In an hour, you hold a webinar: Google Hangouts on Air
The other day there was a need to hold a webinar for students on the meringue of the company in which I work.
The requirements were as follows:
Skimming over several existing services, I realized that I did not like everything: almost all of them are not free; many do not work directly from the browser; There is no free way to record a webinar.
For me, the solution was Google Hangouts (Google Hangouts on Air, to be exact). There was little time to prepare and test the solution, and there were some jambs. After that, I figured out in more detail with the whole system - some points are not obvious. I decided to provide instructions with comments on how to organize a webinar by Google Hangouts. Perhaps someone will be useful.
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I’ll just say that the only restriction in my opinion is that all participants (speaker and listeners) need to have a Google account.
To do this, the speaker needs to go to your + Google and “Hang out live”. It is live.
The main thing that interests us in the settings window is the “For whom” field. Generally, this is a list of listeners. By default, the video call is open and any Google + user can find it. If you edit the list anyway, only the mentioned users will receive a notification about the meeting invitation and it will be displayed in the event tab. Time can be edited later.
On the "Events" page of your webinar, you can change the time of the event, forbid listeners to invite other listeners and leave comments - the "Details" section. Forgot to add to the listener? Add in the "Viewers" section! It was not obvious to me that “For whom” and “Spectators” are one and the same. But somewhere else you need to set up a co-speaker ...
By the way, how is the broadcast itself organized for the listeners? Via YouTube. Additional features of the interaction between the speaker and listeners provided by Google Hangouts are the functionality of the task of questions with voting for more interesting (“Q & A”) and the ability to share links (“Showcase”). Remember to include these two possibilities under the improvised player on the Event page. After the start of the broadcast this will no longer be possible to change.
A few minutes are left before the announced time - click the blue button “Start!” For a second, we look at ourselves in the camera and see the embarrassing window “Invite guests”. No, here it is not necessary to write a list of listeners, as it seemed. This is a list of co-rapporteurs, if you need one. Skipping, you can add them later.
Now you can prepare for the webinar, the benefit of Google allows you to show listeners:
There are also a few third-party Hangouts apps that can be easily connected right here. If there are several co-rapporteurs, then it is possible to turn off microphones or broadcast their screens and cameras.
Are you ready? Click the green button "Start broadcasting". From this point on, the broadcast on YouTube is turned on and listeners can start listening right on the Event page in your + Google.
To finish the broadcast, click "Finish". The broadcast recording will be available on the event page and in your YouTube account immediately upon completion.
Listeners can watch the broadcast either directly through YouTube, or through an interface in which they can still ask questions and click on the links you publish. In order for a listener to access this interface directly from the Event page, you must turn on Q & A before starting the broadcast.
As already mentioned, "Showcase", if enabled, allows you, as a speaker, to share links to a certain resource with listeners. Quite conveniently, you can post a list of additional materials for students. Everything is obvious here, except that without Q & A this feature does not work. More precisely, links can be recorded, but listeners will not be able to see them.
But the question and answer functionality is quite interesting. Listeners can ask questions and vote (+1) for them. Of the original uses of this feature is the creation of a "question" "Put +1 if there are problems with sound or video." Thus, students will be able to notify you about any problems.
Of course, in the task of questions the most important thing is the answers! The speaker can select any question with the “Select” button. Listeners will see that you answer it to him. After the answer, you can click "Finish". The most fascinating is that after the end of the broadcast, the listener who decided to watch the recording can select the question of interest and the recording will immediately jump to the point where you gave the answer.
For example, you can plan in advance the report in the form of questions and answer them. After the broadcast, it will be convenient to jump on different topics. Plus, it will be possible to find out which topics the audience liked most.
It remains only to say a few words about who can access the broadcast.
In general, the broadcast goes to the YouTube channel of your Google account. Access to this broadcast is for those who have a link. Thus, the listeners that you added to the event can share the broadcast to anyone.
Access to the event and the Q & A interface and Storefronts is only available to those you have added as listeners - a link to the event will not help the casual viewer to ask questions.
The broadcast recording on YouTube has the same link as the broadcast and is available only to those who have it. But this can already be configured in the video manager on YouTube.
If after the webinar you realized that everything went great and decided to share the recording with everyone, you can make the recording publicly accessible via the Share event button on the event page by adding the “Everything” tag to the “For whom” field.
In my opinion, Google Hangouts is quite a decent tool for holding webinars. It is free, provides convenient functionality, keeps a record. If you add all sorts of extensions here, such as drawing some graphs and others, it turns out to be excellent.
Of the minuses to start using, you can note a slightly strange and ambiguous interface. Apparently, the YouTube team had a hand in him.
Hangouts live: Frequently asked questions ;
Applications in the service “Hangouts live” .
The requirements were as follows:
- free of charge for any party;
- work from the browser;
- the ability to fumble the screen;
- broadcast recording;
- easy to learn (important).
Skimming over several existing services, I realized that I did not like everything: almost all of them are not free; many do not work directly from the browser; There is no free way to record a webinar.
