Distance Communication

• Free tools

  Skype

  Most of us are familiar with Skype. Skype is a great free tool for distance communication. It supports chat, voice and video calls, conference calls, sharing of screen and sending documents. You can join through the Skype Desktop tool, from the mobile phone app or through a browser. The performance in terms of connection can be a bit less than other tools however.

  Google Hangouts

  Google Hangouts is also often used. It offers similar features as Skype. It integrates well with the Google applications and GMail. A description of features can be found here.

  Zoom

  Another option is the free version of Zoom. Zoom has an intuitive interface and good performance. With the free version of Zoom you have unlimited sessions with one person and max. 40 minutes with up to 100 participants. Zoom, however, has serious issues with security and privacy and is therefore not recommended as corporate solution.
  

  Read more about privacy and security issues with Zoom

  Zoom User Warning: This Is How Attackers Could Steal Windows Passwords
  

  Zoom faces a privacy and security backlash as it surges in popularity

  'Zoom is malware': why experts worry about the video conferencing platform

  Some tips to increase security with Zoom: create a link with password and share this only with people you trust. Use the virtual waiting room and admit only people you trust.
  

  
  

  Jitsi

  If you’re looking for a free and 100% Open Source solution Jitsi is a great tool. On your computer it runs from the browser. For the mobile phone there’s an app. It allows video conferencing, chat and screen sharing. It's much safer than Zoom. Read here about the safety of Jitsi. It's very democratic: you can mute all users, but they can only unmute themselves. It has raise hand functionality and you can start a YouTube video in a Jitsi session to watch simultaneously with all viewers. You can record Zoom sessions and they are saved directly into Dropbox.
  

• Licensed tools

  Many organisations use Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business. There are however other tools available. Find here two options (similar to each other):  

  • Go to meeting – €14,33 per month (invoiced per year)
  • Zoom – PRO version € 14, - per month or € 140,- for a year. Please note the security and privacy issues mentioned above.
    

  You might have good experience with other tools for distance communication, please let us know about those. Also your institution might have good options available that you can use. Feel free to share your experiences with us.
  
  

  If small items (e.g. such as the above mentioned platforms or other options, speaker, microphone) to support your distance communication are beneficial for your project work and this is not supported through your organization, those are eligible costs under your DUPC project and can be invoiced (including receipts) to IHE Delft as part of the normal invoicing procedure. 
  

• Online collaboration tools

  Google Docs

  With Google Docs you can create and edit web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Access them through any device and work on them online with your team.
  

  
  

  Mural

  Do you miss workshop sessions with colourful sticky notes on the wall? Then try Mural. Mural is a digital workspace for visual collaboration.
  

  
  
• Internet connection

  When working from home, you might not have a stable internet connection and might need data bundles. Sometimes the internet of different providers is needed, because they are all intermittent.

  When your authorities advise social distancing, we advise not to invest in modems to connect multiple participants in the same room, but instead choose for individual modems (USB dongles) or use tethering from your mobile phone.

  If you experience or have experienced challenges with regards to distance communication please let us know so we can see if the programme can address these challenges.
  

• Good practice

  If you're organising an online session with partners in a project or with your students, there's more to take care of than only the choice of the tool.
  

  
  

  Here we provide some good practice advise

  
  

  
  

  • Share agenda and background information before the teleconference, so participants are well prepared
  • Make sure you have somebody to take notes while you're moderating, you can't do both easily alone
  • Use a collaborative document for contributions during the meeting. For example a Google Doc or Google Sheet can easily be used during the meeting to edit online in a collaborative manner. Set this up before the meeting,
  • If you're sharing your screen, make sure that you've closed all the programs that you're not showing and make sure that the programs/documents you want to share on your screen are already open. It doesn't look good and it takes time if you have to look for the documents during an online session.
  • If you share your camera, make sure that you've previewed how it looks like before you enter the meeting. Make sure there's enough light.
  • Always do a sound check before you start the teleconference. Make sure you use a good microphone.
  • Cabled internet is preferred over wifi. 4G can also work as a backup, but make sure your data bundle is sufficient. To save resources you can ask participants to stop sharing their cameras.
  • Make sure everything looks professional: nothing in the background of your room that distracts the participants, wear clothes like you do at work, inform people at home that you're in a meeting, keep pets out of the room, etc.
  • For frequent meetings with the same participants, stick to one tool, so they don't have to learn new things each time.
  • For planning of the meeting take care of different time zones and avoid lunch and dinner times, because participants might have to deal with their families.
  • Use electronic invitations to avoid confusion with time zones
  • If bandwidth allows, it's better to have all cameras switched on, so you can make sure that the participants pay attention to the meeting.
  • Mute microphones to avoid noice and echos

  More tips:

  https://uit.stanford.edu/videoconferencing/best-practices

  https://www.cio.com/article/2437139/running-an-effective-teleconference-or-virtual-meeting.html