General Guidelines when Using 3rd Party Tools

The basic guidelines are presented in this KU Leuven web page.

Moreover, in the same way as you should never use your KU Leuven password, you should also never use your departmental password in other services and/or tools (not even other KU Leuven ones) - and when using a username, you should also never use your departmental (nor KU Leuven) account name.

And in the same way as ICTS gives (extra) support for KU Leuven services, the departmental helpdesk can give extra support for departmental services (e.g. local repository server, local nextcloud, local web sites, ...).

Conferencing Tools

This page is an attempt to centralise the questions (and hopefully answers to them) that helpdesk receives about conferencing tools.

At KU Leuven, Microsoft Skype for Business is still the platform for telephone communication, but Microsoft Teams is the (new) platform for all other kinds of collaboration - besides these also other collaboration tools can be used:

  • KU Leuven Microsoft Teams
    • cross-platform: native clients exist for several OS and can even be used with (modern) browsers
  • KU Leuven Microsoft Skype for Business
    • This is (still) used as platform for telephone communication but for other collaboration needs you should use KU Leuven Microsoft Teams (see above)
    • If all participants use either Microsoft Windows or Apple MacOS and have the Skype for Business software available (either as installed software or as browser plugin) you can consider the KU Leuven Skype for Business: KU Leuven employees can use their own SfB client, students and non-KU-Leuven participants can participate by using a (Skype for Business Web App) browser plugin (that only works on Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS).
    • If at least one participant cannot use the Skype for Business software (e.g. company laptops that do not allow the installation of software or Linux users), you cannot use Skype for Business - you can use one of the other alternatives, but this of course means that the entire on-line meeting will be held in that way. Luckily all these alternatives are (contrary to KU Leuven Skype for Business) completely cross-platform.
  • KU Leuven Blackboard Collaborate - is also allowed for examinations - more info on:
  • https://jitsi.org/ - open source and free
    • it seems Belnet has its own jitsi - probably to avoid overloading an (international) uplink
    • the jitsi.org has a recording option - the Belnet jitsi however seems not to provide such a meeting recording option
    • 1 user reports that the Belnet jitsi service occasionally experiences connection problems - other users have not seen connection problems
  • https://zoom.us/ - the organiser must have a (free) account - limited to 40 minutes and 100 participants - unlimited 1 to 1 meetings
    • 1 user reports that the 40 minute limit does not apply (at least currently) for educational institutes and KU Leuven users seem to be recognised as such
    • apparently, possibly only recently, you also need a (free) account when using zoom from within a browser
    • moreover, the KU Leuven does not allow exams to be taken using zoom for reasons of safety and privacy - which might be an indication to steer away from it altogether
  • https://www.webex.com/ - the organiser must have a (free) account - limited to 40 minutes and 50 participants
  • https://free.gotomeeting.com/ - the organiser must have a (free) account - limited to 40 minutes and 3 participants

Notice: whenever you have a choice between using a web-browser-only solution versus having to use an installation of client software, always choose the web-browser - most of these client software has proven to contain backdoors, has little quality security/privacy-wise and is very often not well maintained in general.

Screen Recordings

Some conferencing tools (including KU Leuven Skype for Business and jitsi) let you record your (online) meeting - this might be a convenient way to screencast using a more familiar tool than a dedicated screen recording utility:

  • start an online meeting
  • share your desktop or the application window that you want to record
  • start recording your meeting
  • upload the recorded presentation into KU Leuven Kaltura