By now, you may have heard that FAU is sunsetting its license for Cisco Webex with an official retirement date of June 30, 2023. While this news does not affect a majority of the FAU population, we wanted to provide a few resources to ease any resulting difficulties and assist you with hurdles you might encounter when choosing one of our other available videoconference platforms.
Canvas Users
For those using Webex in Canvas, please note that the Cisco Webex tool will be removed from Canvas on May 8, 2023. This means that your previous and upcoming courses will no longer have that link in the navigation menu. We encourage you to download any important meeting recordings/information before this date.
Currently, the main alternative to Cisco Webex in Canvas at FAU is Zoom. We’ve had this integration available in Canvas for the last couple of years and can vouch for its stability, ease-of-use, and feature set. Although the interface looks different from a Webex session, Zoom provides all of the same features you’re used to, plus a few others that promote interaction and accessibility. For info on how Zoom works at FAU, please visit our Zoom Info page.
Webex Office Hours Workaround
One aspect of this transition that may serve as a speed bump is to figure out an alternative to Webex’s Office Hours scheduling. Many of our Canvas/Webex users leveraged the Office Hours feature to create bookable time slots that students could reserve to meet with their professors. While not identical, we’ve found a couple of workarounds to this process and are happy to demo and explain them in a one-on-one appointment (book at your convenience). Look out for a future update with links to written documentation for these processes soon.
Meetings Outside of Canvas
Users who were not dependent on the Webex Canvas integration were likely creating Webex meetings using the Cisco Webex app on their device(s) or going to the FAU Webex portal at fau.webex.com. If this was your usual process, we have two platforms in place that can replace the hosting and scheduling functions you’re used to: Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Both platforms accomplish similar goals, but offer different features. Either one allows you to schedule and host interactive meetings with your colleagues and students in a collaborative environment. A key difference, however, is the application used to access each platform. For example, Teams is part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Since our Microsoft license includes access to the entire suite, it allows integration of items from apps such as Outlook, Word, OneNote, Excel, PowerPoint and more. This opens the door for deeper collaboration, but comes with a learning curve.
Zoom, on the other hand, became common-ground for a large set of the population since the COVID pandemic blew up its user-base. Whether you’re setting up a regular meeting or a large webinar, users experience a gentle learning curve due to the increased popularity of the platform, along with a feature-set that includes polling, annotation, and webinar staples such as a Q&A panel and increased security.
Next Steps
In any case, our team is here to help you choose the right platform for your specific needs. Whether you’re trying to re-think your online office hours, need to save your Webex recordings, or just want to get set up with another videoconference platform, we encourage you to use the links below to get the help you need: