Zoom Basics

Owned by James Lewis
Last updated: about 3 hours ago by Susan Abrams
7 min read
Table of Contents

Latest Zoom Version

If any of the options discussed below are not available to you, please be sure that you're using the latest version of Zoom.



Signing in with SSO

In order for you and your students to have to the best ease of use and to take full advantage of Zoom, please be sure that each of you are signed into Zoom using SSO (your UT Zoom account) and not a personal Zoom account.

Users will not be able to join a meeting without being signed in to a Zoom account. If you need to have non-UT or otherwise external participants in your meetings, please see Allowing Outside Participants.

Signing In and Out of Zoom

You can find detailed instructions for signing in and out of Zoom here.

Verifying That You're Signed In With Your UT Zoom Account

  1. From the Zoom desktop app, click your profile icon in the upper right corner
  2. Underneath your name, verify that the email address shown is in the format <YOUR_EID>@eid.utexas.edu
    1. For example, if your EID is bevo, this should say bevo@eid.utexas.edu
  3. If this does not show an email address of the above format, you'll need to switch to your UT Zoom account

Switching Zoom Accounts

  1. From the Zoom desktop app, click your profile icon in the upper right corner
  2. Select "Switch Account" from the dropdown menu
  3. At the "Sign In" window, select "Sign In with SSO"
  4. When prompted for a "Company Domain", enter in "utexas" and click "Continue"

  5. Zoom will open a browser window and take you to a UT EID sign-in page, where you'll need to enter in your UT EID credentials and click "Sign In"

    Please note, you may also be asked to complete multi-factor authentication via Duo after entering in your UT EID credentials.

  6. You'll be taken back to the Zoom desktop application and will now be signed in with SSO
    1. You may receive a prompt alerting you that your web browser is trying to open a link in an external application. If so, click the affirmative option, which may say something like, "Open in Zoom".


Enabling Private Chat

Private chat allows individual participants of your meetings to communicate with each other directly, via 1-to-1 messaging that is not visible to other participants.

Private chat between participants is disabled by default.

To enable:

  1. Sign into utexas.zoom.us with your EID and password
  2. Navigate to Settings on the left-hand side of the screen
  3. Scroll down to Chat and enable Private Chat by clicking the toggle button


Allowing Outside Participants

To prevent unauthorized access, Zoom meetings created with your UT Zoom account are restricted by default to participants that also have a UT Zoom account. Participants attempting to join with a non-UT Zoom account, such as their personal Zoom account or a Zoom account provided by another institution, will not be able to join.

If you or your intended participants are unable to join a Zoom meeting, or are unexpectedly placed in the Waiting Room of a Zoom meeting, please verify that you or they are using a UT Zoom account.

Enable Outside Participants for a Scheduled Meeting

Zoom in Canvas

Please note: the below options can also be found in the "Security" section when creating or editing a meeting created with the Zoom integration in Canvas.

  1. Launch the Zoom desktop app or create a new meeting in Zoom for Canvas
  2. If using the Zoom desktop app, click "Schedule", otherwise skip to step 3
  3. Create your meeting as desired, with all the meeting options you would normally enable, including any recurrences

  4. Under the "Security" heading, click the drop-down just below "Only authenticated users can join"

  5. Set this dropdown to "Sign in to Zoom (Guest)" to allow outside participants with a personal or non-UT Zoom account to join this meeting

  6. Click the "Save" button to confirm and schedule the meeting

    If this is a recurring meeting, this setting will affect each meeting in the series

Enabling Outside Participants for an Ad-Hoc Meeting

If you'd like to allow outside participants to access meetings created using the "New Meeting" button, you'll need to make changes to the settings for your Personal Meeting ID (PMI).

About PMI Settings

Changes to your PMI settings will apply to all meetings that you start with the "Use My Personal Meeting ID (PMI)" option

  1. Launch the Zoom desktop app
  2. Click the arrow next to "New Meeting"
  3. Hover over your PMI, which will then display an additional menu
  4. Click "PMI Settings"
  5. Set your meetings options as desired, then, in the "Security" section, click drop-down just below "Only authenticated users can join"
  6. Set this dropdown to "Sign in to Zoom" to allow outside participants with a free Zoom account to join meetings created with your PMI
     
  7. Click "Save"


To make use of these settings when starting a new meeting, you'll need to check the "Use My Personal Meeting ID (PMI)" option in the "New Meeting" dropdown menu, as show below



Other Security Options

If you are unsure if your intended participants have a personal or UT Zoom account, or if you would like to allow participants to join the meeting without a Zoom account, you can make use of the Waiting Room or Passcode features instead of requiring authentication to join.

Regarding Meeting Security

Meetings created with your UT Zoom account are required to have at least one of the available security options enabled. You will be unable to start or schedule a meeting if all of the security options are disabled.

Waiting Room

The Waiting Room feature is enabled by default, and is most useful in combination with the "Only authenticated users can join" option described above, but can be enabled on its own.

When enabled, the Waiting Room will automatically hold meeting participants when they join the meeting. They will be shown a message indicating that they are in the waiting room. The meeting's hosts or co-hosts can then admit all participants that are in the waiting room or admit participants individually.

Waiting Room and Authentication

If you have both Waiting Room and "Only authenticated users can join" features enabled, participants who are logged in with a UT Zoom account will automatically bypass the waiting room. If you intend for all participants to be held in the waiting room, please disable "Only authenticated users can join".

To enable the Waiting Room feature:

  1. Begin creating your meeting as usual, with your desired settings
  2. Check the box next to "Waiting Room"
  3. Click "Save" to create your meeting

Passcode

If you enable the Passcode feature, your participants will need to join your Zoom meeting directly with the invite link you provide them, or, if they join using the meeting ID, they will be prompted to provide the passcode that was set for the meeting.

If you enable the Passcode option and do not send the meeting invitation or invite link to your intended participants, you must provide them with the meeting's passcode. They will be unable to join your meeting without it.

To enable the Passcode feature:

  1. Begin creating your meeting as usual, with your desired settings
  2. Check the box next to "Passcode"
  3. A passcode will be automatically generated, but you can set it manually, if desired
  4. Click "Save" to create your meeting

The passcode will be automatically included in the email invitation created by Zoom, and will be embedded in the meeting's invite link.

Scheduling a Meeting via the Zoom Portal

To schedule a meeting:

  1. Navigate to http://utexas.zoom.com/
  2. Then select "Sign In" and enter in your UT EID and password at the prompt
  3. Select "Meetings" from the options along the left-hand side
  4. Click "Schedule a New Meeting" to begin creating your new meeting


Meeting Options

Each Zoom meeting has a multitude of options that you can set as needed, including the start date and time, the meeting duration, and much more.

Zoom has provided a help article that details all of these options. Please note, some of these options may be unavailable to you or may be restricted or locked for UT Zoom accounts.

Meeting Controls

Below is a video, provided by Zoom, detailing the controls available to you during a meeting.


Account Settings

To access to your Account Settings:

  • Navigate to http://utexas.zoom.com/
  • Then select "Sign In" and enter in your UT EID and password at the prompt
  • You'll be presented with the "Profile" page, where you can make changes to your display name with Zoom and several other options.


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