Kentucky Department of Education

​This page is devoted to guidance and best practices for those who will be organizing digital meetings or learning sessions using the Lync Online tools.

Self Help and Quick Start Guides

• Lync Meeting Organizers
• Lync How To (for Training)

You may want to first watch the 3 short videos below:

• Scheduling an informal meeting for a small audience
• Scheduling a meeting for a large audience
• Using Lync on your Mac 

Guidance & Reminders to increase participant success for Lync meeting organizers:

• Aim for full participation – this means participants will have functioning Web cameras, microphones, and speakers (headsets may work fine too).  Web cameras are not imperative, but audio (microphone, etc.) is for full participation.
• Setting correct expectations (for working with school districts). For example, people may not have the client.  They will need time to get the client installed and working with their computer.  They may even need help (or equipment) from their technology staff.  
• Lync verbiage - the default language when you create or schedule an online meeting is not very helpful to new users. See the below sample for a better suggestion.  
• Set up Practice Windows.  You should give folks an opportunity to test their connections, audio and video, etc.  Especially if this is their first time using Lync Online.  You may do this the day before or a few hours before your first meeting.  
• If you are organizing a meeting you are guiding and leading new or different ways to engage people.  Help people get comfortable with some of the tools and buttons (remind them to MUTE their microphones, Remind them that a digital way to "raise your hand" is through the chat IM box.
• If it is a reoccurring meeting (the same general people), begin by letting all participants sound off (with audio and video).  This helps build initial comfort and build participation.
• Understand what Mac clients can and can not engage in. (i.e. polling tool, recording, as well as no guest attendees with Mac users. Mac users must have an Office 365 account).
• Interactivity during your meeting is good.  Utilize online forms, backchannels, and other tools to encourage participants to interact with meeting conversations and content.
• External videos (i.e. Youtube.com videos) should not be streamed through the screen-share option.  The suggestion is to send the video URLs in IM/Chat box and give participants time to go watch and meet back in the Lync Online digital meeting space upon the conclusion of the video.
• Learn all of the multiple ways to create a digital meeting space.  Ad-hoc, impromptu meetings can be set up on-demand.  They can also be scheduled.  Organizers should explore scheduling through the Outlook Calendar, through https://sched.lync.com, by drag and droping contacts, and by meeting via creating contact groups.

Lync Verbiage: 

First Lync Meeting?  Instructions for joining our online meeting space as a registered user or a guest. 

 

School District Employees:

• Step 1: If you are a school district or KDE  employee  (email addresses with the user@district.kyschools.us or user@education.ky.gov format) , first make sure you have Lync installed on your computer by navigating to login.microsoftonline.com and follow the instructions to install the Lync Online Client. If the install is unsuccessful, contact your local technology support staff.
• Step 2: Click the "Join Online Meeting URL" below.

 

Connecting as a Guest:

• Step 1: If you are a guest, you will first need to install the Lync Online Attendee client (Windows Only) by navigating to: download Lync Attendee Client.  For more help, download this quick start guide.

 

Join Online Meeting URL

Digital Citizenship reminders when Using Lync:

• Chat History is Saved, and missed messages can be emailed to you automatically if you use the Outlook desktop client.
• Presence – Own it & Observe it. Don't let it own you. Set your presence when you are working on something. Also make sure to check the presence of others before calling them or reaching out to them.
• IM (instant message) before video calling someone. Make sure the person you are wanting to talk with is OK to talk (don't just barge in to their space)
• Think about your actions - not the technology being used. (Ask yourself: would I do it/ or say it Face to Face?)