Overview of Using Zoom for Instruction

Resources & Support

• View your Illinois Zoom account.
• Download & use the desktop or mobile client and check for updates regularly.
• Contact citl-info@illinois.edu for instructional assistance or consult@illinois.edu for problems with your account.
• Campus Knowledge Base: many links on this page point to Knowledge Base articles.
• View tips about planning your course meetings and using tools in it.
• Zoom has changed rapidly and frequently, so some items may not be fully up to date.

Zoom Settings & Security

• There some settings that will apply to all meetings and some you can choose on a meeting-by-meeting basis. You should review all of the options.
• Summary of Recommended Zoom Settings – view full list
  • Review your settings.
  • Recommend OFF: Annotation, File Transfer, Join before Host
  • Don't allow participants to rename themselves, use video filters or use virtual backgrounds.
  • Don't require registration for normal class meetings.
  • Recommend ON: Only authenticated users can join meetings (as well as from Web Client) and/or Waiting Room
  • Suggestions: select Mute Participants on entry, and keep both the host and participant video off for the start of the meeting. Everyone can unmute later.
• Read about how to protect your meetings.
• Summary of Authentication – read about authentication
  • Authentication helps prevent unwanted intruders. You can choose to limit it to only @illinois.edu email addresses or also any Zoom account. We recommend only @illinois.edu addresses unless you have outside guests joining meetings, such as guest lecturers from off campus.
  • Be aware: if you require it, only students who sign in with SSO using their University account or with a personal account will be able to join the meeting. You can make it so only Illinois.edu or other specific email domains can join.
• Summary of the Waiting Room:
  • This is a fence around the meeting so participants only enter if admitted.
  • From the Participants panel: You can completely take it down during a meeting or use the “admit all” button or admit one person at a time.
  • You can also adjust your Zoom settings so that the waiting room automatically admits anyone who signed in with their Illinois.edu account, or also to admit domains you specify.

Scheduling Meetings for Courses

• If your course uses Compass 2g or Moodle, we recommend that you add the Zoom LTI (a tool link (or activity) in your course. Then schedule the meeting by using that link, though if you scheduled it in the desktop client, you can still import meetings into Compass/Moodle. This also allows student so join the meeting through the course site.
• If possible, make it a recurring meeting so there is a single meeting ID# and passcode.
• If scheduling Office Hours, you may want to do a recurring meeting that has “no fixed end” instead of a meeting that recurs daily or weekly – this way there is only 1 line entry in your meeting list for it, and you can use it at any time instead of only specific hours.

Student Access

• Students should follow steps to get started and be sure they are signing in with SSO.
• If you use the Zoom LTI (tool link) in Compass 2g or Moodle, students can access the meeting through the course site. This is better than just sending them a URL or meeting invitation because it can help them authenticate. Review how students join meetings.

Zoom Meeting Tools

• Meeting Security (links to Zoom's support site): review tools for security
• Share screen (Zoom support): share content from your computer or mobile device
• Chat, nonverbal feedback and reactions (Zoom support) for communicating in meetings
• Polling (Zoom support) ask multiple choice questions in meetings & share results
• Breakout Rooms: participants can be manually-assigned, pre-assigned, or self-select
• Live Transcriptions: automatic closed captions can be shared during meetings
• Attendance Reports: these reports are usually available within a few hours of your meeting by visiting your zoom account.

Recordings, Captions & Sharing Videos

• We strongly recommend recording to the Cloud rather than locally.
• Cloud recordings are automatically deleted after 30 days, but they are simultaneously saved to Illinois Media Space. Recordings may take a few hours to render.
• Closed captions: are automatically added within Media Space, but you need to enable the captions for viewing. You should also review and edit them as needed.
• You can embed videos in a Compass 2g or Moodle from Media Space without needing to publish the videos to be made available outside of the Course. Here are instructions for recording, captioning, and embedding videos in Compass 2g and Moodle.

Common Questions & Issues

• Breakout Rooms: there is an issue that prevents you from assigning students who use Chrome books to breakout rooms.
• Change your Zoom profile name
• Use in China