Online meeting tips 💻 With more meetings moving online to prepare for #COVID19, I thought I’d share lessons we’ve learned running @MozOpenLeaders (online cohort-based training & mentorship) over the years. A thread 👇
Collaborative notes 📝 Have publicly editable shared notes/agenda to use during the meeting (gdocs, etherpad, hackmd, etc). This create multiple modes of contribution & backchannels. It can be hard to speak up in an online call - make sure there’s a place to write and be seen.
Start with a roll call. After the intro (welcome, CoC reminder, etc), ask everyone to write their name (+ pronouns / location / any other info that’s helpful) in the roll call to show that everyone is invited & expected to write in the notes.
“Silent gdocing / etherpading” Ask an open ended question (or icebreaker/madlib at the beginning) & give time for people to type their answers in the notes “silently”. Then, the facilitator can verbalize answers/patterns they see & invite ppl to unmute and share.
Silent gdocing is impotant for emphasizing the importance of notes & validating this mode of contribution. Done early in the call (icebreaker or warmup), this can also give buffer for latecomers (tech issues will happen).
Encourage async interaction in the notes. Add a “+1” after comments you agree with. Use comments, emojis, gifs. Answer questions inline when you can. Easiest way to add a gif in a gdoc: Insert > Image > By URL
Mute liberally, mute quickly 🔇 Background noise, feedback & echo can make a call unbearable. When hosting a call on Zoom, I watch the ‘Participants’ panel. You can tell who is audible at all times and easily mute the person who just answered their phone.
Use Breakout rooms! Speaking of @zoom_us- breakout room feature is fantastic. This sends participants to smaller Zoom calls in groups you can control (or autogenerate). You can ‘broadcast’ messages to all groups unobtrusively, & they can ‘Ask for help’ to get your attention
Breakout recipe that works for us: * 2-3 discussion prompts * 10-15min * 3-4 ppl per group Send broadcasts at regular intervals to make sure everyone has time to share “5mins left, last person should be sharing now” After: ‘shared insights’ section w/ silent gdoc-ing and +1-ing
That’s all I have! I hope this helps you stay safe & have great online meetings! I learned many of these tips over the years from colleagues @mozilla! Shoutout to @OpenMatt, @chadsansing - @juliesquid shared her thoughts here (& inspired this thread): https://twitter.com/juliesquid/status/1236466720916647936
Have some of your own tips? Add them here, I’d love to learn more!
We’ve collected these tips along with some of our favourites you’ve shared in this blog post. Thanks to everyone weighing in on online meetings! https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/online-meeting-tips/