Teaching Tips

Security Options for Meeting Access

Select the appropriate meeting settings   

Our campus Zoom account comes with a limited number of Zoom webinar licenses, so we cannot grant every request for use of a webinar. There are ways to manage your Zoom meetings to replicate that of a webinar while also securing your meeting from unwanted attendees. For more security recommendations, visit the Zoom Security and Privacy help page.

Additionally, breakout rooms are not available for webinars. The breakout room feature is only available in regular Zoom meetings. To learn more about breakout rooms, please review Zoom's support page on Managing Breakout Rooms.

1. Sign in to the AU Zoom Portal using your AU username and password.
2. Select the Meetings link in the navigation panel on the left hand side.
3. Choose the existing meeting, or click Schedule a Meeting to create a new meeting. 
   
   

Step 1: Change the defalut meeting passcode

This feature requires participants to enter a password before being allowed access to your meeting.

1. Ensure the Passcode option is selected.
2. Enter a new passcode or use the password generated automatically.

Step 2: Use the waiting room feature

Waiting rooms allow the host to control who enters their current meeting. 

1. To enable a waiting room for your meeting select the Waiting Room option.

Step 3: Use the registration feature

This feature will require your students to register to attend your class meeting.

Step 3.1 - Enable require registration for your meeting

1. When scheduling your meeting locate Registration and select Required.
2. Save your meeting.

Step 3.2 - Manage meeting registration

1. Once your meeting is saved, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Edit to modify the registration options.
   
   
2. It is recommended that you select Manually Approve and deselect Show social share buttons on registration page. Save your changes. 
   
   
3. Copy your meeting registration link and send to registrants. 
   
   

Step 4: Only authenticated users can join meetings

By default, anyone with the Zoom meeting link can join the meeting as a guest. You can force users to authenicate before being allowed to join your meeting. If you choose this option you can limit participants with an AU Zoom account.

Remove participants during meeting

Zoom provides a tool to remove participants as needed during a meeting. 

1. Within the Zoom toolbar, select the Participants button.
   
   
2. Locate the participant from within the participant list and click the More button for that participant. Select Remove.
   
   
3. You will see a window prompt asking if you are sure you want to remove the participant. Click Remove.

Prevent removed participants from rejoining your meeting

You can prevent participants who have been removed from your meeting from rejoining your meeting. This will only affect users who are removed by the host or co-host. Users who lose connection will be able to rejoin as normal. To change this setting, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the AU Zoom Portal using your AU username and password
2. Select the Settings button in the navigation panel on the left hand side, then select the Meetings tab (located across the main content area). 
   
   
3. Under "Allow removed participants to rejoin," toggle the feature to OFF (grayed out).
   
   

Manage Participant Interactions - Pre Meeting

Learn about what settings you can adjust before your meeting to manage participant interactions.

1. Sign in to the AU Zoom Portal using your AU username and password.
2. Select the Settings button in the navigation panel on the left hand side, then select the Meetings tab (located across the main content area). 
   
   

STEP 1: Disable File transfer

Ensure that only the host can send files during the meeting. 

1. Disable the Send Files via meeting chat option.

STEP 2: Screen sharing for Host Only

Only the Hosts and Co-Hosts will be able to share their screen when this is enabled. 

1. Enable the Screen sharing option.
2. Select Host Only for Who can share? 

Step 3: Disable Annotation

Only the Hosts and Co-Host can interact with content that they share. 

1. Disable the Annotation option.
2. (Optional) If you want to leave the Annotation enabled, you can select the checkbox to allow Only the user who is sharing can annotate.

Limit Participant Interactions - In Meeting

Learn about what settings you can adjust during your meeting to limit participant interactions.

Once you are inside your Zoom meeting, you should change these settings to provide better control over the participants.

Mute All, Uncheck Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves

You can mute all of the participants that are in the meeting and those that might join later.

1. Within the Zoom toolbar, select the Participants button.
   
   
2. Select the Mute All button.
   
   
3. In the pop-up window that appears, deselect the Allow participants to unmute themselves option and select Yes. Note: This option is important to deselect as it prevents participants from unmuting at any time.
   
