Google Meet is the official videoconferencing platform at Christopher Newport University and is available to all faculty, staff and student.  This article will give you instructions on scheduling meetings and using Google Meet.

Starting a Meeting

Adding Google Meet to a Calendar Event

If you know the date and time that you intend to meet in advance, you should create a calendar event and add Google Meet to that event.  This will "reserve" the Google Meet meeting room for you.  To do so, create a calendar event like normal, and click on "Add Google Meet video conferencing."

The meeting will be created.  You have two ways you can get the meeting information to others.  If you're meeting with just a few people and you have their e-mail address, it's best just to invite them to the calendar event.

Everyone that you invite to the calendar event will also get the Google Meet invitation.

If you have too many people to invite easily, or if you don't know everyone's e-mail address, you can get the link for the meeting by copying the URL underneath the Join button, or get the full connection information by clicking the copy button.

You can then post this information in Scholar, to a group mailling list, or any other place that allows you to share links.

Setting up an Instant Meeting

If you need to meet immediately, you can start an instant meeting.  The easiest place to start is from your e-mail.  Click on the Google Meet icon at the right.

Click New Meeting.

You'll see a link that you can copy and distribute to the other participants, as well as a button to join your meeting.

Preparing to Meet

When you click on a Meet link, you'll first be taken to the preparation screen.  If you haven't used Meet on the particular computer that you're using, you'll need to allow it to use your camera and microphone.  If you don't, the people you're meeting with will not be able to see and hear you.

Once you click that button, you'll need to click your browser's Allow button.

You'll then see a preview of your video and three boxes below that allow you to select the microphone, camera and speakers you want to use with Meet. If you have a Windows laptop that you regularly connect to a soundbar, you should double-check your microphone after connecting; Windows sets the microphone to the last connected device and your soundbar doesn't have one.

If you want to test your setup, click on the camera dropdown and choose Make a Test Recording. You'll be able to see and hear what others will see and hear directly.

Once you're happy with your setup, click on Join Now on the right and you'll be taken to your meeting.

Interacting with your Meeting

Most of the controls that you'll need to control your meeting are on the bottom.  You can toggle your microphone and camera on and off with the buttons.

If you realize that you didn't set up your microphone, speakers or camera correctly, you can click on the arrow next to the appropriate button and change them.

If you need captioning for a meeting, you can click the closed caption button.  Only the person that needs the captioning needs to click this button; you don't have to do anything to make captions available to others.

Reactions allow people in meetings to respond to what you're saying without disrupting the meeting.  To send a reaction, click on the smiley face icon.  The reaction options will come up.  Click on a reaction to send it.

You can get the attention of the speaker to let them know that you have something to say by raising your hand.  Click the raise hand button to do so.

Your hand will remain "raised" until Meet detects that you've spoken, or until you click the button again, whichever comes first.

If you'd like to use the meeting chat, click the Chat button in the bottom-right corner.

The chat box will pop out.  You can chat by typing in the "Send a message" box.

People will see chat messages in the Chat box if they have it open, and as a popup otherwise.  Participants will only see chat messages sent after they join.  

If you have a chat message that contains information you want people to be able to see even if they join late, you can "pin" it by hovering over the message and clicking the pin button.

View Options

To change how many other participants are displayed on your screen, click the three dots and choose "Change layout"

You have four choices for the type of display that it will do:

• Auto: lets Meet choose based on your connection, computer specifications, and the number of people in the meeting
• Tiled: shows a grid of particpants
• Spotlight: shows only the speaker or presentation
• Sidebar: shows the speaker or presentation in a large area in the middle, with a selection of other speakers on the side.

If you choose a view with tiles, you can set how many you want to display with the slider at the bottom. 

Sharing your Screen

You can share all or part of your screen with the participants in your meeting.  To do so, click the Present Now button.

When you do, your browser's screen sharing options will appear.  As we recommend Chrome for Google Meet, we'll cover the Chrome options. 

In Chrome, you have three options:

• Chrome Tab: This one uses the least system resources, and is the only way to share audio.  However, anything that takes place outside of the tab you choose to share won't be displayed.  It's the only option for sharing video, and it has special presentation features if you share a Google Slides presentation.
• Window: This can be used if you only want to share one thing on your computer that is NOT a Chrome tab.  However, any menus, dialog boxes, or other popups are not considered part of the window.
• Entire Screen: This will display everything on your screen.  You'll need to select a screen whether you have multiple ones or not.  Keep in mind that if you select the one that contains Google Meet, you'll see an infinity mirror effect.  Simply switch off of Google Meet, and the people viewing your presentation will no longer see that effect.

Once you've chosen the type of thing to share, click on the specific tab, window or screen and click Share.

When you're done sharing, click the Present Now button again and choose Stop presenting.

Managing Participants

If you're the host, you can manage the participants in your meeting by clicking on the People button at the bottom right.

By default, participants with CNU e-mail addresses or ones that you explicitly invite will be able to directly join the meeting.  If someone else asks to join, you'll see a notification in the bottom right corner where you can admit them to the meeting.

If you have the People panel open, you'll also see them under "Waiting to be admitted".

To mute an individual participant, go into the People panel and click on the blue dots/lines next to their name.

To mute all participants except for yourself, click on "Mute all" at the top of the People panel.

To permanently remove someone from your meeting, click on the three dots next to their name and choose "Remove from the call".  Users removed in this way will NEVER be able to re-join that meeting.