Tool Comparison

Zoom

Zoom has a participant limit of 300. For over 300 participants, there are two options: Zoom Large Meetings and Zoom Webinars licenses. Requests can be made to the WTS Helpdesk to enable these licenses in any Western Zoom account (at an additional cost).

The maximum number of users visible on screen at once is 49. The maximum duration of a meeting is 24 hours. Users can host up to two concurrent meetings. Concurrent Meeting (Plus) allows users to simultaneously host 20 meetings and is available upon request to the WTS Helpdesk at an additional cost. Note that the host can only attend one session at a time. Meetings can be hosted and joined on the Zoom desktop app, mobile app, or web broswer.

Features of a Zoom meeting include:

  • Share files
  • Share application/screen
  • Participant tools
    • Raise hand
    • Polling
    • Chat
    • Breakout rooms
  • Session recording
    • Recordings are downloaded locally to the computer to the user who started the recording. Cloud recording is available upon request to the WTS Helpdesk for staff and faculty.
  • Automatic live captioning

Authentication is required to create and host a meeting. It can also be set per session for all participants for increased security (either for any Zoom account or limited to accounts using Western email addresses). External (guest) users can be invited to meetings using the meeting invitation without needing to authenticate. There are two roles in a Zoom meeting: Hosts and Participants. See Roles in a Meeting for more information.

 Zoom can be integrated into any OWL site. See OWL Help for more information.

 

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has a participant limit of 1000. For larger groups, there are two options: View-Only meetings which allow for up to 20,000 participants in a meeting or Microsoft Teams Live Events.

The maximum number of users visible on screen at once is 20. There is no limit to the duration of a Teams meeting. Users cannot be in multiple Teams meetings simultaneously. Meetings can be hosted and joined on the desktop app, mobile app, or web broswer (with some exceptions, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. See Join a Teams Meeting on an Unsupported Browser for more information).

Features of a Teams Meeting include:

  • Share files
  • Share application/screen
  • Participant tools
    • Raise hand
    • Chat
  • Session recording
    • Recordings are saved in the Teams Files/Sharepoint.
  • Autogenerated live captioning

Authentication is required for users to access Microsoft Teams. External (guest) users can be invited to a Team, but they are required to authenticate with a Microsoft account. The roles in a Team do not determine the features users have access to in a meeting.

There is no OWL integration for Microsoft Teams.

Published on  and maintained in Cascade.