General group exercise advice:
- Try not to be someone completely different to who you are
- Contribute
- There are lots of roles and responsibilities to take on - it doesn't matter what you do but find a way to contribute beyong adding your ideas
- Have an opinion
- Support each other
- Keep an eye on the time
- Try to come to a conclusion/judgement/outcomes
When delivered virtually:
- Agree how you will communicate and record (screen, chat function, hands-up function). This could be as simple as showing you have something to say when you are off mute (if you can see when people are muted).
- Check whether you have any creative tools to utilise (Whiteboard)
- Give each other more space to discuss things – delays can mean communication can feel slightly awkward/stilted, but try to be patient
- Don’t be afraid to ask people to repeat things, whether facilitators or other candidates
- Check with facilitators what you can/can’t use (e.g. accessing websites)
Some Zoom tips below (but similar advice works on other platforms)
Mute and unmute your mic quickly using the space bar
If you have to follow just one tip for Zoom then let it be this one. When there are too many participants in a meeting, it’s hard to hear everyone because of cross-talk and background noise. But you can reverse this behaviour by a simple hack. If you are in a Zoom meeting and not speaking then keep your mic on mute. And when you want to talk briefly, simply hold the space bar to enable the mic and speak. Once you release the space bar key, you’ll be muted again.
Screenshots
Sometimes when on seminars you want to take a screenshot of the slide that is being presented. You can do this by pressing Alt + Shift + T or Command + T
For the vain amongst us... (and yes I have done this...)
Zoom offers an option to
beautify your look. It softens your skin tone and smooths out any blemish on your video display. Overall, it offers a more polished and pleasing appearance to your look while you are in a meeting. So to enable it, open Settings -> Video -> turn on “Touch up my appearance” and you are done.
Change your viewing settings
When you get started with Zoom for the first time, the app has its default video layout set to ‘Active Speaker’, which shows the person currently talking in the main window. However, if you want, you can switch to the Gallery View to see all the participants on the conference call at the same time. For this, click on
Gallery View in the top-right of the screen.
Use the raise hand option
If you are in a meeting and the organiser is talking and you don't want to interrupt them, you can typically use the "raise hand" option to show you want to speak. Some Zoom meetings will also have a Q&A function too.
Virtual backgrounds:
You can use virtual backgrounds in Zoom but in a professional setting they can be slightly distracting, especially if they go fuzzy as you move about or if you disappear behind them. Only use them if absolutely necessary, and definitely don't use them to try and impress as this could be perceived as tacky.
