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University Technology Services

McMaster web and video conferencing guide

This is a brief comparison table of key features available across McMaster-provided web and video conferencing tools. These tools are all available to McMaster staff, faculty, and students at no cost.

video conference

FEATURES	ZOOM DOWNLOAD ZOOM	TEAMS DOWNLOAD TEAMS	WEBEX REQUEST WEBEX	NOTES
Max capacity	300	250*	1000	Teams: There is currently a limited pilot to test out Teams with 1000 participants. Teams can also support a view-only meeting for up to 20,000 participants. Faculty can apply to access these features here.
Technical support	UTS IT support	UTS IT support	MacPherson Institute support
Security	For public-facing or open meetings	*Recommended for confidential sessions	*Recommended for confidential sessions	Teams: Participant management functionality adds a layer of security. MS Teams allows closed groups within the McMaster 365 environment with associated McMaster credentials. Zoom: Recommended for open or public-facing sessions. Accessing Zoom through the McMaster campus-wide license adds a layer of security, compared to an individual account. Please see the Zoom support page for other ways to make your meetings as secure as possible within this platform. WebEx: McMaster’s IT Security team recommends using WebEx for highly sensitive information. Cisco Webex provides strong encryption, compliance visibility and control, both within McMaster, or even when collaborating across company lines.
Accessibility & captioning	Live, searchable, editable captions available (Transcript plugin available with Otter.ai)	Live, searchable, editable captions available	Human transcription	Teams: Accessible documents webinar for Teaching in Microsoft Teams. Zoom and WebEx: Remote teaching and captioning information. Accessibility considerations outside of captioning available on the Accessibility Hub.
File sharing	No	Yes	Yes	Teams: Share files in a chat during the meeting. WebEx: Select files, such as PowerPoint presentations, can be shared as a document with participants. Learn more here.
Integrations	No	Yes	Yes	Teams: See examples of how McMaster community members are integrating 365 applications. WebEx: Can be integrated with other collaborative productivity tools like Trello, Google Drive, etc.
Screen sharing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Recording	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom: Save to cloud or local computer. Host can share and download. If a co-host is in a breakout room, they can record the breakout room discussion. Teams: The recording is saved to Microsoft Stream and the link is posted in the meeting chat or channel automatically. WebEx: Save to cloud or local computer. Host can share and download.
Meeting notes	No	Yes	No	Teams: OneNote integration.
Interactivity	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom, Teams & WebEx: Participants can provide non-verbal feedback, such as ‘raise hand’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘like’, ‘dislike’ Teams & WebEx: Collaboration tools can be integrated for note-taking.
Chat	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom & WebEx: Host can save the chat transcript manually / set to auto save. Participants can send messages to each other privately or to the group. Teams: Chat transcript automatically saved within the application. Threads of conversation can also be created and continue post-meeting.
Waiting room	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom: Host can enable a waiting room to admit participants. This requires monitoring during the meeting. Teams: Participants are automatically approved to join a call if they are part of a Team.
Host controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	All: Host can mute all audio from participants, stop their video, or remove them from the meeting.
Polling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom & WebEx: Host can enable polling for a Zoom session by following these steps. WebEx presenters can enable a similar feature, using these instructions. Teams: Polling is now available for your use. McMaster community members can leverage Microsoft Forms within a Teams group channel (i.e. course Teams), but not 1:1 chats. See this article for how to leverage Forms to poll a group within Teams.
Breakout rooms	Yes	No	Yes	Zoom: Hosts can create breakout rooms Teams: Microsoft is slowly releasing this feature to users. Check back at http://office365.mcmaster.ca for updates on when this feature is available at McMaster. WebEx: Hosts can create and enable participants to create breakout rooms.
Reports	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zoom & WebEx: Hosts can view attendance reports by logging in to their account. Teams: Participant attendance can be downloaded by the organizer of the Team.