Online Events & Communications Best Practices


The following best practice tips, reminders and resources from the School of Humanities are intended to help those speaking in Zoom Webinars and other online meetings minimize any technical issues, and look and sound their best.

The day before the event, do the following:
Check to see you have the latest version of Zoom installed on your computer or mobile device. While you are in Zoom, you should see “Zoom.Us” in the top left of your computer screen. Click on “Check for Updates” in the dropdown menu and install the latest version if needed.
The day of the event, do the following:
If you are on a wireless connection, confirm that you have a strong signal, limit the number of devices connected to your wireless router and consider switching to a wired connection.
If you will be participating from home, be sure that nobody or nothing else in your household is competing for your home internet bandwidth during the event. You can turn off cloud or internet-connected devices, lower the bandwidth they use by adjusting performance settings or make other changes.
If you are using a network-wide VPN, consider disabling it.
One hour prior to the event, do the following:
You will want to position your external camera (or computer) at a height that can be angled just slightly down at you. To look your best, position yourself so you are not too close to the camera and choose a location with good lighting. Please do not use a virtual background image during Zoom events.
Be sure that the computer you will be using for the event is plugged into a power source prior to the event or meeting and that it remains plugged in.
Use an external speakerphone or quality headset with a microphone to minimize issues with feedback.
Please go to https://zoom.us/test to test and select your audio settings.
Before joining the event or meeting, restart your computer. Allow enough time to do this.
Close down unneeded programs, especially those that use the internet. This could include office applications, browsers, messaging apps that generate notifications, and any applications that are trying to sync in the background (e.g., Box, DropBox, Time Machine backups). Closing out of these will free more system resources for Zoom to use.
Be sure to stop all downloads, uploads or other unnecessary processes that are using network resources as well.
Please silence your cell phone, and if you are participating from home, please ask anyone who is nearby with their phone to do the same.
During the Event:
When you are not speaking, please mute yourself and please be sure to unmute yourself prior to speaking.

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