Until recently the Elevate Team supported GoTo Meeting and GoTo Webinar for audio and video conferencing at UCS to aid in distance personal tutorial support, UCS’s Monthly open webinars (OWLET) and supporting academics who wanted to share the lecture space with external individuals or institutions.
However due to recent budget pressures and weighing up the cost against current usage, the Elevate Team have had to shift their support for web conferencing from GoTo Meeting to Google Hangouts.
The selection of Google Hangouts was not solely driven by costs. Other factors include the wide range of available features, intuitive interface and widespread adoption of Google software within the institution.
So what is Google Hangouts?
Google Hangouts is an audio and video conferencing tool available to anyone who has a Google account. If you have a Gmail, Youtube or Blogger account you will already have access to use hangouts.
Google Hangouts is split into a number of elements, including,
- Google Hangouts - Video Call
- Google Hangouts - On Air
Google Hangouts - Video Call
A Google Hangout is a private area where up to 10 people can come together, the people can all talk and see each other, while sharing desktops, collaborate on Google Drive documents and/or watching YouTube videos.
The creation of the Hangout (web conference) is easy to set-up and can be used on the majority of modern mobile devices meaning you could participate in a Google Hangout using an iPad, iPhone or any other compatible mobile device.
The use of Google Hangouts - Video Call is perfect for group work.
