Zoom and Miro: best practices to combine these tools

  • 24 March 2020
  • 36 replies
  • 21746 views

Userlevel 2

Hello!  I am so happy to see this group support.  There is so much information currently available that I am having difficulty navigating through it all.  I would like to use Miro Boards for small group work in Zoom breakout rooms during synchronous classes and am not sure if this even possible, if not, I may just assign small groups in Canvas for them to use the Miro board to brainstorm.  Has anyone used Miro with Zoom? 

I would also be interested in any other ways people are using this tool in higher education.

Robert Johnson 2 years ago

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36 replies

I can’t wait for the integration to launch. Is zoom going to launch all their “Zapps” at once? Is this the reason launch has be delayed?

FYI - When presenting, it really has helped me to hide slides and reveal portions only when I am talking about those sections

 

RJ

Hi all-I was thrilled to see this thread:). I am likely to fall under Scenario 2 above:

Scenario 2:

25 students in a classroom and work on 1 discussion together (e.g. brainstorming)

I will be running an on-line workshop (with 6-8 participants)-most likely using Zoom-and I can’t quite understand how I would then incorporate Miro into this process, i.e., if I’m the “trainer”-and I switch over to Miro (in a new tab)-do my participants see my screen/Miro diagram? I’m not understanding how I can have my Zoom meeting/workshop “open” and then how Miro fits into all of this? Can somebody please clarify this in very easy to understand language:). Many thanks!

Userlevel 1
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Hi all,

Like to chip in here to see if it can help anyone.

If you’d like to use Miro with a whole group or in breakout, take a look at our platform called Toasty (https://toasty.ai/). We integrate with Miro and you can have everyone use it together in the main room or when everyone is in breakout - they always have access to the board and is only 1 click away.

Moving people from one breakout room to another breakout room won’t disconnect them as well. And you don’t need to screen share.

I hope this helps - and if you have any feedback, very happy to hear :)

 

Kevon

Co-founder & CEO of Toasty

Hello,

 

I have just tried using Toasty - which did indeed seem like an answer to our prayers - and have just left the following message at the "live chat". Pity. ;-/

"Hello, I just wanted to let you know that, although I was initially very excited about your product, based on the "academy" videos, i found it definitely not ready for prime time... Buggy in almost every single feature I tried. Starting with something as simple as editing a session: every time i click on it, a "new" host appears (all me); trying to get to google drive kept giving me an "feature not available" error message; the session itself reverts to blank every time I leave it, losing all the planning; and finally, my attempt to chat with somebody led me here, where I get the information that you`ll be back online "later today", whenever that is. Toasty seems like an incredible idea, but it is definitely still in beta, and should be made available as such. Customer trust is a hard thing to get back, and it's my opinion that you are very much risking losing it with everyone that tests it as a finished product. "


It did look interesting. Bummer.

 

Hey everyone, this one is all my fault. 

I’m VERY SORRY to have caused this last year.

5 months ago, I was still new at my role and grossly underestimated the time (4+ weeks dedicated expertise), capital (for underlying infrastructure), and skill/effort (engineering/operations) to provide a stable video meeting product.

Last year, I was also inexperienced with customer support and did not dedicated time to watch for the live chat. 

We’ve changed quite a bit since then:

  • [Nov 2020] - I became CEO of Toasty, after raising a round to further fuel our growth
  • [Nov 2020] - We hired a customer success champion, who has helped with our growth, emails, videos, and is dedicated now on watching the chatbot for any questions. Also, every single email sent to support@toasty.ai (our main way to provide support), goes to my personal work email - I read everything.
  • [Dec 2020] - we re-did our entire infrastructure from scratch. “Toasty Turbo”, was launched in 3 locations (US, Germany and Singapore), along with a sophisticated way to make sessions seem “local” even to participants physically far away. We wrote more about the change here: https://blog.toasty.ai/superior-experience-for-virtual-events-and-large-audiences/
  • [Dec 2020] - we also wrote about our security and privacy as many of our users are curious how we stack up vs Zoom. You can see the post here: https://blog.toasty.ai/comparing-toasty-zoom-security/
  • [Jan 2020] - we launched new pricing, including a perpetual free tier, we’ve also increased what you get at two plans: Plus and Premium. You can see our pricing tiers here: https://toasty.ai/pricing
  • [Jan 2020 - Present] - we’re working extremely hard to push product forward to provide even better ways to interact.
  • Customers like Instacart, VIPKID, Stanford University, Government consultants, and thousands of professional facilitators tell us we have something special. One interview we’ve done lately can be found here: https://blog.toasty.ai/shani-herrmann-interview/
  • Fresh out of the oven, we just published how Toasty loves Miro - the top 3 things we enjoy most about Miro: https://blog.toasty.ai/how-toasty-loves-miro/

 

Looking back when I became CEO, the first thing I did was to write out our company mission: to build meaningful connections between people. The methods, software, people, processes, may change. But this mission is not ever going to change.


