Secure Your Online Classroom

A strong sense of community will enhance your online class and contribute to student success. That community will be enhanced when you take measures to keep it safe from intrusion or disruption. View the following topics on this page to discover some strategies:

Check Your Account Settings

Your account settings apply to all of your Zoom Meetings. To adjust your Zoom Account settings, sign into your Zoom web portal and from the left navigation menu select Settings.

The settings screen contains a list of defaults, which you can adjust to customize your meeting settings. The list below includes some of those most important for security, but be sure to review all your settings.

Note: Settings that are grayed out are locked for your account by your institution. These settings have been determined by policy, security, and technology experts.

Select the settings option from the Zoom web client menu to view all your account setting options

Only authenticated users can join meeting

Recommendation: Toggle On, unless you are explicitly including a participant, such as a guest speaker, from outside your organization. As an alternative, you can enable the Waiting Room feature before or during your meeting.

When you toggle this setting On, you will be presented with one or both of the following authentication options:

[Your Institution Name] Only (Default; may not appear on all Zoom accounts): If you intend to have only your school's participants in your Zoom meetings, this option prevents external participants. Participants must sign in using their institution's credentials.
- Note: Do not use this method if you intend to host visitors who don't have accounts issued by your school, such as guest speakers. You can also change this setting when scheduling an individual meeting if you plan to have a guest account joining.
Sign in to Zoom: This option requires that everyone joining your Zoom meeting must be logged into a valid Zoom account from any institution or Free Zoom account. This option is good if you are working with other institutions that also use Zoom beyond your own.

Annotation

Recommendation: Toggle Off before meeting.

The Annotation tool allows participants to draw on a shared screen. While this can be useful when planned appropriately, it can be used in disruptive ways. It is also inaccessible to people using screen readers. If you do wish to use shared annotation during the session, visit that section of this course.

Chat

Recommendation: Toggle on auto saving of chat transcripts for host (this is the default).

There are three chat-related options in Zoom settings:

Allow meeting participants to send a message visible to all participants: Public chat can be useful for collecting feedback or facilitating discussion. It is up to the host to decide whether to allow participants to use chat features. Using a co-host or moderator for chat is recommended to manage questions and look for disruptions.
- Additional option Prevent participants from saving chat: Toggling this setting on allows participants to read chat, but they cannot copy chat text or save the chat for future use. Checking this option also prevents the host from auto-saving chats.
Private chat: Allow participants to send private messages to each other and the host. Only the two participants in a private chat can see their conversation; the host does not have access to participants' private chat. Disabling private chat can help reduce inappropriate or disruptive communications.
Auto-saving chats: The chat transcript is helpful if you need to address behavioral issues. Enabling this setting only applies to you as a host of a Zoom meeting.

Chat settings within the Zoom client allow toggling of chat, private messaging among participants, and saving of chats by participants.

Screen Sharing

Recommendation: Toggle to Host Only.

By default, anyone can share their screen during a Zoom Meeting. You can modify this setting to prevent non-host participants from sharing their screens. You can enable or disable screen sharing for participants during a meeting using the Security button.

Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin

Recommendation: Toggle Off OR On with waiting room enabled

Disabling this setting ensures that participants removed from meetings cannot rejoin the meeting. If you are not using an authenticated meeting, the user may be able to rejoin using a different device or alias.

Be cautious with this option! If you toggle off and mistakenly remove a student from your meeting, they will not be able to rejoin. You would have to end the meeting for all participants and restart to allow the student to rejoin.

If you toggle on, you can always "remove" a participant to the waiting room and allow them to rejoin, if possible.

Enable waiting room

Recommendation: Use this option as a temporary solution if you're experiencing disruptive behavior or to add an additional layer of security.

You can use the waiting room to screen participants before entry into the meeting. This requires you to allow each participant into the meeting, rather than granting them automatic entry. Participants receive a notification that they are in the waiting room until the host grants entry.

Caution! Watch the waiting room and expect multiple notifications when enabled. If a student loses connection and has to rejoin, they could get stuck in the waiting room if you are not watching.

Note: Enabling this setting automatically disables Join before host.

Individual Meeting Settings

You can select your settings when you schedule an individual meeting from the Meetings tab in your Zoom web client.

Note: The available options are different when creating meetings within your learning management system. If you schedule a meeting within your LMS, you can change the settings within the Zoom web or desktop client.

