This guides provides an overview and comparison of the different types of MS Teams meetings and Zoom.
Synchronous activities (from courses to meetings to research groups) are when people participate in the activity in real time (though the session is often recorded). They usually entail some interaction between attendees and vary in size from 1:1 to 1:+10, 000. If you want to run something in real time, chances are you're going to want to pick from one of the below online tools to support it. You'll want to keep in mind that the different tools have different strengths, and you might actually use a combination of the tools in order to achieve your goals.
This page provides an overview and feature comparison of four virtual meeting tools currently available at U of T that support synchronous online activities in your Quercus course:
- Microsoft Teams (MS)
- Zoom Meetings
For more information on institutionally-supported tools at U of T, see Enterprise Video-conferencing & Video Meeting Resources.
For an overview and feature comparison of tools you can use for asynchronous discussions, have a look at Which tool should I use for asynchronous discussions?
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1. Overview of Virtual Meeting Tools for Synchronous Online Activities
1.1. Microsoft Teams Meetings
MS Teams Meetings is one of the Microsoft 365 apps. U of T faculty, staff, and graduate students can schedule MS Teams Meetings from their Outlook calendar, from their Teams Calendar, or directly from Quercus. Undergraduate students can attend meetings, but cannot schedule their own meetings.
What are some of the benefits of using MS Teams Meetings?
- It is easy to schedule sessions and participants do not need to have a UTORid to join
- MS Teams Meetings allow up to 1000 participants (Note: participation is capped at 300 if using breakout rooms)
- Teams Meetings is now integrated into Quercus (see Teams + Quercus documentation for details).
- Meeting templates are available with pre-defined setting for Classes and Lectures
The main difference in default setting of Meetings, Classes and Lectures are:
- Who can bypass the lobby:
- Meetings: People in my organization and guests
- Classes: Only organizers and co-organizers
- Lectures: Only organizers and co-organizers
- Who can present:
- Meetings: Everyone
- Classes: Only organizers and co-organizers
- Lectures: Only organizers and co-organizers
- Meeting chat settings:
- Meetings: On
- Classes: In meeting only
- Lectures: On
Learn more about Microsoft Teams Meetings: Plan for Teams meetings
1.2. Microsoft Teams Webinars
MS Teams Webinars allow you to register attendees, run an interactive presentation, and analyze attendee data for effective follow-up. Webinars are more controlled and the participants have clear roles: one or several experts (the presenters) share their ideas or provide training to an audience (the attendees).
What are some of the benefits of using MS Teams Webinars?
- Webinars support registration management, a customizable event and registration site.
- You can create and hold interactive webinars for up to 1,000 attendees.
- Webinars are good for presentation-based events with specific presenters.
- You can view webinar attendance report.
MS Teams Webinars need to be scheduled directly from the Teams calendar, not from Outlook or Quercus.
For additional information, see our guide: How do I schedule a webinar in MS Teams?
1.3. Microsoft Teams Town halls
MS Teams Town halls is a new Microsoft broadcast tool that will replace MS Live Events (MS Live Events is scheduled to retire on September 30, 2024).
Town halls are best for events where presenters, organizers, and co-organizers are presenting to a large group of attendees and interaction via chat, voice or video isn't needed. Cameras and mics are disabled for attendees, and they instead use Q&A to engage with presenters and organizers.
What are some of the benefits of using MS Teams Town halls?
- Town hall capacity is up to 10,000 attendees.
- Attendees can engage with presenters through Q&A where they can post questions during the event.
- You can access attendance report highlighting how many people attended, how long they attended, and other details with post-event attendee report.
For information on how to set up an MS Town hall, see article: Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams.
1.4. Zoom Meetings
Zoom Meetings is a popular webinar tool that emphasizes collaboration. Zoom meeting sessions cap at 300 attendees.
What are some of the benefits of using Zoom Meetings?
- A U of T Zoom Education License is available to all eligible students, staff, and faculty (see ARC's Zoom Information page for account information)
- Zoom Meetings have a participant capacity of 300 (including the host)
- A new Zoom-Quercus Integration provides the option for instructors and students to use Zoom directly within their Quercus course (see Zoom – Quercus Integration for details)
Should I record? Yes! Although these webinar tools are designed to support synchronous sessions, there will be times where students cannot attend, lose connectivity, or simply want to review the session. It is highly recommended that you record these sessions and share them with your students, after the session. To take it farther, you might also upload presentation and other files used as well as any scripts that you have.
