Video conferencing: Zoom

Overview

Eligibility

All staff and students at the University of York can access this service.

With Zoom you can:

• Host meetings with up to 300 participants connecting through audio, video and chat
• Schedule meetings either instantly or for future dates
• Set up password controls to meeting, personal meeting rooms and unique meeting IDs
• Share screens with participants (multi-screen sharing available)
• Record meetings either to your desktop or the cloud in MP4 or M4A formats
• Display a virtual background for video calls
• Make use of a virtual whiteboard and annotate shared screens
• Mute all participants 
• Exchange private and group messages with participants
• Gain attention with a 'Raise Hand' option

You need a Zoom account to start a meeting but other participants don’t need an account to join. This makes it easy to conduct video meetings with participants outside the University who may not have a Zoom account.

You can access Zoom by installing the desktop client, mobile app or browser add on. We recommend that you install the desktop client when using this service as this provides a better user experience and enables you to access all the available features. The Zoom desktop client can be installed via Software Center on managed University computers, or via the Zoom website on personal devices.

Participants can join using web browsers, Android and iOS mobile apps or by installing the desktop client. Meetings can be scheduled either via Google calendar or by logging in to the Zoom website.

Zoom can be used across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux systems.

Optional features

If you need to host meetings for more than 300 participants IT Services can enable the following feature on a case by case basis:

• Webinars for up to 100, 500, 1000, 3000, 5000 or 10000 participants
• Meetings for up to 500 or 1000 participants

If you require these features please submit a request using this form.

Instructions

Setting up your account

1. Go to https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us
   • Please note, you must use this link, and not www.zoom.us
2. Select the option to Sign in / Configure your account
3. Sign in with your University username and password

When joining a meeting, you will be given the option to download the Zoom desktop client. You can download the client or select start from your browser to use the web version. The Zoom desktop client can also be installed via Software Center on managed University computers, or via the Zoom website on personal devices.

See also this joining guide for participants.

Signing in to the Zoom desktop client

1. On the Zoom desktop client/app, select Sign in.
2. Select Sign in with SSO.
3. Type in york-ac-uk as the company domain and press Continue.
4. After a browser window has opened, sign in with your University username and password.
5. If prompted by your browser, select the option to Open Zoom.

See our Wiki page for checking you are correctly signed in for more details.

Signing in to Zoom in Google Calendar

When choosing Zoom as the conferencing option for the first time in Google Calendar, you will be asked to log in:

1. Before selecting ‘Log in’ in Google Calendar, you must first go to https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us in a separate tab in your web browser and choose Sign In.
2. If prompted, sign in with your University username and password. Leave the tab open.
3. Go back to Google Calendar. After adding Zoom as the conferencing option to an event, select Log in. This should automatically sign you in.
4. Follow the prompts requesting access to your Zoom account and select Authorize. Zoom is now connected to your Google Calendar and can be selected for conferencing.
   

Alternatively, if you select ‘Log in’ in Google calendar before signing in on the University Zoom website, you will see a sign-in window. You must scroll down to find Sign in with SSO.

Do not choose the option to sign in with Google or enter your username and password. Instead, enter york-ac-uk as the company domain.

You can then sign-in using your University username and password. 

Recommendations for hosting a meeting

If you're hosting a meeting, there are some settings you need to familiarise yourself with to prevent unwanted participants from disrupting your meeting. Our Zoom Wiki page includes the following guides:

• Secure your Zoom meeting
• Zoom Frequently Asked Questions
• Managing Recordings

Help & troubleshooting

IT Services provide comprehensive guidance on how to get started with Zoom and FAQs on managing, securing and recording your Zoom meeting on our Zoom Guidance wiki (login required). You should take a look at the guidance provided on the wiki before contacting IT Support.

Zoom provides comprehensive online guidance and daily webinars (on weekdays):

• Zoom video tutorials
• Zoom live training webinars

Zoom have also written a blog post on preventing unwanted participants from disrupting your meeting:

• How to Keep the Party Crashers from Crashing Your Zoom Event

See the below document for University guidance on recording meetings:

• Managing video conferencing recordings

If you’re having problems using Zoom, that are not answered by the above online guidance, please get in touch with IT Support.

Data protection

The University has contractual agreements with Zoom for secure and compliant data processing and storage. This covers live meetings and the storage of recordings and chat transcripts on their cloud platform.

The recording of meetings is subject to GDPR and existing departmental policies. Participants must be informed that they are being recorded and recordings must be managed in a manner compliant with GDPR. For example:

• Notify participants verbally that the meeting will be recorded, for what purpose, and how and with whom this will be shared
• Restrict access to the recording to the intended audience
• Manage storage, archiving and deletion in line with agreed retention schedules (videos should not be kept beyond their useful purpose)
  

It may not always be appropriate to record meetings, eg because of the sensitivity of the discussions or because individuals have objected to a recording taking place. If in any doubt on how to proceed, get in touch with the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@york.ac.uk.

Zoom has an optional feature called Attention Monitoring which enables meeting hosts to see when participants tab away from an active Zoom meeting (i.e. to another window). This feature will be disabled globally as participants are unlikely to realise that their behaviour is being monitored.

Our commitments

Your responsibilities

We expect you to:

• comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)