There is a new feature called security on my toolbar, what is it?
On Tuesday April 8, 2020 Zoom implemented the Security feature into its software to help make your meetings more private and secure. The most visible change that meeting hosts will see is an option in the Zoom meeting controls called Security. This new icon simplifies how hosts can quickly find and enable many of Zoom’s in-meeting security features.
Visible only to hosts and co-hosts of Zoom Meetings, the Security icon provides easy access to several existing Zoom security features so you can more easily protect your meetings.
Learn more at:
https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/08/zoom-product-updates-new-security-toolbar-icon-for-hosts-meeting-id-hidden/
What is the main limitation to using the free account?
Zoom offers a full-featured Basic Plan for free with unlimited meetings. Try Zoom for as long as you like - there is no trial period. Your Basic plan has a 40 minute time limit on meetings with three or more total participants. There is no time limit on 1 to 1 meetings. If you need to use the free account for more than 1-to-1 meetings that are longer than 40 minutes, CITR recommends scheduling a planned break during your class or meeting that allows you to shut down and restart the meeting.
What capabilities will I have with a free Zoom account?
Free Zoom accounts have full capabilities for Active Speaker View, Host Only and Simultaneous Screen Share, Join by Telephone, Virtual Background (green screen), Desktop, iPhone and iPad Application Sharing, Co-Annotation on shared screens, Whiteboarding, Local Recording (MP4 and M4A), Private and Group Chat, Host control of participant audio, video, chat and screen sharing abilities, video breakout rooms for up to 50, and a Personal Room or Meeting ID. To learn more about the capabilities of a Free Zoom account, visit https://zoom.us/pricing and refer to the first column, Basic Personal Meeting Free.
Can I use a Zoom Classroom at WIU to meet with my students and conduct classes?
Zoom classroom licenses are reserved and scheduled when course schedules are finalized by the Registrar and published on STARS. It is likely that there are no open rooms to be used during this time, but questions regarding availability and schedule of Zoom classrooms at WIU should be directed to University Technology.
How do I get a pro account?
Begin by working with your home department and University Technology to determine the appropriate strategy for purchasing a professional license tied to your WIU Email account.
Can I record using a Free Zoom account?
Yes, you can! With Zoom free accounts you need to enable to recording function when you create your Zoom account.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
If you have already Signed into your Zoom account through the Meeting Client, Sign Out.
Navigate to https://www.zoom.us and click Sign In in the upper right corner of the window. When prompted, enter your Email address and password and then click the Sign in button.
In the menu to the left of the screen, click Settings.
Click the Recording Tab/Link. Toggle Local recording to On. When prompted click Turn On.
Log back into your desktop meeting client and the Record button should appear on your toolbar.
Can I use Breakout Rooms with the Free Account?
Yes! Like the recording feature you just need to enable the Break Out Rooms when you set up your account.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
If you have already Signed into your Zoom account through the Meeting Client, Sign Out.
Navigate to https://www.zoom.us and click Sign In in the upper right corner of the window. When prompted, enter your Email address and password and then click the Sign in button.
In the menu to the left of the screen, click Settings.
In the middle column, click In Meeting (Advanced).
To the right of Break Out Room, click the toggle icon to turn on Break Out Rooms for your account. (It will turn Blue once it is on.)
If you want to be able to set the group members prior to starting the meeting, select Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling.
Log out of the website and return to your desktop meeting client.
Do I have to use the same meeting Link and ID for every class or meeting?
This is up to you. If you would like you can create a new meeting for each class that will assign that class with it's own meeting link and ID that you can share via email, on your syllabus, or on Western Online. If you choose to do a different meeting for each class in order to get a unique link you must make sure that you go into the correct meeting when you start your live class meetings with students. If you accidentally go into the wrong meeting their link will not work.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Open your desktop meetings client and Sign In.
Click on the Meetings icon at the top of the client home screen.
In the left pane of the window, click on the small plus icon link.
Type the name of the meeting in the Topic field provided. (If it is a class name the meeting by the course name and number.)
Under date select Recurring Meeting (this will allow you to use the meeting ID for anything/anytime associated with that class.)
Click the Schedule button. (You will be taken to your calendar. You can close out of that window.)
You will see your new window in the left page under recurring meetings, click on the meeting and you will see the invitation to the right. Copy the invitation and share the Meeting Link and Meeting ID portion of that with your students.
When using multiple meetings, always click on the Meetings icon then click on the meeting you want and choose Start to ensure you are in the right meeting for the right class.
