Access and Use Google Meet

	Learning Instruction Community
Summary	Google Meet is video conferencing software used at the Hill and River campuses
Author	Maintained by Matthijs van Mierlo
Help	Get help with this article
Status	Up-to-date for the 2023-2024 school year.

Create Meeting

Creating a Google Meet meeting can be done in several ways. Google Meet integrates fully with Riverdale Google accounts, and because of that there are a couple of ways you can get started. Comprehensive support articles from Google can be found here on Google's support pages.

Create Instant Meeting

Creating an instant meeting will bring you directly to the video call. From there, you can invite guests directly, but it won't show up on your Calendar. These instant meetings are typically good for quick, non-recurring video calls.

1. In your browser, go to Google Meet
2. Click New meeting
3. Click Start an instant meeting

Create Meeting in Google Calendar

If you create a Google Meet video conference in Google Calendar, all calendar invitees will automatically receive the correct link to join. This method is recommended if you know a video call will be necessary in advance of the event/meeting.

1. In your browser, go to Google Calendar
2. Click on Create on the top left of the window
3. Click on Event
4. Add the relevant Event Details (title, description, location, time, date, etc.)
5. Add a Google Meet link to your calendar appointment
   • If you've typically used Zoom in the past, click Add video conferencing, then click Google Meet
6. Invite our people to your meeting as you usually would for a calendar invite
7. Click Save

Pro-tip: if you want to automatically create Google Meet links for ALL your meetings, check out this support article from Google that shows you how to configure that on your account.

Start Meeting

There are a couple ways to start meetings using Google Meet. Two ways are outlined below. Generally, we recommend creating calendar invites with integrated Google Meet links so that all meeting invitees know where to start and join the meeting.

• If you create an Instant Meeting, then you're meeting will automatically start in your web browser
• If you created a Google Calendar Event, there are two ways to quickly star the meeting:
  1. Go to the calendar appointment, then click on Join now next to the meeting link
  2. Go to https://meet.google.com, then click on the corresponding link for your meeting on the right-hand side of the window

Record Meetings

Recording a meeting will save the video and chat records of the recorded meeting segment. Recording will not happen by default, so make sure to record a meeting at the beginning if you know you need to do it. If you are the Meeting Host then you are able to record the meeting. The recorded video and chat files will be saved in your Riverdale Google Drive account in the Meet Recording folder.

1. From a video meeting, at the bottom, click Activities (the button with a triangle, square, and circle)
2. Click Recording
3. Click Start recording

For more information about playing back the chat as subtitles, refer to this article from Google. Rest assured, the video and chat is saved. The chat history can be played back by using VLC Media Player. Reach out to the Tech Team if you have questions about this.

Collaborate In Meetings

Invite Meeting Guests

Once a meeting has started, you can always invite more people! You can either share the meeting link directly with participants or send an automatic email to participants with the meeting details. The steps to add participants are listed below.

• From a video meeting, at the bottom, click People
• Click Add people.
• To invite people to join the meeting
  1. Click Invite
  2. Enter the name or email of the guests
  3. Click Send email.
• Guests get an email with the meeting link to join the meeting.

Send Chat Messages

During a meeting, you can send messages in the built-in Google Meet chat. If you're coming from a platform like Zoom, this should feel very familiar!

1. Open Meet
2. From a video meeting, at the bottom, click Chat
3. Enter a message and click Send

Note: chat history is only saved if you record the meeting. You can play back chat messages using a platform like VLC Media Player. For more information about playing back the chat as subtitles, refer to this article from Google.

Share Your Screen

When you are in a meeting, you can share your window or your entire screen. To access these settings, follow these steps:

1. On the bottom, click Present now and choose what to share
   • Your entire screen
   • A window
   • A tab
2. Click Share
3. When you’re done presenting, click Stop presenting.

As the meeting host, you can also change settings for meeting guests. For instance, you may want to limit who can share their screens. If you are interested in this, refer to this article from Google support or find a member of the Tech Team to show you.

Set Up Participant Engagement

Enable Audience Q/A

1. From a video meeting, at the bottom, click Activities
2. Click Q&A
3. Next to Allow questions, click Turn on

Create Audience Polls

1. In a meeting, at the bottom right, click Activities  
2. Click Polls
3. Click Start a poll
4. Enter a question and add options for the poll
   • Tip: You can let users respond anonymously to Polls. Before you save or launch your poll, turn on Responses appear without names
5. Choose one:
   • To post your poll immediately, click Launch
   • To save your poll for later, click Save.

Create Whiteboards

1. At the bottom right, click Activities
2. Click Whiteboarding
3. Select an option:
   • To create a new whiteboard, click Start a new whiteboard.
   • To open an existing whiteboard from your drive, shared drives, or computer, click Choose from Drive and find the corresponding Jamboard file

Raise Your Hand

1. Click the Hand icon in the main meeting window near the bottom of the screen
2. Remember to "un-raise" your hand after you've been called on

Create Breakout Rooms

1. From a video meeting, at the bottom, click Activities
2. Click Breakout rooms
3. Click Set up breakout rooms
4. Choose the number of breakout rooms. You can create up to 100
   • To move people into different rooms, drag a participant's name to another room.
5. Click Open rooms

Change Your Background

1. Depending on when you want to change your background, choose an option:
   • To change your background before you join a meeting, on the bottom right of your meeting image, click Change background
   • To change your background after you join a meeting, at the bottom, click More, then click Change background
2. Choose a background option.

Schedule Meeting for Someone

If you are someone on campus that schedules meetings on another person's behalf, you can do that as long as you are given access to someone's calendar to add/modify/delete events.

To give someone else access to your calendar to schedule events and meetings:

1. Open Google Calendar
2. Click on Settings on the top of the page
3. Click on Settings again
4. Scroll down on the left until you see your calendar name (ex. Matthijs van Mierlo)
5. Click on the calendar to share
6. Scroll down to Share with specific groups or people
7. Click Add people and groups
8. Search for the person you want to add
9. In the Permissions dropdown, select Make changes and manage sharing

To schedule on someone's behalf:

1. Open Google Calendar
2. Select the calendar you want to schedule for on the left. Make sure it is the only calendar selected.
3. Schedule an event, and add the appropriate details
4. Add video conferencing and select Google Meet

Any appointment you schedule this way will ensure that the event organizer is the person you're scheduling for.