Zoom is a powerful tool you can use to facilitate all kinds of collaboration, and there are many options to give you the ability to customize it for your individual needs.
If you are looking for instructions/training, check out these training videos.
For ideas on how to use Zoom for instruction, check out the Best practices for the use of Zoom as a synchronous course delivery tool.
This article will focus on the security and privacy aspects of zoom and show you to safeguard your privacy and that of your students in this new format. The same options that enable Zoom’s powerful collaboration can potentially be used against us if not configured correctly. I’m sure many of you have seen headlines about Zoom bombing.
Zoom bombing is the term for when unwanted and uninvited people enter your meeting. These uninvited guests share their screens to bombard real attendees with content that is offensive and disturbing. Many of these incidents could be prevented by using zooms built-in security features. Here are ways to protect you and your participants from falling victim.
Reminder: Don’t share your meeting link publically
The primary method to keep unwanted people out is not to put your link where unwanted people can find it. If you share your meeting link on social media or another public location, anyone with the link can join your meeting. We recommend only sharing your links via Blackboard or other places that are protected by an HVCC username and password.
Manage screen sharing
The first rule of Zoom privacy: Don’t give up control of your screen.
You do not want random people in your meeting or course to take control of the screen and share unwanted content with the group. You can restrict this — before the meeting and during the meeting in the host control bar — so that you’re the only one who can screen-share. By default, HVCC meetings are configured to require host permission to share to the screen, draw on the whiteboard, or annotate documents. These options are configurable, however, and you can change them in an individual meeting, or across all of your meetings.
To prevent participants from screen sharing during a call, using the host controls at the bottom, click the arrow next to Share Screen and then Advanced Sharing Options.
Under “Who can share?,” choose “Only Host” and close the window. You can also lock the Screen Share by default for all your meetings in your web settings.
Manage your participants
Some of the other great features to help secure your Zoom meeting/class and host with confidence:
- Allow only signed-in users to join: If someone tries to join your event and isn’t logged into Zoom with the email they were invited through, they will receive this message:
This is useful if you want to control your guest list and invite only those you want at your event — other students or HVCC colleagues, for example.
- Lock the meeting: It’s always smart to lock your front door, even when you’re inside the house. When you lock a Zoom Meeting that’s already started, no new participants can join, even if they have the meeting ID and password (if you have required one). In the meeting, click Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the Participants pop-up, click the button that says Lock Meeting.
- Remove unwanted or disruptive participants: From that Participants menu, you can mouse over a participant’s name, and several options will appear, including Remove. Click that to kick someone out of the meeting. If they are removed, they cannot rejoin this meeting.
- Allow removed participants to rejoin: When you do remove someone, they can’t rejoin the meeting. But you can toggle your settings to allow removed participants to rejoin, in case you boot the wrong person.
- Put people on hold: You can put everyone else on hold, and the attendees’ video and audio connections will be disabled momentarily. Click on someone’s video thumbnail and select Start Attendee On Hold to activate this feature. Click Take Off Hold in the Participants list when you’re ready to have them back.
- Disable video: Hosts can turn someone’s video off. This will allow hosts to block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate gestures on video or for that time your friend’s inside pocket is the star of the show.
- Mute participants: Hosts can mute/un-mute individual participants or all of them at once. Hosts can block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate noise from other participants. You can also enable Mute Upon Entry in your settings to keep the clamor at bay in large meetings.
- Turn off file transfer: In-meeting file transfer allows people to share files through the in-meeting chat. Toggle this off to keep the chat from getting bombarded with unsolicited pics, GIFs, memes, and other content.
- Turn off annotation: You and your attendees can doodle and mark up content together using annotations during a screen share. You can disable the annotation feature in your Zoom settings to prevent people from writing all over the screens.
- Disable private chat: Zoom has in-meeting chat for everyone or participants can message each other privately. Restrict participants’ ability to chat among one another while your event is going on and cut back on distractions. This is really to prevent anyone from getting unwanted messages during the meeting.
Try the Waiting Room
One of the best ways to use Zoom privately is to use the Waiting Room feature. Just like it sounds, the Waiting Room is a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you’re ready for them. It’s almost like the velvet rope outside a nightclub, with you as the bouncer carefully monitoring who gets let in.
Meeting hosts can customize Waiting Room settings for additional control, and you can even personalize the message people see when they hit the Waiting Room so they know they’re in the right spot. This message is really a great spot to post any rules/guidelines for your event, like who it’s intended for.
The video at Waiting Room is really a great way to screen who’s trying to enter your event and keep unwanted guests out.
Training Resources
If you would like instructions/training, check out these training videos. For ideas on how to use Zoom for instruction, check out the best practices for use of Zoom as a synchronous course delivery tool. If you would like to learn more, call the ITS Help Desk at (518) 629-7364 to arrange a training session conducted via Zoom.
Support links provided by Zoom Support, HVCC Distance Learning, and Information Technology Services.
Published: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 12:15:06 +0000 by j.brennan