Overview

When joining Zoom class meetings faculty and students must log in with NetID and Password on the UAlbany SSO webpage – just like for MyUAlbany or UAlbany Mail. 

Follow the steps below to set up your Zoom class meetings. 

Activate Your UAlbany Zoom Account

Both you and your students must activate your Zoom account in the UAlbany campus license.  This will enable you to seamlessly connect to Zoom class meetings and recordings and allow students to easily log in to your classes.

1. Go to https://albany.zoom.us

2. Click the Sign In button

Add Zoom to Your Brightspace Course

Streamline the workflow to schedule and access class meetings and recordings in one place inside your Brightspace course.  No need to re-post links to meetings or recordings.  Control access, maximize security and privacy, and provide your students with an easy and consistent path to attend class.  With the Zoom tool in your Brightspace course, you need only to schedule your class meetings, and recordings will be automatically available for viewing once they are processed. 

• Add the Zoom tool to your Brightspace Course
  
  
  

• Schedule Zoom Class Meetings
  Be sure to schedule your meetings using the Zoom tool in Brightspace.  Because the Zoom tool connects your Zoom account to your Brightspace account, you can import meetings that you've scheduled outside of Brightspace, if necessary. 
  
  
  

• Students Activate their UAlbany Zoom Account
  Instruct students to activate their Zoom account and to always log in to your class meetings through your Brightspace course (add verbiage to your syllabus in your Brightspace course).

• Join Zoom Class Meetings
  Always join the meeting through Brightspace to ensure that you have full control and access to the meeting tools that you need to manage student engagement during your class.
  
  
  

• See How Students will Join Meetings
  Students must login to their UAlbany Zoom account in order to join meetings.  We recommend that students first log in to Zoom prior to clicking the link to join a meeting.  Note, students log in to Zoom separately from Brightspace.
  
  

Conduct Your Zoom Class Meeting

Manage Participants

It’s critical that you know how to use the Participants panel to manage your attendees.  The Participants panel is where you go to put a stop to disruptive or unwanted behavior.  Your students will be listed in the Participants panel and where you can manage their ability to un-mute the microphone.  Additionally, the Waiting Room is part of the Participants panel so if you need to admit a guest to the meeting, do so in the Participants panel. 

• Manage the Waiting Room
  Guest Participants without a UAlbany Zoom account will be kept in the Waiting Room until you admit them.
  NOTE: if you enable the Waiting Room for ALL Participants, UAlbany authenticated users (your students) will by-pass the waiting room and enter directly into your meeting.

• Controls for Managing Participants
  Microphone and camera availability, remove a participant, and other options are available here.

• Remove someone from your meeting
  Remove a participant if they do not belong or are causing disruption.

• Place someone in your meeting On Hold
  Temporarily prevent a participant from seeing and hearing the meeting activity or other participants.

• Lock your class meeting
  Locking prevents new attendees from joining; the virtual equivalent of shutting/locking your classroom door, perhaps after a time threshold for allowing attendance.

• More about managing your participants
  Additional actions through the Participants panel in your meetings.

Use Zoom Tools

These are just a few of the numerous capabilities in Zoom that allow you to facilitate engaging class meetings.

• Manage Audio
  To speak to your class, click the Microphone button.  Find out more about testing audio and other settings at the link above.

• Manage Video
  To be viewed by your students, click the Camera button.  Find out more about testing video and other settings at the link above.

• Share your screen
  To share your computer screen or application, click the Share Screen button.  Find out more about screen sharing, including enabling your students to screen share, sharing a whiteboard, sharing computer audio and more at the link above.

• Display Participants in Gallery View
  Gallery view lets you see thumbnail displays of participants, in a grid pattern, which expands and contracts as participants join and leave the meeting. Depending on your computer processing speed, you can display up to 49 participants in a single screen of the gallery view.

• Managing Breakout Rooms
  Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time.

• Teaching from Home
  This article describes how to set up your computer system and peripheral requirements for facilitating Zoom meetings from home or office settings, including hardware requirements and optional additional devices.

Manage Zoom Recordings

When you record to the cloud your recordings can easily be shared with your students.  Your recording link will be emailed to you and, if using the Zoom tool in Brightspace, the link will be listed on your Brightspace course automatically. 

How to record to the cloud 

1. Start a meeting as the host.

2. Click the Record button.

3. Select Record to the Cloud to begin recording.
   
   

   Open

   

   Record choices in the meeting controls in Zoom

   
   
   
   

4. To stop recording, click Pause/Stop Recording or End Meeting.
   
   

   Open

   

   Pause/Stop Recording button

   
   
   Once the recording has been stopped, the recording must be processed before viewing. Zoom will send an email to the host's email address when the process is completed.
   
   
   

5. Manage your cloud recordings:

6.  

   • Download, share, or delete cloud recordings.

   • Trim the playback range of a shared recording.

What you will record

There are several recording layouts for local and cloud recordings depending on the video layout of your meeting.  Log in to view your settings.

Security of Recordings

You can manage your Zoom recording settings to require authentication and pass code to view recordings.  Note, this will apply to your students.  Log in to view your settings.

Only authenticated users can view cloud recordings

The viewers need to authenticate prior to viewing the cloud recordings, hosts can choose one of the authentication methods when sharing a cloud recording.

Require password to access shared cloud recordings

Password protection will be enforced for shared cloud recordings. A random password will be generated which can be modified by the users. This setting is applicable for newly generated recordings only.

Ownership of Zoom recordings

It's important to know that Zoom cloud recordings are the property of and are in the possession and control of the meeting host. The meeting host is the person who scheduled the Zoom meeting. 

Zoom can be utilized by students to record assignments or other evaluative activities, including presentations or even a dissertation defense.  In such cases, carefully consider how and when events should be recorded and whether there are any privacy concerns. In making such determinations, consider the following:

• If the meeting host is a student, faculty may not have easy access to the recorded content

• If a recording is in progress and the host leaves the meeting, the cloud recording still remains in the possession and control of the original host, even if they make someone else a host

Tips for Student-generated Recordings

You may utilize Zoom to allow students to make a recording for an assignment or other evaluative activity.  This might include group presentations or even a dissertation defense.  In some cases, a student might be the meeting host, if s/he scheduled the Zoom Meeting.  It's important to know that Zoom cloud recordings are the property of and are in the possession and control of the meeting host.  In the event that a meeting host is the student, you may not have easy access to the recorded content.  If a recording is in progress and the host leaves the meeting, making someone else the host, the cloud recording still remains in the possession and control of the original host.  You should carefully consider how and when to record such events and the degree to which privacy is necessary in any case.