   

Any co-host will be able to unmute themselves and the host and/or co-hosts can unmute any participant that they would like to permit to speak in the meeting.

Set Chat to Host Only

This is meant to replicate the Q&A feature of a webinar, as well as provide a more secure chat during your meeting. Quite often in a webinar the Q&A is private, and participant questions are only viewable to the host. Adjusting your chat settings in the meeting to "Host Only" will prevent all chat messages from being public to replicate the Q&A capability. Additionally, for meeting security, the chat can be used inappropriately by unwanted attendees to display foul and disrespectful language that would be visible to everyone. This would be more likely to occur in a publicly accessible meeting, however, it is always relevant.

1. Within the Zoom toolbar, select the Chat button.
   
   
2. In the bottom right corner of the chat window, select the three dots (...) and select Host Only.
   
   

Messages from participants will be sent to the host and no one else. If there are co-hosts in the meeting, participants will be able to select whether to send their message privately to either the host or co-host and not both.

Limitations on Video Control

Learn about what limitations you have for controlling participant's video feeds during your meeting.

You aren't able to forcibly disable ALL participant video feeds at once and keep them disabled like you can with microphones. If video from participants needs to be managed, here is what we suggest:

• In the meeting invitations you send out, or wherever you post your meeting link for people to access, clarify that participants should have their video feed turned off when they are in the meeting.
• Set Participant Video to OFF when scheduling the meeting. This means that when a participant joins your meeting, their video feed will be OFF by default but they are still able to manually turn it on once they are in the meeting.
  
  
• Announce at the beginning of the meeting that everyone should have their video feed turned off.
• Hosts and Co-Hosts can disable video for individual participants as needed from within the participant list by selecting the More button for a particular participant and selecting Stop Video. For large meetings this can be challenging so this is where having multiple co-hosts to help you manage the participant list is recommended.
  
  

General Zoom Proctoring Advice to Faculty

• Faculty and students will have to adapt to the live proctoring via Zoom exam format. It will be new and different for everyone so keep that in mind.
• If possible, complete a practice proctoring session with students via Zoom to ensure the process works well.
• Schedule the exam proctoring Zoom session at least 30 minutes before the exam and ends at least 30 minutes after the exam is complete to accommodate and address any technical issues or other difficulties that may arise. Please be aware that extended time and/or separate Zoom sessions may be needed to provide access for disabled students. TDS staff are available to consult at tds@augusta.edu if you have any questions or concerns on how you can provide such accommodations.
• Evaluate each technology chosen to be implemented into the exam proctoring process to mirror a student's experience and overcome any technical or accessibility issues before they arise.
• Visit the TDS website for instructions on accessing your list of disabled students and reasonable accommodations. Please make sure to access your student list before each exam as accommodations may change throughout the semester.
• Use the chat tool for most of your communication back and forth with students. If you don't have them, use the "Reactions" button or the "Nonverbal feedback icons" as those aren't accessible for disabled students. If you have to use any links in the chat just make sure you provide clear instructions to copy/paste the link into a new browser window as links in the chat are not very accessible either.
• Each proctor can access a report of their session that shows those that attended, when they joined, when they left, and the duration of when they were present in the meeting. That report can be accessed via the AU Zoom Web Portal by selecting Reports on the left-hand side navigation once signed in.

Recommendations When Recording Students for Live Online Proctoring

• It is recommended that faculty modify the exam guidelines to disclose that the proctored exams will be recorded.
• This information should be repeated at the start of the exam once the recording has been turned on.
• Additionally, when students register for the exam, faculty may add a disclaimer that the session will be recorded.
• If the students are recorded and they can be identified, the portion that shows the student(s) are considered to be an educational record under FERPA.
• Only the instructor or proctors should have access to the recording.

Any class recordings that include students are considered education records and thereby subject to FERPA. Recordings that show students may only be kept and used by the instructor of record for the current class and section in which the student participates. These recordings may not be used in subsequent semesters and, under record retention policy, should be retained for one year after the course completion.

