Zoom may be a big component of your fall teaching and learning and/or student support plans. Use these weekly live webinar offerings from Zoom to get started. Registration is available on the Zoom website.

Additional resources including videos and step guides are available on demand from the Zoom Help Center and on the Distance Education website.

Who can create an APSU Zoom account at https://apsu.zoom.us?

Any active faculty, staff, or student can create an APSU Zoom account so they can host meetings.* Account creation is as simple as logging in at https://apsu.zoom.us with your single sign-on credentials; however, it is an essential and required step as you do not automatically have an APSU Zoom account.

*Who should create an APSU Zoom account at https://apsu.zoom.us?

Creating an APSU Zoom account gives the user a Zoom license so that they can host meetings beyond the constraints of the basic free Zoom account. This means only users that plan on hosting meetings need to create an APSU Zoom account.**

Yes. There is a setting in Zoom called “Only authenticated users can join.” This optional setting is at the discretion of the meeting host. If the host turns this on and selects “Attendees must sign into their APSU Zoom account,” attendees will need to have 1. previously gone to https://apsu.zoom.us to create their APSU Zoom account and 2. sign into their already created APSU Zoom account to attend the meeting. Attendees are not able to see in advance if a meeting requires authentication. If hosts choose to use this optional setting, they must notify their attendees in advance.

Is a Zoom account created or accessed at https://zoom.us with an APSU email the same as an APSU Zoom account created at https://apsu.zoom.us?

No, these are very different accounts even though they can both use APSU email. Meetings hosted by a free Zoom account created at https://zoom.us are limited to 40 mintues if there is more than 1 attendee, cannot be recorded to the cloud, and cannot use polls. APSU Zoom account users receive a license to host meetings, and, therefore, do not encounter these contraints.

First, read this whole newsletter! Then, go to https://apsu.zoom.us and log in with your single sign-on credentials. Reference Distance Education’s Zoom website for on-demand Zoom resources.

Beginning September 27th, all Zoom meetings must have either a passcode or waiting room enabled in order for the meeting to be scheduled. Any meetings created prior to September 27th, that do not have a passcode or waiting room enabled will have the waiting room forced on by Zoom. This change is a requirement initiated by Zoom to all accounts. You can read more about this change on the Zoom website.

To prepare the APSU community for this required change, Distance Education has already turned on waiting room for all meetings. This means any new meeting created will have waiting room turned on by default. You may currently choose to turn off the waiting room. Effective September 27th, you can turn off the waiting room but must enable passcode in order to schedule the meeting.

Distance Education encourages all hosts to take this time to explore waiting room settings and how to use it. Log into your https://apsu.zoom.us account, select Settings, and find Waiting Room Options under Security.  

Options include determining who is put in a waiting room (everyone, users not in our account, etc.), who can admit people from the waiting room (host, co-host, anyone), and customizing the waiting room including a logo, title, and description. During the meeting, participants can be admitted from the waiting room one at a time or all at once and you can send participants messages while they are in the waiting. Learn more about using waiting rooms.

As Zoom is being used more and more, security also becomes more and more of a concern. One option to secure your meetings is “Only authenticated users can join.” When enabled, the host can then allow only users with an APSU Zoom account (@apsu.edu or @my.apsu.edu) or any Zoom account into their meeting. Please note this is an optional setting and will add an extra step for your attendees to join. There are additional options to secure your meeting besides authentication including requiring registration, passcode, and waiting rooms. The best way to secure your meeting? Be careful with whom and where you post the link! More information about Zoom is available on the Distance Education website.

Any APSU faculty/staff/student can have an APSU Zoom account; however, they must “claim” it. Users must go to https://apsu.zoom.us and sign in with their single sign-on credentials to create and claim their account. This MUST be done BEFORE attempting to log into a meeting that requires authentication. If users receive this screen, it is asking for their Zoom credentials. If they have not activated their APSU account FIRST, their single sign-on credentials will not work here. As a host, if you are requiring APSU authentication, please notify your potential attendees that they need to create their APSU Zoom first.

Zoom can assist you with taking attendance in video conferencing courses. To help Zoom help you, make sure you tell your students to either 1) join class from their APSU Zoom account or 2) when joining from a browser and prompted to enter their name, they must enter their name to match the class roster. Pick a method below and try it! If you do not like it, try another. Or, get your course buddy and help each other test attendance options.

Nonverbal Feedback - a variation of the verbal “here” method is to call names and have them respond with nonverbal feedback like the “Yes” or “Thumbs Up” icon. The feedback will show up next to the student’s name on the Participants list.

Meeting Reactions – another variation is to call names and have them respond with a “Reaction.” The reaction will show up on the square containing the student’s video or name (if their video is off). This method does require you to have your video on in order for students to see the Reactions option in Zoom.

