Google Meet - advice

[cbsc]

I am after some advice with regards to Google Meet.

 

Teachers are starting to make use of the system at our school to engage with students remotely. I have some questions that I'm hoping someone will know the answer to.

 

I am aware of the following Google update and guidance, but am after some further clarification based on others' experiences:

 

https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/03/hangouts-meet-edu-updates.html

 

https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/9776888

 

Question 1

 

Is there any way to create a nicknamed meeting using Google Calendar? I have come across some guidance elsewhere that suggests that this may be possible if you enter g.co/meet/nickname into the description of the calendar event. However this doesn't appear to work, and students are able to join the meeting using the unique Google Meet URL that's generated for the calendar event at any time.

 

Question 2

 

Once a Google Meet URL has been generated, e.g. via Google Calendar, is there any way of terminating that meeting? It appears that this URL continues to be usable forever more, with no means of cancelling it.

 

Question 3

 

What are others' experiences with recording Google Meet meetings, in particular those scheduled using Google Calendar? According to https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9308681 it states that:

 

In the Calendar event

If the recording starts during the scheduled meeting time, the recording is automatically linked in the Calendar event. Meeting participants who are in the same organizational unit as the meeting organizer are automatically granted access to the recording.

 

From our testing and experiences, students are automatically granted access to these recordings despite being located in their own organizational unit. Hence the above statement from Google appears to be incorrect. Our teachers would prefer to have control over whether and when these recordings are shared with students.

 

Question 4

 

It appears that the best method is using Google Classroom, which generates a nicknamed Google Meet. It appears that recordings aren't automatically shared with students, and as long as the teacher is the last person to leave the meeting students cannot join later. Have others had similar experiences? In terms of getting students to join the meeting at an agreed time presumably teachers would create a calendar event, not adding video conferencing, but simply sharing the meet link that is generated by the Google Classroom (e.g. https://meet.google.com/lookup/0123456789)?

 

Question 5

 

With regards to live stream meetings, is there any way to determine how many students are watching the stream at any given time? Other than asking them to confirm their attendance, or engaging with them during the live stream, by using a Google Form or Google Slides Q&A. Is there any way an admin can subsequently determine how many attendees there were on a live stream using audit logs?

 

Question 6

 

Presumably if a live stream is recorded, the recording is not automatically shared with view-only guests that have been invited via Google Calendar? As per part 2 from the following article: https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9308630

 

 

Apologies for all the questions. We are really keen to get this to work well, and I assume that Google will be adding new functionality to improve the experience over the coming weeks.

Edited May 2, 2020 by cbsc

[timbo343]

My reply isn't really answering your questions however some of the questions you have raised are certainly my "bug bear" issues that I too am worry about opening up Google Meet to students. To me, Google have entered the video conference world with a half arsed product that does seem suited to those who are sensible.

 

I'm in the same boat, i'd love to recommend Google Meet to the teachers to use with students however the product seems too open.

 

Some of my gripes with Google Meet amd what i'd love to see implemented, so much so most of these either I or someone else has added on the Google Feature request pages (a bit like uservoice but it's not open to the public, you have to request access https://www.cloudconnectcommunity.com/ccc/ > feature requests)

 

- A Persistent / Static URL option for meetings which could be protected by a password

 

- The ability to provide a password to enter meetings

 

- Blue backgrounds / add custom backgrounds to the meetings

 

- Meeting to end when host clicks end as we are finding the meeting room is still open when the host leaves

 

- Attendees to ask questions to the host via a private ask questions box

 

- Attendees in listen only mode

 

- The ability to email the chat / transcript after the meeting- this may take some time but i've been told the meetings are always stored in the user's Google Drive

 

- Ability for the attendees to "raise hand" to ask a question

 

- Prevent attendees from sharing their screens (goes with listen only mode)

 

- Allow the host to host a "waiting area" for the host so the host decides when attendees can join the meeting. At the moment, attendees can join the meeting before the host.

 

I was told that most of these features are in Zoom [emoji849]

[rogerdnixon]

I'll try to answer the questions. We have been using Meet/Hangouts for a long time in our Trust without any issues. Generally enabled fully for Secondary and for Primary - they can only join Meets/Hangout not make them.

 

Question 1

For online teaching, the best approach is to use the Meet link in Classroom. This has a lot more restrictions built into it than a regular Meet link. So for example, when a Class Teacher leaves the kids are booted out. You can also hide or change the Meet link at any time and if you change it the old Meet link becomes inactive. I use this in my out teaching and it works well.

Beyond Classroom - if you want a Meet link to be inaccessible after the event - use the live stream option and its only accessible for the event. Otherwise, they do persist. However, its never been an issue - probably because we have handouts enabled and its normal for students to collaborate that way.

 

Question 2

Not put it to the test - but they last indefinitely I think. Not sure why this is an issue as external people cannot join without an invite and people just first up a hangout if they want a chat - why would anyone go back through their calendar and find a Meet link when they can just message someone normally? It's worth noting that we restrict students to the Trust for Hangouts.

 

Question 3

I normally just share the recording with my classes on Classroom if I've done them. The recording ends up in your Drive if you started it and you can share as you want. You have total control over permissions.

 

Question 4

Recording via the Classroom meet ends up in the teacher's Drive. I normally then post the video in an announcement to the students - then Classroom takes care of the sharing.

