively. All those who wish to join in the meeting will be placed in digital waiting room. The host will have the authority then to allow or decline their entry.
11. Take Relevant Measures
The amount of care and systematic rules concerning the Zoom meeting depend upon the nature of meeting. In case of meeting with less attendees the security measures like invitation links, host authority to include or exclude or muting other participants are not taken seriously. However, in case of large meetings, Zoom Webinar version is used that allows only few speakers to speak while keeping others at mute until and unless needed to contribute.
12. Mute All Option
Classes for students are arranged online where the zoom meeting is extensively used. The best option that it provides to the teacher is ‘Mute All’. This prevents the unnecessary noises and meaningless rather irrelevant nuisance from interrupting the class created by those students who are either uninterested or just want to mess with the class for the sake of their fun and entertainment.
13. Unintentional Mistakes
Besides intentional interruptions, there is also fair chance of disruption caused unconsciously by the participants who forget to mute their audio or video before they get engaged in something else. In the same way, some students or other participants in their Zoom meetings, start talking without knowing that they have not unmuted their audio. This also creates a comic effect because their lips can be seen moving without uttering a single sound and thus giving a little push from the main discussion. This produces distraction among the members attending the meeting.
14. Improving Quality of Sounds
Besides, a real hindrance can also occur affecting the sound quality. For the purpose, there are ways to enhance and improve the quality of sound that would benefit to conduct clearly audible meetings. These options are there in Zoom meeting setting where the quality of audio is improved by suppressing the noises.
15. Light Impact
Similarly, the video quality is greatly enhanced by the amount lighting in your background when you are attending a Zoom meeting. Always keep in mind to place the position of light in front of you, not behind you that certainly makes your video difficult to watch as it will lay a dark shade on your face.
16. Avoid Eating
One of the important principles is also that working from your home does not mean that you can eat while in the middle of class or meeting on Zoom that are professional or academic in nature.
17. Stay Focused
It is in the best interest of the attendees and meeting’s agenda to stay focused. It is indeed a challenging task keeping all the overlapping audio, shuffling screens and lengthy comments or presentations into account, the focus and concentration constantly distract from the main purpose. To eliminate this problem, all of these possibilities should be minimized and if not minimized then alternatively recordings of the meeting can come in handy, particularly if it is class of students who can watch and listen to these recorded versions later at any time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that observing and ensuring the basic prerequisites and overall etiquettes of Zoom meeting assure smooth and effective outcomes of the relative meetings that are as diverse as possible in accordance to their relevant context. These basic principles have been explained in this article providing an insight to the general masses, students and professionals enhancing their comprehension regarding Zoom meeting and eventually promoting its effective usage.