Is there a waiting room that I can use during virtual office hours that will allow me to meet with only one student at a time?
Yes, there is! The Waiting Room feature allows a host to control when a participant joins the meeting. As the meeting host, you can admit attendees one by one or hold all attendees in the waiting room and admit them all at once. You will need to enable this feature in your account meeting settings at the zoom.us website to use it in your meetings.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Steps to Enable the Waiting Room:
1. In your web browser (I recommend Google Chrome) navigate to zoom.us.
2. Click on the Sign In link (upper right corner of the page) and sign in with your account information.
3. In the menu at the far left of the page, click the Settings link.
4. In the middle column, click In Meeting Advanced.
5. Scroll down the page until you see the Waiting Room option. (It is after Attention Tracking and before Show a Join from your Browser Link).
6. Click on the toggle button to the right to enable the waiting room. It will be grey and turn to blue once it is enabled.
7. Under Choose which participants to place in the waiting room, select All Participants.
8. To the right of Customize the title, logo, and description click on the Pencil icon to add a special name for your waiting room and description so that they know what room they are in and how it works. (e.g. I added the following to the title - "Please wait, I will be with you shortly!" and I add the following to the description "This is my virtual office hours waiting room. I am currently with another student. Please wait patiently and I will be with you shortly!"
9. After you have customized your information click the Close button.
10. Click the Sign Out button in the upper right corner of the browser screen to log out of the Zoom website.
Steps to Using the Waiting Room in Meeting:
1. Click on Manage Participants in the toolbar.
2. When the Manage Participants panel appears, click on the More menu in the lower-right corner of the panel. Make sure that Put attendee in waiting room on entry is selected.
3. Once a participant joins, you will see the option to Admit or Remove the participant. Selecting Admit will allow them to join your meeting. You will see a screen that shows you how many participants are currently in your meeting and how many are waiting.
4. When a participant is in the waiting room they will see the message you entered in step 8 above.
Learn more at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000332726-Waiting-Room
Has Zoom changed the privacy settings for screen sharing?
Yes. On March 26th, 2020 the screen sharing settings within your account were automatically defaulted to “Only Host”. This setting gives hosts sole permission to share content within their meetings by default. To learn how to restore this ability to your participants, click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Steps to restore participant screen sharing:
If you would like to give participants screen sharing permission when hosting your next meeting:
Click the arrow to the right of the Screen Sharing icon, select Advanced Sharing Options and select All Participants.
To re-enable participant content sharing at the account level, please visit and login to zoom.us/account/setting. Click on Meetings (Advanced) and select All Participants.
If your students/participants would like to re-enable participant content sharing at their account level, the will need to do the following:
Visit and login to zoom.us/profile/setting Click on Screen Sharing >and select All Participants.
How can I avoid the processing time with Google Drive and YouTube?
In short you can't. In some instances, there is significant processing time involved with both options. If you do not see a thumbnail of your video it is more than likely that your video is still processing. You will have to be patient. If you complete the entire process to embed your video into Western Online and that video is still processing, your students will not be able to see the video until it has completed processing. If you click to play the video and it does not play, it is likely still processing. At this time we have no estimation as to how long processing will take as it depends on the size of your video file, network processing speed, and resources at any given time. If you do not plan to wait until you are certain processing is finished before posting your video for students, we recommend that you provide a note to students within your video folder/module on Western Online stating that videos may still be processing and to check back later. An additional note to students should state that they should contact you if they are unable to view the video anytime after 24 hours from the original publish date.
Can I embed video to Western Online from Google Drive?
Yes, it's not as pretty as YouTube, but it will work.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Right click the video in your Google Drive and choose Preview.
Click the More actions icon (3 little dots) on the upper right corner and choose Open in New window.
In the new window, click the More actions icon (3 little dots) on the upper right corner again and choose Embed item...
Copy the embed code.
Go to the module in Western Online that you want to embed the video to.
Click the Upload/Create button and choose Video or Audio.
Paste the code where it says Ender URL or Embed Code.
Click Save.
Why can't I upload videos longer than 15 minutes to YouTube?
Your YouTube channel has to be verified in order to upload videos longer than 15 minutes.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Once logged into YouTube, click your icon on the upper right and choose YouTube Studio.
Click Creator Studio Classic on the lower left.
Click Skip (you don't have select anything here).
Click GO TO LEGACY CLASSIC.
Click Channel on the left.
Click the blue Verify button next to your profile icon.
Select your country from the drop don menu.
Select the Text me the verification code option.