Only authenticated users can join

Recommendation: Toggle On, unless you are explicitly including a participant from outside the University of Minnesota, such as a guest speaker.

This setting behaves the same as Only authenticated users can join in the Account settings described above.

Note: If you check the box and Sign into Zoom appears:

Go to Settings
Find the setting Only authenticated user can join meetings
Next to Sign into Zoom, select Hide in the Selection

Join before host

Recommendation: Toggle off to prevent participants from accessing the meeting without you.

Disabling this setting prevents participants from joining the meeting and interacting before the host arrives. Participants receive a notification that they are signed into the meeting but must wait until the host enters the meeting.

Securing a Meeting In Progress

In addition to the global and per-meeting settings, there are things you can do during a meeting to keep it secure.

As of April 2020, Zoom has added a Security icon to the host's control bar within meetings.

The security button is only accessible by the host, but features multiple controls that you will find useful depending upon your meeting and the audience.

Lock Meeting

Recommendation: Use for secure meeting groups or immediately disruptive situations only.

Selecting the Security button opens a menu with the option to lock and unlock your meeting. Locking your meeting prevents further participants from joining. If a participant is late or disconnects, they won't be able to rejoin unless you unlock the meeting.

Enable waiting room

Recommendation: Use this option as a temporary solution if you're experiencing disruptive behavior or to add an additional layer of security.

Selecting the Security button opens a menu with the option to Enable Waiting Room.

Restricting Screen Share

To quickly stop participants from sharing their screen within your meeting, use the Security button in the host's control bar to uncheck Screen Share.

Prevent Renaming

To prevent participants from renaming themselves, uncheck Allow Participants to: Rename Themselves in the Security menu.

Mute All

Recommendation: Use as a temporary solution if you're experiencing disruptive behavior.

Mute All will mute everyone in the class except for the Host. When you make this selection, you'll also be given the option of preventing participants from unmuting themselves.

Note: If a co-host selects Mute All, it will mute the Host as well. Make sure you communicate clearly as a host and co-host.

Remove a Participant

Recommendation: Use as a temporary solution if you're experiencing disruptive behavior.

Select Security from your host control bar.
Click Remove Participant...
Hover over the name of the participant you want to remove, and select Remove.

Remember! If you toggle off "Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin," they are permanently removed from a meeting until it has ended.

Participants removed from an authenticated meeting cannot rejoin the meeting with the same email address. If you are not using an authenticated meeting, the user may be able to rejoin using a different device or alias.

Chat Settings

Recommendation: Select the option you are most comfortable with. To quickly disable chat in your meeting, select the Security button and uncheck the chat option.

After selecting the chat icon, choose the button with an ellipsis (...) to change the chat settings for your meeting. Participants Can Chat With:

No one: Disables chat entirely
Host only: Disables public chat and private chat, except with the host directly
Everyone Publicly: Disables private chat (participant-to-participant) so all chat messages can be viewed by all participants
Everyone Publicly and Privately: Allows full access to chat features. Note: This option will not display if the host's Account setting Private Chat is disabled.

Maintaining Code of Conduct

Remind your students:

Student conduct codes apply in virtual spaces.*
Disruptive behavior may be reported to the office overseeing student conduct.*
Policies may prohibit the recording of class sessions by students.*

*Check with your institution's division of student affairs for your individual policies.

After Your Meeting

Securing Zoom Meeting Recordings

Zoom Lectures can be recorded either directly to your computer, or to the Zoom cloud servers with the record to the cloud options. In either case, if you share those recordings with your students (via Zoom, Google Drive, Kaltura, etc.) assume that students will be able to save copies of those recordings to their computers.

ASSUME YOU'RE BEING RECORDING WILL BE SAVED AND SHARED! Even if there's not an obvious "download" button, there are tools that make it possible to download browser-based videos. If you're concerned about material being redistributed, or covering sensitive topics, we would recommend not recording the lecture. Remind students if your institution's policy prohibits them from making their own recordings of course sessions.

Accessing Chat Transcripts

If you experience a disruption in your class and saved the chat either manually or automatically, it will be saved on your computer in a Zoom folder. While the location varies depending on the user, it typically defaults to a Documents folder on your PC.

Best Practices for Securing Zoom Meetings.pdf

quick guide from zoom

In addition to the information provided here, you can use this guide from Zoom as a quick reference for securing your meeting.

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