Basic Zoom Meeting Settings (Regardless of Scenario)

Account Specific Settings to Adjust on Proctor's Zoom Account

• Make your meeting title and/or description very specific and descriptive, especially if you have different meetings for different sections. Make it very clear to the student what meeting they are joining.
• Enable the Waiting Room feature. You may also want to edit the waiting room message to include specific instructions or announcements about the proctored exam. Visit Zoom's support page on Customizing Waiting Room.
• Enable Video for Participants and Host (unless participant video cannot be required due to privacy and equity reasons.
• Enable Authenticated users can join. Please note that only participants signing in with AU log in will be able to join the meeting.
• Enable Recording to Cloud* (see last section for more information on this)

Account Specific Settings to Adjust on Proctor's Zoom Account

• Disable Private chat (no 1:1 messaging between participants)
• Enable Auto save chat (this will save a .txt file of the chat to the host's computer)
• Enable Sound notification when someone joins or leaves and set to Host and co-hosts only
• Disable File transfer
• Enable Screen sharing but set it to Host Only
• Disable Annotation
• Disable Allow removed participants to rejoin
• Disable Allow participants to rename themselves

Scenario #1: Large Lecture Class (100+ students)

While we won't going to go in depth on each of the suggestions below, please feel free to submit a request to Academic Technology Support and Training to schedule a consult to properly configure your settings.

• Will need multiple Zoom meetings
• Will need multiple proctors(Instructors, TAs, GAs, Preceptors, etc.)
• Each proctor would create/schedule their own Zoom meeting
  • This can be done via D2L or web portal (TAs who have a TA role in D2L can schedule Zoom meetings within the D2L course)
• Require registration so that students get registered to the appropriate proctoring session and that they don't accidentally register and attempt to access multiple proctoring sessions. Some key settings to adjust regarding registration would include:
  • Close registration after meeting date
  • Turn off social media share buttons
  • Turn off "allow access from multiple devices"
• At most, try to limit each proctoring session to 45 participants including the host and co-hosts.
• (Optional) At the beginning of the proctored exam, upon entrance to the meeting take the student into a breakout room to have them verify their identification as well as show you via their video camera feed their workspace and environment. This is often done to verify that nobody else is in the room and that they don't have any prohibited materials out during the exam. The reason this is listed as optional is due to privacy concerns. Please note that this may pose as a barrier for students with physical disabilities.

Scenario #2: Medium Lecture Class (25-99 students)

While we won't going to go in depth on each of the suggestions below, please feel free to submit a request to Academic Technology Support and Training to schedule a consult to properly configure your settings.

• Will need multiple Zoom meetings
• Will need multiple proctors (Instructors, TAs, GAs, Preceptors, etc.)
• Each proctor would create/schedule their own Zoom meeting
  • This can be done via D2L or web portal (TAs who have a TA role in D2L can schedule Zoom meetings within the D2L course)
• At most, try to limit each proctoring session to 15-20 participants including the host and co-hosts.
• (Optional) Consider registration so that students get registered to the appropriate proctoring session and that they don't accidentally register and attempt to access multiple proctoring sessions. Some key settings to adjust regarding registration would include:
  • Close registration after meeting date
  • Turn off social media share buttons
  • Turn off "allow access from multiple devices"
• (Optional) At the beginning of the proctored exam, upon entrance to the meeting take the student into a breakout room to have them verify their identification as well asshow you via their video camera feed their workspace and environment. This is often done to verify that nobody else is in the room and that they don't have any prohibited materials out during the exam. The reason this is listed as optional is due to privacy concerns. Please note that this may pose as a barrier for students with physical disabilities.

Scenario #3: Small Lecture Class (under 25 students) 

While we won't going to go in depth on each of the suggestions below, please feel free to submit a request to Academic Technology Support and Training to schedule a consult to properly configure your settings.

• Will only need one Zoom meeting to be created and likely only one proctor.
  • You can still utilize a TA or another instructor as a co-host as another pair of eyes in the meeting.
• (Optional) At the beginning of the proctored exam, upon entrance to the meeting take the student into a breakout room to have them verify their identification as well asshow you via their video camera feed their workspace and environment. This is often done to verify that nobody else is in the room and that they don't have any prohibited materials out during the exam. The reason this is listed as optional is due to privacy concerns. Please note that this may pose as a barrier for students with physical disabilities.