A guide for people who moderate or take part in text chat during work video meetings. It draws on a study of 849 employees of a global technology company in all-remote meetings during COVID-19.
Employee studyResearch on 849 employees' all-remote meetings, plus a closer analysis of chat in work meetings.
Chat was commonIn an earlier diary study the guide cites, 69.7% of employees reported using meeting chat, and 26.6% of those used it in every or almost every meeting.
Guidance by phaseThe guide gives advice for before, during and after a meeting, with attention to accessibility.
Questions to askThe guide ends with questions participants can ask themselves before posting.
BWhat the guide recommends
Before the meetingadvice for moderators on norms and access
•The guide recommends that moderators set chat norms before the meeting.Moderators can circulate standing guidelines for recurring meetings, check in with newcomers and suit the guidance to each part of the agenda.
•The guide recommends asking participants about access needs in advance.Chat can be hard for people following audio and text at once, reading or typing, reading images and GIFs, or judging tone.
During the meetingadvice for moderators on keeping chat useful
•The guide recommends having key chat content spoken aloud.Speaking it puts chat into any recording or transcript and reaches people who miss it. Moderators should also describe images in text and allow time for screen readers.
•The guide argues that the volume of chat alone is a poor guide to its value.Busy chat engaging many participants is more likely a sign of inclusion. Busy chat engaging a few people intensely is more likely a distraction.
After the meetingadvice for moderators and participants
•The guide recommends a short recap of chat items that deserved more attention.Recaps can cover overlooked ideas and useful links, and may ease the pressure to watch the meeting and the chat at once.
•The guide suggests that participants moderate their own chat as well.Before posting, participants can ask whether a message serves the meeting's goals, includes others and is accessible, for example with alternative text for images.
CKey takeaway
Parallel chat can bring more voices into video meetings when people judge inclusion and access well. Shared norms, reading key chat aloud and recapping missed points may keep chat useful.
Made for this site with AI assistance from the verified research brief. It is not the paper's own figure.
Abstract
This report provides guidelines for meeting moderators and meeting participants using parallel chat in video meetings for work. It draws on a large-scale (N=849) study of Microsoft employees’ experiences of all-remote meetings during COVID-19. The report covers chat issues before, during, and after the meeting. There is an emphasis on accessibility practices for ensuring that parallel chat is inclusive of people with a range of abilities.
Research brief
By Sharon Gillett, Danielle Bragg, Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen, and Sean Rintel.
Takeaway: Text chat in video meetings can let more voices in or distract. A moderator's contextual judgement about inclusion and accessibility, like having key chat spoken aloud, can help keep it useful.
Why this matters
What was known
Earlier studies found parallel chat widely used in the video meetings of employees at a global technology company and, though considered a net positive, sometimes distracting. Norms for it are unclear, and it may not be accessible or inclusive. Given the increasingly global work environment, we should no longer assume that all participants can engage equally in single dominant language chat.(§1, p. 2)
What this paper adds
An informal guide and checklist for moderating parallel chat before, during and after a meeting, with an emphasis on accessibility, plus questions participants can ask themselves before posting. Our hope is that you can use these considerations as a checklist, to prepare for challenging judgment calls you will find yourself needing to make in the moment during meetings.(§1, p. 2)
Who it matters to
Employees who moderate meeting chat, formally or informally, and, secondarily, employees who routinely take part in it. Our primary audience is employees who find themselves in this role, whether by explicit designation or implicitly as the person in their workgroup responsible for keeping key meetings from going awry.(§1, p. 2)
Research question
How can meeting moderators and participants balance distraction, accessibility and inclusion when using parallel chat in video meetings for work, before, during and after the meeting?
Method and data
Design
Practitioner guidelines report, drawing on a large-scale study of employees' all-remote meetings at a global technology company and a deep-dive analysis of parallel chat in work meetings.
Setting
All-remote video meetings of employees at a global technology company during COVID-19.
Participants / data
The underlying study had N=849 employees.
Analysis
Guidance is organised by meeting phase (before, during and after the meeting), followed by questions for participants to consider.
Findings
Set chat norms upfront. Before a meeting, a moderator can circulate standing chat guidelines for recurring meetings and check in with newcomers. They can also tailor the guidance to each part of the agenda (ideas in a brainstorm, only clarifying questions in an update). #
“consider putting parallel chat guidance into the chat at the start of each meeting, as a reminder. This can reduce the need for a moderator to "police" chat during the meeting.”
Ask about access needs in advance. Moderators should ask for accessibility requests beforehand and know the main barriers chat creates. These are following audio and chat at once, reading and typing, content that is not text (such as GIFs), and unclear tone. #
“It can be difficult to understand the sentiment behind written and non-written content (e.g., GIFs), particularly for participants with autism.”
