Digital Toolbox

Getting started: Recommended setup for your research group

When your research group begins its work at ZiF, we recommend the following initial setup:

1. Create a permanent Zoom meeting room for regular group meetings and spontaneous discussions.
2. Set up Zoom Team Chat channels for quick communication and coordination within the group.
3. Use the shared Sciebo folder to exchange and store documents.
4. (Optional) Create a Trello board if your group would like to organize tasks or workshop planning.

ZiF staff can assist you in setting up these tools if needed (contact: XX).

Access to Zoom

Zoom is generally available free of charge and can therefore be used by all members of the group. However, some functions (such as meetings longer than 40 minutes) require a Zoom Pro account. If your university does not provide a Pro account, ZiF can arrange temporary Zoom Pro access for the duration of your stay.

Please contact: XX

Video meetings and communication – Zoom

We recommend using Zoom for online meetings and ongoing communication within the research group.

Video meetings

Zoom can be used for:

• regular research group meetings
• hybrid workshops or seminars
• spontaneous discussions between group members

Useful features include:

• screen sharing
• chat during meetings
• whiteboard functionality

It is often helpful to create one permanent meeting room for the research group. This allows any member of the group to start a meeting at any time without scheduling a new session.

Instructions for setting up a permanent meeting room can be found in Instruction 1 at the end of this document.

Team communication – Zoom Team Chat

Zoom also provides a Team Chat function that can be used independently of video meetings.

It can be useful for:

• quick coordination within the group
• sharing links, files and information
• organizing meetings or workshops
• continuing discussions between meetings

Channels can be created for different topics, for example:

• general group communication
• workshop planning
• research discussions
• practical information and recommendations

Using Team Chat can significantly reduce internal email communication, as messages remain searchable and accessible to all group members.

Instructions for creating chat channels can be found in Instruction 2.

Planning and collaborative work – Zoom Whiteboard

The Whiteboard feature in Zoom Workplace can support collaborative work and planning activities. It can be used with or without a video meeting.

Possible use cases include:

• brainstorming research ideas
• planning workshops or events
• structuring collaborative writing processes
• visualizing project workflows

Zoom provides a range of templates that may be useful for research groups, including:

• Kanban boards for organizing tasks
• Start–Stop–Continue retrospectives for reflecting on group work
• brainstorming and research planning templates

Further information on creating and sharing whiteboards can be found in Instruction 3.

Collaborative tools in Zoom

Zoom also includes several features that support collaborative work within the platform:

• Zoom Whiteboards for brainstorming, planning and visualizing ideas
• Zoom Docs for shared notes and collaborative documents
• Zoom Clips for short asynchronous video messages or explanations
• AI Companion features that can generate meeting summaries or highlight key discussion points

These tools can help research groups document discussions, organize ideas and follow up on meetings more efficiently.

Shared documents – Sciebo

For exchanging and storing documents we recommend using the shared cloud storage service Sciebo.

This shared folder can be used for:

• project descriptions and abstracts
• research papers and articles
• draft publications
• workshop materials
• reports and presentations

Access to the shared folder:

Link:
Password:

Project planning (optional) – Trello

Some research groups find it helpful to use a project management tool to coordinate tasks or organize workshops.

Trello is a simple and flexible collaboration tool that allows groups to organize tasks and workflows on shared boards.

Typical uses include:

• planning workshops or conferences
• tracking tasks and responsibilities
• coordinating collaborative projects

If your group would like to use Trello, ZiF can set up a board for you on request. Please note that setting up the board may require some lead time.

Further information about Trello can be found here.