Comparison Table of Virtual Meeting Tools
| Support Sites | Microsoft Teams | Zoom Meetings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meetings | Webinars | Town halls | ||
| Ideal for |
|
Webinars for medium or large audiences (up to 1000 participants) if registration is required. | Broadcasting to large audiences (up to 10000 participants) (e.g. large lecture sections or online event ) where audience interaction is a managed Q&A experience | Collaborative Activities (e.g. discussions); meetings of up to 300 participants. |
| Before you use, consider | When joining from an invite, all attendees are equal; can share audio and screens at any time | Registration is required to join webinar | Audience interaction is limited to Q&A | For the best Zoom experience, ensure you are using a U of T-provisioned account (see: How can I verify that I'm using a U of T-licensed Zoom account?) and log in using the SSO option (i.e., visit https://utoronto.zoom.us/ and log in with your UTORid and password) |
| How to Access | Schedule Meetings from Microsoft Teams or Outlook or from within your Quercus Course | Schedule Webinars in MS Teams Calendar. See How do I schedule a webinar in MS Teams? | Schedule Town halls in MS Team Calendar. See Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams |
If you have an existing Zoom Pro account (paid by yourself or another department) or if you are creating a new Zoom account, visit Academic and Collaborative Technologies (ACT) Zoom information page for instructions. If you are converting an existing account to a U of T account, follow our step-by-step guide: How do I convert an existing @utoronto.ca basic Zoom account to a U of T pro account? |
| Integrated into Quercus | Sort of (See Teams Meetings Documentation) | No | No | Sort of (See Zoom – Quercus Integration for information) |
| Administration | Self-managed via Microsoft Teams Calendar or Outlook Calendar | Self-managed via Microsoft Teams | Self-managed via Microsoft Teams | Self-managed via Zoom Settings |
| Roles | Presenters and Attendees; attendees have equal functionality (except guests, who cannot start/stop recordings); see MS Teams Roles | Organizers, Co-organizers, Presenters and Attendees; only organizers, co-organizers and presenters can start the webinar; by default, mics and cameras are off for registered attendees and presenters/organizers decide when to let attendees turn on their cameras or unmute. |
Organizers, Co-organizers, Producers, Presenters, and Attendees; by default, attendee cameras and mics will be turned off; attendees can engage with presenters through Q&A. |
Host, Guests (different roles available if other paid tiers are added to account, e.g Panelists) |
| Session size limits | Up to 1000 (Note: The default maximum concurrent participant number for Teams Video Meetings was increased from 300 to 1000 in August 2021. For more information, refer to the Enterprise Video-conferencing and Video Meeting Resources page from Academic and Collaborative Technologies (ACT) |
Up to 1000 | Designed for large audiences; supports up to 10000 | Up to 300; (see Q & A section, Q3 of Academic and Collaborative Technologies (ACT) Zoom information page for information about a Large Class or Webinar add-on which is NOT part of the U of T license but can be purchased separately, directly from Zoom, and used on an autonomous account, NOT via the U of T Zoom portal) |
| Session time limit | 8 hours | 30 hours | 30 hours | 30 hours (based on Standard Pro license limit) |
| Instructor can share | Audio, Video, Content, Applications, built-in whiteboard | Audio, Video, Content, Applications, built-in whiteboard | Audio, Video | Audio, Video, Content, Applications, built-in whiteboard (see sharing your screen) |
| Students can share | Audio, Video, Content, Applications, built-in whiteboard | Attendees cannot share content | Attendees cannot share content | Audio, Video, Content, Applications, built-in whiteboard |
| Interaction Features | Emojis, Stickers, Message Urgency (Standard, Important, Urgent) | Emojis, Stickers, Message Urgency (Standard, Important, Urgent) | Q&A app | Hand Raise, Emoticons for Yes/No, Go Slower/Go Faster, Thumbs Up/Down, Clap, Coffee, Time |
| Formative Quizzing | Polling available via MS Forms, can pre-build before session | Polling available via MS Forms, can pre-build before session | No | Basic Polling; Multiple Choice; can pre-build before sessions (requires Pro account or above) |
| Small Group Collaboration |
Breakout Rooms (Note: Breakout rooms in Teams Video Meetings can only be created in meetings that have fewer than 300 attendees. In addition, creating breakout rooms in a meeting automatically limits the number of meeting attendees to 300) |