Bring useful chat into the conversation. During the meeting, encourage chat that supports the main discussion (links, on-point and clarifying questions) and chat from people who rarely get heard. Describe images and GIFs in text, and leave time for people using interpreters or screen readers. #
“Ask participants to speak key written chat content out loud, both so the content enters any meeting recording and/or transcript, and for participants who may miss the chat”
Volume alone is a poor guide. Discourage chat that interests only a few, drifts from the meeting or overwhelms it. Raise concerns with individuals privately and move long side discussions to a separate channel. To tell inclusion from distraction, #
“notice whether the high volume is a result of the chat engaging a large fraction of meeting participants (more likely to be a marker of inclusion) or engaging a few participants intensely (more likely to be a marker of distraction).”
Recap the chat afterwards. After the meeting, send a short recap of chat items that deserved more attention than they got, such as overlooked ideas and useful links. #
“This practice can also reduce help reduce distraction by reducing the pressure on participants to split their focus between the main meeting and the chat”
Participants share the job. Participants can moderate themselves by asking before posting whether a message advances the meeting's goals, promotes inclusion and is accessible, for example whether an image has alternative text and its tone is clear. #
“More participant awareness of considerations can also help prevent distracting chat from arising in the first place.”
Questions this paper answers
Why can meeting chat shut some people out?
Because it adds a second stream to follow at the same time. Blind participants may have to listen to the meeting and a screen reader at once, and deaf participants watch an interpreter and the chat. GIFs without alternative text or ambiguous tone exclude others. (See §2.2, p. 4.)
Is a very busy meeting chat a bad sign?
Not necessarily. High chat volume that engages a large fraction of participants is more likely a marker of inclusion. High volume from a few people chatting intensely is more likely a marker of distraction. (See §3.2, p. 5.)
Are side conversations in meeting chat rude?
Not in themselves. In-person norms treat side talk as rude, but chat's great benefit is that it can include more people. Side discussions can raise useful topics. The problem comes when they run on and distract everyone, which takes judgement to spot. (See §3.2, p. 5.)
Should I post this in the meeting chat?
Post if it clarifies confusion, gives useful background, or is relevant to what is being discussed and of interest to more than a small subset. Refrain if you are dominating the chat or if an image or GIF lacks alternative text. (See §5, p. 7.)
Quantitative results
Measure
Result
Where
Employees in the underlying study
N=849
Abstract, p. 1
Reported using parallel chat (underlying diary study, ref. [1])
69.7%
§1, p. 2
Of those, used parallel chat in every or almost every meeting (underlying diary study)
26.6%
§1, p. 2
Contributions and implications
Because chat moderation can be hard work, rotate the role across meetings or share it among several people. consider rotating the moderator role across different meetings, and/or distributing some aspects of the role across multiple people for more complex meeting.(§2.1, p. 3)
Moderators can use the guide as a checklist to prepare for judgement calls they will face during meetings.
Moderation can also be shared by participants who are aware of how their own chat may distract others.
Limitations
The guidance is not a set of fixed rules, because meetings vary by context, purpose and size, and participants vary in abilities and expectations. Finding that balance is not a matter of following hard and fast rules(§1, p. 2)
The authors note that no rubric is perfect. No rubric is perfect.(§5, p. 7)
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Concepts
Parallel chat
The text, images, files and links posted in a meeting's chat pane alongside the audio/video meeting. This parallel chat is typically open to all meeting invitees and flows concurrently with the A/V focus of the meeting(§1, p. 2)
Parallel chat moderator
A formal or informal role, possibly someone designated just for the chat in large meetings. Its purpose: The goal of a parallel chat moderator is to ensure that its use is aligned with the meeting goals.(§1, p. 2)
Processing parallel sources in multiple modalities
An accessibility challenge: following the audio/video and the chat at once can be hard, for example when navigating with a screen reader or magnification. Beyond navigation: Simultaneous presentation of information through auditory and visual channels may also present barriers (e.g., blind participants must listen to both sources via screen reader, or deaf participants must watch two sources via transcription/interpreter).(§2.2, pp. 3–4)
Contextual judgement
Meetings and participants vary, so good chat practice depends on judgement rather than fixed rules. Exercising this type of contextual judgement is a quintessentially human endeavour.(§1, p. 2)
How to cite
Sharon Gillett, Danielle Bragg, Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen, and Sean Rintel. 2021. Parallel Meeting Chat Guide for Moderators and Participants: Drawing on Findings from Microsoft Employees During Covid-19. Microsoft Research.
This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text. Page numbers refer to this PDF.
BibTeX
@techreport{gillett2021parallel,
author = {Gillett, Sharon and Bragg, Danielle and Baym, Nancy and Bergmann, Rachel and Sarkar, Advait and Sellen, Abigail and Rintel, Sean},
title = {Parallel Meeting Chat Guide for Moderators and Participants: Drawing on Findings from Microsoft Employees During Covid-19},
institution = {Microsoft Research},
year = {2021},
month = {February},
url = {https://seanrintel.com/publications/parallel-meeting-chat-guide-for-moderators-and-participants.html},
number = {2021-02-FOW-SIM2},
}