Feedback on our product - especially how we can make the integration with Miro better, are needed. Please write to let me know.

 

Eric
CEO of Toasty (previously CTO & Head of Product)

Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsangeric/

 

Userlevel 7
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Hello @Marla, if you’re still looking for ideas on how to use Miro and Zoom together, you can check out this interactive webinar that I ran. My training and workshop sessions are similar to this. Everything happens in Miro, no screensharing and participants interact with the content, other participants and the facilitator all the time.

 

Thanks very much Isman:). I’ll have a look over the coming weeks. 👍 I appreciate you sending me your training video. I may have some Q’s for you when I eventually get round to watching it. Would you mind if I reached out to you closer to the time? 🙏

I have been using Miro and Zoom quite successfully for the past year (teaching a bunch of different university classes).   I use breakout rooms -- and during the breakout room time, each room is working within a small chunk of a Miro board.  So, if a student is in BreakoutRoom3, they go to the shared miro board and look for the zone (a big square) labelled “Breakout Room 3”.  They collaborate/work with their team “on” (in?) that square.  They discuss, create, etc (say for 15 mins) then everyone comes back together and I ask each room to walk us through what they did/found.

You can see this -- and lots of other random ideas/tips in this board I made (below).     

 

Thanks very much James. I’ve not been able to focus on Miro for some time but will be able to come back to it later in the Summer and no doubt may have some follow-up questions for you.

Many thanks! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

The wait is over → https://community.miro.com/changelog-feedback-31/new-announcing-the-miro-app-for-zoom-5389

@Isman Tanuri  Thanks for your video--how did you have your video on the screen? Are you able to see others videos or just cursors. I’m new to zoom & miro integration, I have run a few lectures and workshops using both, but find participants find it hard to toggle between the two, so I’m looking for ways to improve this experience for them! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Hey @AMC, thanks for reaching out. Here are my thoughts on your questions:

Re: participants toggling screens

A very high-quality onboarding to Miro is key here. I’ve run a few events of up to 300-pax and this ‘toggling screen’ issue hardly cropped up. If the experience is designed well with plenty of interactions, participants will be more than happy to be in Miro most of the time. Because that’s where the action is.

(Also, I limit the amount of technology. Everything happens on the Miro board, including my slides, so there’s practically zero screen toggling in my sessions.)

There are many studies today that showed having cameras off/not seeing self on the screen increases productivity and reduces fatigue. I also find that participants listen and engage better when they don’t look at me :)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/02/new-study-turning-off-cameras-in-virtual-meetings-boosts-productivity.html

As a facilitator, it’s always best to work with 2 screens, one each for Zoom and Miro. In my sessions, ‘cameras on’ are optional. In some homes, keeping cameras on may not be possible. For those who have cameras on, I’m grateful that I’m able to see expressions on the other monitor. It’s a privilege. 

To your question, yes, I see all cursors and I see participants’ faces on the other screen.

Re: Zoom+Miro integration

This is not a great experience unless you’re using Miro in a small persistent group or team. For example, with team members at work or perhaps small school discussion groups. It’s an issue with how Miro is integrated into Zoom. So if someone is running an old Zoom app, there’s a chance that Miro will not work. Clunky.

However, if you really want a very good experience in terms of integrated Miro+video conferencing, then I’d suggest trying out Butter (https://butter.us/). Here’s a recent video recording:

You’ll notice that everyone can use Miro and everyone can see each other :) You can try Butter for free and integrate it with your Miro account. Let me know how it goes?

Thank you for providing your response.

I have a follow-up question:

Miro offers two types of plans: a free plan and various paid plans. The free plan allows users to share up to three boards with an unlimited number of people. The paid plans offer unlimited boards, but restrict the number of people with whom a board can be shared.

As a teacher, what type of plan do you think would be most beneficial and practical, considering that students typically complete their educational process after several sessions and new students take their place?

Thank you!

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