Breakout Rooms are not available | Breakout Rooms are not available | Breakout Rooms |
| Max. simultaneous cameras | 49; currently in preview mode, see how to enable large camera grid | Attendee cameras are turned off by default. If attendee cameras are enabled by organizers, co-organizers or presenters, there is no limit to the number of simultaneous cameras | Limited to presenter cameras; attendee cameras are disabled |
Up to number of participants; flip through "pages" of camera grids (see changing the video lay out) |
| Remote Control | No | No | No | Yes; Hosts can take control of guest screens (with permission) |
| Built-in recording tool | Yes; recording is logged as part of meeting chat. As of January 2021, recordings are automatically uploaded to a Recordings folder in OneDrive. |
Yes; By default, a webinar will automatically start recording when it begins. See Manage webinar recordings in Microsoft Teams |
Yes; town hall recording will start automatically; download and publish the recording after town hall ends; attendees will receive an email with a link to the recording. |
Yes; Zoom offers both local and cloud recording options. For more information see our guide: What's the best way to record my Zoom sessions? |
| Storage capacity for recordings | Storage in OneDrive is limited to 1 TB per user. | Storage in OneDrive is limited to 1 TB per user. | Storage in OneDrive is limited to 1 TB per user. | Storage for all provisional U of T Zoom Education accounts is limited to 0.5 GB. Recordings are subject to UofT 365-day retention policy |
| Retention limits for recordings |
There are no limits on retention time of recordings. |
There are no limits on retention time of recordings. |
There are no limits on retention time of recordings. |
Zoom cloud recordings are stored online on the Zoom cloud and are subject to the University of Toronto's 365-day retention update (see Academic & Collaborative Technologies (ACT) Zoom Information page for details). They must be downloaded for long-term retention. If you are using this option, please see our guide: How do I make a cloud recording in Zoom? |
| Attendance Log | Yes; via Participants pane (report can only be downloaded by meeting organizer and only while meeting is still in session) |
Yes; during a webinar via Participants pane; after the webinar under the Attendance tab of the invite or chat |
Yes; during a town hall, organizers and co-organizers can see real-time event analytics; after a town hall, view and download report from Reports in Teams Calendar |
Yes; (see getting started with Zoom reports) |
| Class management tools | Timer available in breakout rooms | No | No | Session timer |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; limited functionality; not recommended for hosting sessions |
| Join by phone option | Yes (but could be temporary) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Guest access | Yes; some functional limitations for guests. |
Attendees from outside of U of T can register if webinar access is set to Public | Attendees from outside of U of T can register if town hall access is set to Public | Yes, can invite anyone. |
| Bandwidth usage | Some end-user controls; can turn off video feeds but not screen sharing | Some end-user controls; in case when attendee cameras are enabled, attendees can turn off their cameras but not screen sharing | No end-user controls | Some end-user controls; change video quality in settings > video (recommended) |
| Pricing | Included in institutional licensing | Included in institutional licensing | Included in institutional licensing | Basic account included in institutional licensing; pricing for different levels of accounts. |
Virtual meetings and webinars with video and/or content/screen sharing are huge bandwidth (Internet quota) users. If you are on a session with screen sharing and/or video feeds, you can expect to use 1 - 2 gbs of data per hour of use. If you are streaming in HD, this usage could be even higher.
Planning to host a hybrid video conference?
The Learning Space Management office supports events seeking to have a hybrid function through the use of portable audiovisual equipment such as a video conferencing sound bar, with the primary livestreaming software being Zoom.
You can request their assistance by sending an email to [email protected] at least 5 working days in advance.
Please note:
- LSM provides support only in rooms that are part of University classroom space
- For departmental non-course-related activities, their support would come at a cost