Guidance on Online Meetings

How do I collaborate and keep in touch with colleagues when working from home?

The University email service enables staff to communicate with each other and keep in touch with colleagues. For sharing of files and online collaboration both internally and with external colleagues please use OneDrive and/or SharePoint, both of which can be accessed alongside your email at https://www.office.com  To share very large size files or for especially sensitive files use the HeaNet FileSender service.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many staff have moved to using online meeting technologies, in many cases for the first time. The following are the tools recommended by ISS for online interactions with University of Galway:

1. For online meetings with colleagues, staff are recommended to use Microsoft Teams.  All staff members are by default licenced to use the product and you contact colleagues directly using Teams to have an audio or video chat, or you can set up meetings/events with colleagues from the University community and beyond.  Further information on the use of Teams is available here.
2. For academic staff engaged in online teaching the Blackboard Collaborate tool offers rich features to support classroom engagement.  A guide to using Collaborate is available here.
3. ISS have a number of conference phone bridges which can be requested via the ticketing system. These offer voice only team meetings but can be useful, including in cases where some colleagues have issues connecting to the internet.
4. One of the most popular of these products is Zoom.  Zoom offers some features not currently included in Teams and is available to use for all University of Galway Students and Staff.  You can access your University of Galway Zoom account through the apps in your Office 365 portal or directly from the University of Galway Zoom Login Page. Further information about Zoom can be found here. 

There are many other products available for online meetings events e.g. Google Meet, Vscene and many others.

Where the requirement for a meeting cannot be fulfilled using the recommended options, staff should avoid ‘free’ versions of products (except for informal chats).  Where staff purchase licences for products other than as provided by the University they must ensure that these products are secure and that the contracts for use are GDPR compliant. In the absence of this, no University data should be shared across the platforms other than the recommended options as outlined above.