Zoom Bombing & Other Mischief

Zoom-bombing is the uninvited participation of people in your Zoom meeting. They may flash inappropriate content or otherwise disrupt your class. There are reports from some universities that this can be a major problem. Unless you take protections, someone from outside UC Davis could find your meeting ID or just try random meeting IDs. Or, one of your students could give your meeting ID to a friend, who could then zoom-bomb your class as a prank.

You should make sure that the students understand their responsibilities with respect to disrupting the class and posting offensive materials. We recommend providing your students with a Zoom Etiquette guide. A sample can be accessed using the instructions on the Shared Materials page; feel free to import it into your course and modify it as necessary. To make sure students read and understand this guide, we recommend assigning a Canvas quiz during the first week of classes in which you ask them about Zoom etiquette and other things you want them to know about the remote version of your course.

General Settings for All Meetings

Log in to the Zoom web portal at https://ucdavis.zoom.us and go to Settings (these settings are not available from the Zoom desktop app)

Make sure these settings are OFF:

x Use Personal Meeting ID (PMI) when scheduling a meeting (so that students can’t access your other Zoom meetings)

x Private chat (so that the students aren’t chatting with each other behind your back)

x Play sound when participants join or leave (this sound can be annoying and should be avoided except for small meetings)

x File transfer (so that students don’t send each other inappropriate files)

x Allow removed participants to rejoin (so that someone you kick out for inappropriate behavior cannot rejoin the meeting)

Make sure these settings are ON:

+ Allow host to put attendee on hold (so that you can put a troublesome student on hold)

+ Embed password in meeting link for one-click join (so that students can easily find the password, if you use one)

Also:

• Screen Sharing > Host Only (so that the students cannot display inappropriate material via screen sharing)

• Virtual background — Turning this off will prevent students from sharing inappropriate content via their background images. However, you may want to leave this on so that students can use a virtual background that hides their messy rooms, other people in the room, etc.

Set these when you schedule a Zoom meeting. Most can be set from the Zoom desktop app, but some require logging in to the Zoom web portal at https://ucdavis.zoom.us and going to Meetings

• If you’ve already scheduled your class meetings, click “Edit this Meeting”

Make sure this setting is OFF:

x Enable join before host (so that students can’t access your class Zoom meeting at other times)

There are two options that you can use to limit your meetings to appropriate individuals. They are not mutually exclusive, but implementing both at the same time may unnecessarily increase hassles. Each has potential downsides (listed below).

Option 1: Using a password

• Check the box for Require meeting password and enter a password

  • Use a numeric password such as “2020” so that students can enter it from a phone if necessary

  • Make sure you communicate the password to your students, but only through Canvas (so that it remains private)

    • The password will appear at the bottom of the invitation message, which students can see on Canvas > Zoom by clicking the Invitation link for a given class meeting

    • If you require registration for your meeting, the students will receive an email with the invitation, including the password at the bottom

  • Potential downside: Some students may have trouble figuring out where to find the password

• Also: Students could share your Meeting ID and password with their friends, who could zoom-bomb your class as a prank

DO NOT USE OPTION 2 AT THIS TIME!!!

• After scheduling your meetings in Canvas using the Zoom tool, log in to the Zoom web portal at https://ucdavis.zoom.us, go to Meetings, and click the link for your class meeting
• In the Meeting Options section, click the box for “Only authenticated users can join” and use the pop-up menu to select the option that requires a ucdavis.edu account
  • You will need to make sure that your students have registered for Zoom using ucdavis.zoom.us
• Potential downside: In rare cases, some students (e.g., Open Campus students) may not have a ucdavis.edu email address
• If you require registration for your meeting, you can generate a report with a list of attendees, and you could use this to identify problematic users and report them to OSSJA

If you are not very experienced with Zoom, print out the PDF version of this page and have it with you during your first few class meetings.

Remember that you can turn off your mic and video and take a few minutes to get things under control.

If you need to kick a student out of Zoom

• Go to Participants in the Zoom app, click the More button next to the student’s name, and select Remove (or Put on hold)

If a student shares an inappropriate screen

• If you have not selected Screen Sharing > Host Only in Settings, you can disable screen sharing from the Zoom app by going to the upward arrow next to the Share icon and selecting Advanced Sharing Options.

If you need to disable Chat during a meeting

• Click the Chat icon in the Zoom app, go to the bottom of the Chat window that appears, and click the three dots to see options.

  • Set to 'host only' or to 'no one'

Turn Off a Student’s Mic or Webcam

• Global: Mute All > Do not allow them to unmute themselves

• Individual: Click the Participants icon in the Zoom app, and click the Mic or Camera icon for a given student to disable them.

If a participant is requesting control

• You will see a pop up screen that you will need to deny before being able to do anything else in Zoom. Then remove that participant.