I normally start a lesson by posting an announcement like "Hi Folk, see you in a few minutes - click on the Meet link" - we are sticking to normal times tables as much as possible - works fine - and really nice to have the contact with students and a bit of banter - especially around pets, mugs of tea and hats.

 

Question 5

Take a look at this: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-apps-manager/23ptQaKFNLo

A GAM based Meet reporting system (you can look in the audit logs but thats tedious) - this emails to organise the attendance of the Meet. Looks pretty cool - but in a big org - might incure a cost (I've got 15000 users on 22 sites - so 100's of Meets a day - so I'm a bit nervous about my Trust credit card!)

 

Question 6

It ends up in the organisers in Drive and they share as appropriate.

 

I'd say its great - use it. We have done assemblies, lessons, staff meetings, Trust live streams and the only issues are the occasional dodgy home internet connections and really bad headgear. IT works because it's dead easy for people to use and requires almost no explaining.

[highsky]

Q5:

https://meet.google.com/tools/quality/admin

Or

Using the Google Chrome meet attendance extension, but this will mean that all users are using Chrome.

 

Gam?

 

I'm expecting Google to provide a better solution on this for the teachers.

[cbsc]

Thank you for all the replies so far, and for your very useful feedback.

 

@timbo343 – let’s hope Google are listening to all of the feedback from schools, and will make the necessary improvements.

 

@highsky – thanks for the link. As far as I can see, neither the Meet quality tool nor the extension report on attendees to a livestream. It would certainly be nice for staff to know how many people are watching their livestream at any given time.

 

@rogerdnixon – thank you for your comprehensive reply and all of your advice. In response to the first three points…

 

Question 1

 

I think Google should make it clearer to schools that there are distinct differences between using Classroom and Google Calendar when arranging meetings with students. I will certainly be advising our staff to avoid scheduling meetings with students using Google Calendar, and using Classroom only.

 

When using the Meet link in Classroom you have suggested that “when a class teacher leaves the kids are booted out”. However from my testing it appears that if a teacher leaves the meeting whilst there are still students in attendance, the meeting continues indefinitely until the students choose to leave. If the teacher is the last person to leave, students are unable to rejoin. Either way I guess this isn't a big issue.

 

Question 2

 

Google have given schools the functionality to prevent students from creating their own meetings (https://support.google.com/a/answer/9784550#turn-on-meet-video-calling). However this is somewhat redundant if students are able to indefinitely reuse Meet URLs that they’ve been invited to via Google Calendar. Granted (I assume) they wouldn't be able to invite new participants, but they can still hold meetings with the original (student) participants whenever they like.

 

Question 3

 

It’s good to know that recordings are not automatically shared with students when using Classroom.

 

Teachers have no control over the initial sharing of recordings when scheduling meetings via Google Calendar, and from my testing they are automatically shared with all participants (including students) despite Google suggesting that this won’t happen if they’re in separate organizational units. Either Google need to fix the problem or amend their advice.

Edited May 3, 2020 by cbsc

[timbo343]

I very much think that Schools and Trusts are to have an AUP on this.

 

My findings over the last couple of days since my improvements list are:

 

+ Students not able to create new meetings from setting in GSuite: Apps >G Suite >Settings for Google Hangouts>Meet video settings > on the Video calling option "Let users place video and voice calls" make sure this is off

 

+ Students cannot kick other users out of the meet

 

+ Host is able to remove users from the meeting - only on an individual basis

 

- Host not able to mute attendee cams

 

- Public chat only, no private chat from attendee to host

 

- Host can mute attendees, attendees can unmute again

 

- One the meeting code is live, anyone can join if they have the meeting code

 

- if host hangs up first, the meeting remains open.

 

- all attendees must leave / have left, then the meeting ends.

 

- attendees able to copy and share the meeting code. Guests are able to join with approval from host. Other attendees once signed into the GSuite are able to join the meeting without approval from host

 

- hosts are advised NOT to schedule meets via Google Calendar for the future and share the invite. Attendees are able to join the meeting before the agreed date and time.

[paulkerton]

My reply isn't really answering your questions however some of the questions you have raised are certainly my "bug bear" issues that I too am worry about opening up Google Meet to students. To me, Google have entered the video conference world with a half arsed product that does seem suited to those who are sensible.

 

Google have always had the "minimum viable product" philosophy with all of their products.

They'll release something that does the basic job, and then iterate on that. Collect the maximum amount of learning about your product with the least effort to do so.

It was released in February 2017, and I think the most development I've seen on it since then has occurred in the last 6 weeks. I am guessing as a business-to-business tool primarily, they haven't really seen the need to iterate it beyond what was there until this crisis occurred. It's been available in G Suite for Education for a while, but it's really not been used all that much. They've clearly been caught on the hop.

[Fratopolis]

Question 5

With regards to live stream meetings, is there any way to determine how many students are watching the stream at any given time? Other than asking them to confirm their attendance, or engaging with them during the live stream, by using a Google Form or Google Slides Q&A. Is there any way an admin can subsequently determine how many attendees there were on a live stream using audit logs?

 

I tested the extensions out there and found them to be lacking and very buggy

 

For attendance gam is best if using google meet, I have built an entire auto updated attendance platform using gam and google sheets. It auto adds users reconnect times for totals and give one output for the user. Teachers just need to select from a drop down menu the meet id to look at attendance after they enter their email.