Faculty Resources

Your Zoom account may be accessed through a variety of methods. The below links will guide you through each method.

1. Zoom Web Portal – To set up your Zoom account, you will need to begin by accessing the web portal. The web portal provides you access to set up your profile, establish system defaults for future meetings, access recordings hosted on the cloud, and view participation reports of past meetings. Access the Zoom Web Portal.
2. Zoom Application – When hosting or joining a Zoom meeting, it is recommended that you do so through the Zoom desktop or mobile app. Download the application to your Windows or MacOS.
3. Canvas Courses – When hosting a class meeting through Zoom, it is recommended that you schedule and join the meeting through the specific Canvas course. This will create the link to the session within the course navigation menu making it easily accessible to both you and your students, thus eliminating the need to email or post the link separately for the students.
4. Google Chrome Scheduler Extension – Zoom now offers an extension for your Chrome web browser. When the extension is installed, you will be able to schedule or start a meeting directly from the web browser without having to access any additional site or applications. Install the extension.

You can review and adjust several important settings in the Zoom web portal. These settings control how the meeting works, and managing these settings before starting a meeting can create a smoother experience for you and your students. Please note that some settings are controlled at the administrative level and cannot be changed.

Profile Settings

• Update your profile settings with your picture. This image will be display when your web camera is muted or inactive.
• Double check your time zone, as all meetings scheduled will be based off this setting.

Meeting Settings

• Host video: This setting allows you to start meetings with host video on, by default.
• Participants video: This setting allows you to have participants’ video on or off, by default, when they join a meeting.
• Participants can change this during the meeting. Set the default to your preference and then instruct your students how you wish for them to proceed during the session.
• Audio Type: This setting determines how participants can join the audio portion of the meeting. For live class meetings, it is strongly recommended that participants join by computer audio only.
• Join before host: This setting controls whether students can join a meeting before you start it. It is recommended to disable this setting for live class sessions and virtual office hours.
• Mute participants upon entry: This setting, if enabled, can help mitigate audio issues at the beginning of a session.
• Participants can un-mute themselves at any time.
• Enable breakout rooms: This setting allows the meeting host to start breakout rooms.
  • Enable breakout room pre-assign: This setting allows you to create breakout room groups while scheduling a meeting.
  • You will also have the option to create breakout room groups on the fly during the meeting.

The settings that you choose will be applied to all future meetings, but you can also adjust settings for an individual meeting when you schedule it.

Recordings Settings

You can save your meetings to either your local computer or the cloud. We request that all personal meetings be stored to your local computer rather than the cloud. Class sessions may be stored to either your local machine or the cloud.

• Local Recording – This setting allows you to save the recording to your local computer.
• Cloud Recording – This setting allows you to store your recording on the Zoom web portal, share it via a link, or download it. Be sure to set this feature to Record active speaker with shared screen.
• Save Chat Messages – This setting allows you to save and review chat messages after the session.

Zoom features like screen sharing and annotation allow you to use visual aids to facilitate learning with students. Screen sharing can be passed to other members in the meeting, allowing students to present their work. Annotation and polling allows you to quickly assess your students in real-time. Features like Zoom Breakout Rooms allow you to divide students into smaller groups to facilitate collaborative learning activities.

The below tutorials will walk you through the different options instructors can use to host class sessions.

• Annotation
• Audio Options
• Breakout Rooms
• In-Meeting Chat
• Managing Participants
• Polling
• Recording Meetings
• Sharing Screen
• Video Options
• Waiting Room
• Whiteboard

You can use a scheduled meeting or your personal meeting room to host virtual office hours. If you plan to be online and available for a set amount of time on a given day, consider using the waiting room feature of Zoom meetings; this will allow you to speak privately with one student while allowing other students to wait for their turn. This help article from Zoom Support steps through the necessary settings and implications of using a waiting room in meetings.

Note: Using a waiting room for live class sessions may be confusing for students, so either use your personal meeting room only for office hours, or schedule a meeting for office hours that is different from your class session link so that you can control the settings for each meeting.

• Zoom Help Center – Helpful guides for using Zoom
• Zoom Frequently Asked Questions
• Need more help? Contact CII at [email protected] or the FHU Helpdesk at [email protected]