Replicate Webinar Features in a Zoom Meeting

Overview

This article details the steps to replicate webinar features in a Zoom meeting.

Zoom Meetings vs. Webinars

Though Zoom meetings and Zoom webinars provide comparable features, there are some differences to be aware of when deciding on which tool best suits your needs. NVCC has access to a handful of webinar licenses so before requesting a Zoom webinar please consider the following criteria. You can also replicate a webinar in Zoom by following the steps in Replicate a Webinar in Zoom.

If after reviewing following table you decide a webinar fits your need, you will need to complete the Zoom Webinar Request Form to schedule and request use of a webinar license.

Use Case

Consideration

Solution

Staff Meeting

Less than 300 participants, video and audio of all participants, and ability to content share. More participant engagement.

Meeting

Training session

Less than 300 participants, breakout rooms are an option as well as polling and includes a Raise Hand feature that is ideal for training sessions. Host can mute all participants and toggle on when appropriate to allow for interaction.

Meeting

Professional Conference

More than 300 participants, more control for host, co-host and panelist. Audio, video and content share by host, co-host and panelist only. Includes polling feature, which is often utilized for professional conferences.

Webinar

Class under 300

Ideal for interactive sessions where you’ll want to have lots of audience participation or utilize breakout sessions for small group discussions.

Meeting

Class over 300

A virtual lecture hall or auditorium set-up with a very large audience. Ability to use Q&A feature for attendees to ask questions during class.

Webinar

Patient Visit

May be used with some types of sensitive data, including Protected Health Information (PHI) and provides end to end encryption. Ability to lock meeting.

Meeting

Daily meet-up

Ability to see all participants, everyone has audio and video and can chat publicly or privately.

Meeting

Town Hall

Large audience/event that is open to the public and needs little audience engagement.

Webinar

Replicate a Webinar in Zoom

It is possible to set up a Zoom meeting and replicate a webinar. The following steps detail the process of configuring and managing a Zoom Meeting to replicate webinar functionality. Follow these steps to replicate a webinar in Zoom:

  1. Access the settings.

    1. From the Desktop App, select Schedule.

  1. From the Zoom webpage, login to Zoom.

  2. From the Personal menu, select Settings.

  1. Configure Host Only video.

    1. Desktop App: In the Video section, select On for Host video and Off for Participants video.

  1. Zoom Webpage: Toggle Host video On and Participants video Off.

  1. Stop participants from turning on video.

    1. In the Meeting Room: The participants can turn on their video once they enter the room. To prevent that, open the Participants Panel.

    2. From each user, click on More to open the menu.

    3. Click on Stop Video in the menu. Participants will not be able to turn on their video.

Note: This will have to be done with each participant so it may become time consuming with a large group.  Consider asking a co-host to assist in this.

  1. To prevent unwanted conversations, mute the participants upon entry.

  1. Desktop app: Select Advanced Options. Select the Mute participants upon entry checkbox.

  1. Zoom Webpage: Toggle Mute participants upon entry On.

  1. Stop participants from unmuting themselves.

    1. In the Meeting Room: The participants will be able to unmute themselves. However, to prevent that, open the Participants Panel.

    2. Select Mute All.

    3. Uncheck the Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves checkbox.

  1. Alternately, select the ellipses and uncheck Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves.

  1. Stop participants from sharing their computer screens.

    1. Desktop app: This setting can only be set through the webpage or in the meeting room.

    2. Zoom Webpage: Toggle Screen Sharing On and select Host Only.

  1. In the Meeting Room: Click on the up arrow next to Screen Sharing. Select Advanced Sharing Options from the menu.

  1. From Who can share? select Only Host.

  1. Chat vs. Q&A.

Only webinars have both a chat function and a Q&A function. The Q&A is a chat but with only the hosts. The participants cannot see other participant’s questions and answers. In a Zoom Meeting Room, only chat is available, but you can set the chat to be viewed only by the hosts.

  1. Desktop app & Webpage: This option is not available in the Desktop app or Webpage settings.

  2. In the Meeting Room: Open the Chat panel. Select the ellipse at the bottom of the panel.

  3. Select Host Only.

Consider using the Everyone Publicly option. Once a question is answered, the entire group can see the answer. This would benefit participants that have the same questions.

If you have a large group of participants, consider having one or more helpers to just answer questions on the chat. This will free the presenter to concentrate on the presentation. 

Note: Reset your settings after the meeting is concluded to return to standard meeting settings.

Additional Resources

N/A

Contact Information

If you experience any issues following these steps, please contact the Video Collaboration Team at VideoCollaboration@nvcc.edu.

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