Type your phone number in the space provided and click Submit.
Type in the code that is texted to you in the space provided and click Submit.
Click Continue.
Click BACK TO YOUTUBE STUDIO on the upper left corner.
Can I record with Google Meet?
Yes, but the record feature will only be available until July.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
While in the Google Meet session, click the More options button on the lower right corner (three little dots)
Choose Record meeting from the menu.
Click Accept in the window that appears. You will hear a ding when the recording starts.
To stop the recording click the More options button and choose Stop recording.
Click Stop recording again in the window that pops up.
The recording will be saved to your Google Drive in a folder called Meet Recordings. You will also get an email.
***Please note: Recordings can take a very long time to process and appear in your drive***
Is there a limit to how many participants I can have?
Yes, the limit is 100 participants.
Can my students also share their screen in a Google Meet that I set up?
Yes, they click the Present now button just as you do.
Can my students record a Google Meet that I set up?
No, only the host can record a meeting.
Can I share files to my students?
Yes, if you set it up using a calendar event you can attach a file that can be accessed during the meeting.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
While setting up the calendar event, click the Add attachment icon (paper clip) in the Add description area on the lower left.
Navigate to and select the file.
Click the Select button on the lower left of the window.
Can I use the same meeting link continuously?
Yes, if you set it up the meeting as a recurring meeting in Google Calendar.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
Open gmail (navigate to mail.g.wiu.edu in your browser)
From the application selector (9 dot square icon in the upper right corner of the screen) , choose Calendar. (Or if this isn't working for you, open a new tab in your browser and type in calendar.google.com)
Click the Create button in the upper left corner.
When the new appointment dialog box appears, click the More options link in the lower right corner of the box.
In the Add title field type in the name of your meeting (e.g. ENG 100 002 SP 2020 Virtual Office Hours)
Right below the title you will see the date selection boxes. Click on the beginning date and time (e.g. March 23, 2020 8:00am) and the ending date and time (e.g. 9:00am, March 23, 2020) and set accordingly.
Click on the Does not repeat drop-down menu and select Custom.
In the Custom Recurrence pop-up window, choose 1 (to establish the meeting will repeat each week)
Click on the dot to select the days of the week it will repeat (e.g. M and W).
Under Ends, click in the On radio button to select that option and enter a date for when you want the meetings to end. (You could put the end of the semester here.)
Click Done in the lower right corner of the window.
You will see a video camera icon to the left under Add Location and next to it you will see the Add conferencing drop-down menu.
Click on the Add conferencing drop-down and choose Hangouts Meet. (You will see your meeting link has been created. Click the drop-down to see more specific information.)
To the right of this section you will see an area for inviting your students.
If not already selected, click on the Guests link.
In the Add guests field, start typing the name of your contact list that you have already set up (e.g. ENG 100 001 SP2020), or enter specific student's WIU email addresses.
Your contact list will appear in the drop-down list of options.
Click on the name of the contact list you want to add to select it.
A list of your students names in that contact list will appear under the add guests field.
Adjust any necessary Guest Permissions (e.g. you may want to deselect all options there to ensure privacy.)
Click Save and the calendar invite will be added to your students Google Calendar and your calendar as well.
Let your students know that you have created a calendar invite for them to follow.
How can I keep emails from students in different classes organized?
If you determine that you will communicate with students using your WIU email (Gmail) account, we recommend using labels and filters in Western Online to keep everything organized. In preparation, you will need to require your students to use a specific subject line that starts with something such as, ENG 100 001 in each email correspondence related to your course to allow the labels and filters to work properly.
Click on the arrow to the right to expand the instructions.
To Create a Filter that will Automatically Move Class Messages into Labels in Gmail
Login to your WIU Gmail account.
Click on the Gear (Settings) icon in the upper-right corner of the page and choose Settings.
Click on the Filters and Blocked Addresses link.
Click the Create a New Filter link.
In the Subject field, type the Subject lead in just as you had told your students to type it (e.g. ENG 100 001).
Leave all other fields blank.
Click the Create Filter link.
If you want it to be moved straight to your class folder, select Skip the Inbox (Archive It)
Click Apply the Label and under the Choose Label drop-down, select New Label.
Type in a Name for your Label (folder). The name should represent your class (e.g. ENG 100 001)
Click Create.
All mail coming into your account with the subject line that you required your students to include (e.g. ENG 100 001) will automatically be moved into your course folder that you created when making the filter. If students do not use the specific text you required in the subject line their email will land in your inbox and you will have to move it to the class label (folder) manually.