Video Conferencing Options

Some GCC faculty are communicating their plans to use video conferencing with students now so that can be prepared for when classes resume.

Please find recommended methods for securing your Zoom meeting on our "Securing Zoom Meetings" on our Moodle Users classroom.

GCC is recommending these tools for interacting:

1) Google Meet- This is a part of the G Suite. Students, faculty and staff can use this to set up live video connections from PC, Macintosh, iOS, or Android (the mobile versions have some limited capacity, but the live audio and video works); any participant can present from their computer (e.g. show a PowerPoint presentation that all can see). Currently Google Meet sessions cannot be recorded. If you cannot access your Google account or if the activation email has expired, please submit a help ticket.

2) YouTube Live- Faculty, students, and staff can log in to YouTube with their G Suite accounts and begin live stream from their PC or Macintosh (live streaming is not supported on mobile devices. The session is both live and recorded to YouTube. There is no screen sharing capacity in YouTube live. Your Google account (see the note above) Google accounts will work to log you onto YouTube as well as Google.

Zoom Meetings: Whenever possible, GCC recommends adding links to Zoom meetings to Moodle classrooms. This makes your meetings more secure as participants must have access to our systems to join your meetings.

3) Zoom- Basic- Faculty and staff who have activated their account can schedule and start meetings that last 40 minutes. These can be scheduled and managed through the Zoom.us site or they can be added to Moodle classrooms. Screen sharing and recording to the local computer are both possible with Zoom- Basic.

Zoom users only need an account if they are going to host meetings (or use some features such as backgrounds). If students need to host Zoom meetings, they can create an account using their stuemail.gcc.mass.edu accounts. These accounts will be similar to GCC's basic accounts, but we cannot assign them one of our licenses.

Only teachers can add Zoom meetings to Moodle classrooms. Students can enter these meetings if they have an account on Zoom or not.

4) Zoom- License- Faculty and staff who have activated their account and been assigned a license can schedule and start meetings that last indefinitely. These can be scheduled and managed through the Zoom.us site or they can be added to Moodle classrooms. Screen sharing and recording to either Zoom’s servers or to the local computer are both possible with Zoom- License. Currently, GCC has a limited number of Zoom licenses and they have been assigned to the president's staff and to chairs of search committees to schedule and host interviews. As soon as additional licenses become available (they have been ordered!), we will be able to provide this service to others.

Details for using these video conferencing tools are available inside GCC's installation of Moodle:

  • Google Meet (includes a handout you can use with students and a closed captioned video demonstration of getting Meet in to Moodle)
  • YouTube Live (includes a handout with directions for "going live" and also recording and uploading YouTube videos from mobile devices and a closed captioned video demonstration of "going live")
  • Using GCC's Zoom Outside of Moodle (includes videos from Zoom on starting, controlling, and joining meetings)
  • Add Zoom Meetings to a Moodle Classroom (includes on screen step-by-step instructions for scheduling a Zoom meeting within your Moodle classroom)

On March 24, 2020, we have begun to customize the tools available to Zoom users: