How to use Google Meet - For Teachers - A step by step guide

In this article, we will look at the Google Meet Application in detail, we are writing this for Teachers, if you are a Student, your interface is much simpler and is discussed in a separate article.

We think that the best presentation experience for a Teacher with Google Meet is from a Touchscreen Laptop with a reasonably big screen (Linux or Windows or Chrome OS). Google meet benefits from the touch input as the Teacher can write and draw on the touchscreen while presenting.

Screenshots shown in this article are taken on a Laptop with the application accessed through a browser. For Phones or Tablets, the layout of the screen and the placement of the buttons will change, but the features and functionality will remain the same (We tested it on many devices).

Starting Google Meet

If the School uses "GSuite for Education", you do not need to provide the "Meet Code", you can login with Gmail and start the session, the meet link will be displayed on the "Class Card" for students. If NOT, the process to start a meeting is as follows :

Type "meet.google.com" in the URL of the browser

Click "Start a Meeting" button

Select "Join now"

Google Meet Interface

All the available controls in Google Meet are displayed below.

Automatic captions are generated by Voice Recognition and we tested that it works well with Indian Accent

Meeting and Communicating with Students

Those joining with the Meet Code must be admitted by the Teacher into the Class

The "People Tab" shows all the Members of the Class

The "Chat Tab" displays the Classroom Communication

Shown here are the Controls to pin a screen, mute the microphone and stop the presentations of Students

The Presentation Mode

Teacher can start a presentation and it will broadcast to the class

Teacher can broadcast the entire screen

Teacher can also choose to share a specific application

Shown here is an example where calculator app is shared

Handling disturbances to the class session

If a Student starts a presentation with out the Teacher's permission, the Teacher can stop the presentation

Confirmation screen

If a Student continues to disturb the class by turning on his microphone or getting into presentation mode, the Teacher can choose to remove him from the class.

Confirmation screen

Enhancing Teaching with better tools

Shown here is a Chrome Extension that the Teacher can use to draw over a webpage in a Chrome Tab

Teacher can select pen colors, shapes can be drawn with the mouse but free handwriting would require a touchscreen along with a pen

Teacher can draw lines, also shapes like circles and rectangles to mark objects. This is a very useful tool instead of just pointing with a mouse cursor

Opacity can also be set

The Audio and Video Settings

Teachers can configure application to work with high clarity external microphones

The video broadcast resolution can be set depending upon the available bandwidth. Currently, 720p (HD) is the maximum setting

It is recommended to set the broadcast to 720p in presentation mode for greater clarity.

Monitoring the Class

In "Settings", you can find "Change Layout"

You can switch to the "Tiled Layout" to see the maximum number of students at once

When it is time, the Teacher can end the session

Conclusion

We are confident this article covers most of the features of Google Meet, we will continue expanding it as and when Google adds more features.

Teachers can let us know any questions in the comments below regarding the software. We will explore and try to find the answers.

Google Meet can be accessed from various devices and we have discussed them in detail here : Link

For Teachers who use Google Classroom as well, a detailed demo of Google Classroom's features is here : Link