For me, the solution was Google Hangouts (Google Hangouts on Air, to be exact). There was little time to prepare and test the solution, and there were some jambs. After that, I figured out in more detail with the whole system - some points are not obvious. I decided to provide instructions with comments on how to organize a webinar by Google Hangouts. Perhaps someone will be useful.
')
I’ll just say that the only restriction in my opinion is that all participants (speaker and listeners) need to have a Google account.
Announcing event
To do this, the speaker needs to go to your + Google and “Hang out live”. It is live.
Hangouts have Hangouts and Hangouts live. A regular video call is like Skype for several people (maximum 10) with free video and voice. Hangout live is just what we want - there is a speaker or a few (all the same 10) and there is an unlimited number of listeners.
The main thing that interests us in the settings window is the “For whom” field. Generally, this is a list of listeners. By default, the video call is open and any Google + user can find it. If you edit the list anyway, only the mentioned users will receive a notification about the meeting invitation and it will be displayed in the event tab. Time can be edited later.On the "Events" page of your webinar, you can change the time of the event, forbid listeners to invite other listeners and leave comments - the "Details" section. Forgot to add to the listener? Add in the "Viewers" section! It was not obvious to me that “For whom” and “Spectators” are one and the same. But somewhere else you need to set up a co-speaker ...
By the way, how is the broadcast itself organized for the listeners? Via YouTube. Additional features of the interaction between the speaker and listeners provided by Google Hangouts are the functionality of the task of questions with voting for more interesting (“Q & A”) and the ability to share links (“Showcase”). Remember to include these two possibilities under the improvised player on the Event page. After the start of the broadcast this will no longer be possible to change.
On air
A few minutes are left before the announced time - click the blue button “Start!” For a second, we look at ourselves in the camera and see the embarrassing window “Invite guests”. No, here it is not necessary to write a list of listeners, as it seemed. This is a list of co-rapporteurs, if you need one. Skipping, you can add them later.Be careful with the microphone and camera icons - is my camera or microphone on?
Now you can prepare for the webinar, the benefit of Google allows you to show listeners:
- screen and separate windows;
- Documents from Documents
- YouTube videos.
There are also a few third-party Hangouts apps that can be easily connected right here. If there are several co-rapporteurs, then it is possible to turn off microphones or broadcast their screens and cameras.
Are you ready? Click the green button "Start broadcasting". From this point on, the broadcast on YouTube is turned on and listeners can start listening right on the Event page in your + Google.
To finish the broadcast, click "Finish". The broadcast recording will be available on the event page and in your YouTube account immediately upon completion.
For the listener
Listeners can watch the broadcast either directly through YouTube, or through an interface in which they can still ask questions and click on the links you publish. In order for a listener to access this interface directly from the Event page, you must turn on Q & A before starting the broadcast.
Even if you plan to use only Storefront, you should still enable Q & A. Otherwise, students will not be able to get into such an interface and will be sent straight to YouTube.
Showcase
As already mentioned, "Showcase", if enabled, allows you, as a speaker, to share links to a certain resource with listeners. Quite conveniently, you can post a list of additional materials for students. Everything is obvious here, except that without Q & A this feature does not work. More precisely, links can be recorded, but listeners will not be able to see them.
Q & A
But the question and answer functionality is quite interesting. Listeners can ask questions and vote (+1) for them. Of the original uses of this feature is the creation of a "question" "Put +1 if there are problems with sound or video." Thus, students will be able to notify you about any problems.
The main thing to keep in mind is that the broadcast for listeners lags behind reality. Seconds at 10-15.
Of course, in the task of questions the most important thing is the answers! The speaker can select any question with the “Select” button. Listeners will see that you answer it to him. After the answer, you can click "Finish". The most fascinating is that after the end of the broadcast, the listener who decided to watch the recording can select the question of interest and the recording will immediately jump to the point where you gave the answer.
For example, you can plan in advance the report in the form of questions and answer them. After the broadcast, it will be convenient to jump on different topics. Plus, it will be possible to find out which topics the audience liked most.
In order for the speaker to ask questions to himself, he needs to go to the same listener interface from the Event page.
Confidentiality
It remains only to say a few words about who can access the broadcast.
In general, the broadcast goes to the YouTube channel of your Google account. Access to this broadcast is for those who have a link. Thus, the listeners that you added to the event can share the broadcast to anyone.
Access to the event and the Q & A interface and Storefronts is only available to those you have added as listeners - a link to the event will not help the casual viewer to ask questions.
Do not forget that if you have not disabled this feature in the “Event Details” section, viewers have the right to invite other viewers.
The broadcast recording on YouTube has the same link as the broadcast and is available only to those who have it. But this can already be configured in the video manager on YouTube.
If after the webinar you realized that everything went great and decided to share the recording with everyone, you can make the recording publicly accessible via the Share event button on the event page by adding the “Everything” tag to the “For whom” field.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Google Hangouts is quite a decent tool for holding webinars. It is free, provides convenient functionality, keeps a record. If you add all sorts of extensions here, such as drawing some graphs and others, it turns out to be excellent.
Of the minuses to start using, you can note a slightly strange and ambiguous interface. Apparently, the YouTube team had a hand in him.
useful links
Hangouts live: Frequently asked questions ;
Applications in the service “Hangouts live” .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236215/
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