Polling – Zoom polls are only single or multiple choice questions, but you could create a poll with an attendance question. For example, “Are you present in class today?” As long as you did not make the poll anonymous, you will be able to see who responded to the poll. You can create one poll and use it in each of your recurring meetings. After the meeting is over, you can run a report to see the poll results.

Reporting - After the meeting, log into https://apsu.zoom.us, select Reports on the left side menu, then Usage report. This will give you a searchable list of all the meetings you have hosted. Under the Participants column, the number of participants is listed. Select the number and you can see a list of participants’ names. The list can be exported as well.

Zoom for office hours? Yep, just another awesome way to use Zoom! Set up a recurring meeting in Zoom to allow students to stop by and ask questions. Check out this Zoom for Office Hours guide. 

While there is not a true Zoom setting to initially lock participants’ video off (we have asked for it though!), there is a work around. First, when you are scheduling your meeting, ensure that you select Off for Participant under Video. This will ensure that when the meeting starts the participant’s videos are off. In your invitation to attendees, be clear that you do not want them to start their video.

After the meeting starts, they may still turn on their video. If this happens, the meeting host or co-host can stop a participant’s video manually. Select the Participants button, hover over the participant’s name, select More, and then Stop Video.

Alternatively, when viewing the participant’s camera, you can select the ellipses button (…) and then Stop Video. The participant cannot turn their web cam back on unless the host or co-host goes back in and selects Ask to Start Video.

Zoom has more information about managing participants in a meeting on their website. More information about Zoom is available on Distance Education’s Zoom website.

The Zoom Security button was launched earlier this year. It allows hosts and co-hosts to access several important security settings to quickly secure their meetings. These settings include locking the meeting, enabling the waiting room, allowing participants to share their screen, use chat, rename themselves, and unmute themselves, and reporting and removing participants. Please note that by default Share Screen is NOT enabled for participants. Also, when the host/co-host is sharing their screen, they can use the security button to turn off Annotate on Shared Content. Learn more about these in-meeting security options on Zoom’s website. 

Ever set up a Zoom meeting with a passcode and then forget to include the passcode with the meeting link? Happens all the time! Well, it use to.

We have turned on a setting for all users called “Embed passcode in invite link for one-click join.” Now, whenever you choose to add a pass-code to a meeting, the passcode will be embedded into the meeting link. Previously, the meeting link contained just the Meeting ID and hosts had to remember to give the link and the passcode to attendees. Now the meeting link includes the encrypted passcode. You can give attendees this longer link for one-click join to your meeting. You could also give attendees the Meeting ID and Passcode and they can join by entering this information in Zoom.

While this setting was turned on at the APSU account level, you can turn it off in your specific Zoom settings. Simply log in at https://apsu.zoom.us, select Settings on the left side menu, and search for “Embed passcode in invite link for one-click join.” Finally, keep in mind that whether you share a link and passcode, encrypted link, or meeting ID and passcode, once you share with someone, it can be shared with anyone. Consider other security options in addition to Passcodes to keep your Zoom meetings secure. Learn more about Zoom security on our website under the Securing Zoom tab.

Zoom virtual backgrounds allow a user to show a little personality, add some fun to a meeting, convey important information (think meeting agenda!), or even make their surroundings look more professional! And now you have APSU branded virtual backgrounds available to you by default in Zoom. These are available on Zoom version 5.1.1 or later so make sure you have updated your Zoom application recently. Visit Distance Education’s Zoom Web Conferencing page to learn more about Zoom and Zoom Virtual Backgrounds including why virtual backgrounds may not work for you, how to use them, and where you can find more APSU or other backgrounds.

You can now join multiple Zoom meetings simultaneously. Log into your APSU Zoom account at https://apsu.zoom.us. On the left menu, select Settings. Under the Meeting tab, enable the “Join different meetings simultaneously on desktop” setting.

In order to use this feature, you must have a recent version of the Zoom application installed like 5.2 or higher and you must be logged into the Zoom app. You cannot use this feature when trying to “join from your browser” and you cannot host more than one Zoom meeting at a time. This feature is to help you attend more than one Zoom simultaneously. More information about Zoom is available on the Distance Education website.

Zoomtopia, Zoom’s annual user conference, is completely virtual this year and you can attend for FREE! The world has shifted significantly this year, and Zoom was at the forefront of that shift, connecting businesses, schools, and other organizations as we all adapted. Zoomtopia will help attendees better understand and navigate our new normal with safe and secure unified communications. This free virtual event is for everyone that is passionate about communication, collaboration, and the future of work, and anyone looking to maximize their Zoom investment.