Using Zoom Remotely for Lecture/Best Practices

In the event of unforeseen circumstances or emergency situations, Zoom gives us the opportunity to still lecture to our students remotely from anywhere in the world, as long as you are connected to an internet source. With each WesternU Zoom account, we are able to start a meeting/lecture at any given moment and have up to 300 participants join a lecture through a link that is sent to all participants. Below you will find a step by step process of how to create a Zoom account, how to schedule a meeting (along with making sure all attendees are muted on the back end), how to invite attendees, how to start your scheduled meeting/lecture and how to share your screen during the lecture. You will also find links within the article that will take you to a step by step artcile for Polling, Recordings and Breakout Rooms.

Creating an Account 

• To create an account, go to zoom.westernu.edu

• The SSO page will then pop up

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• Add your WesternU credentials in and your account will then automatically be created. 

If by any chance ADFS is down and you aren't able to create an account using single sign-on, go to zoom.us

• Click on "Sign up, It's Free" in the top right corner.

• You will then enter your WesternU email.

•  Zoom will then send you an email. Click on the link and it will take you to your Zoom account.

Scheduling a Meeting and Sending Meeting Invite

Scheduling a Meeting

• To schedule a new meeting/lecture go to "Meetings" then "Schedule a New Meeting"

• You can then change the topic of the meeting and also schedule the date and time

• From there, you can change the allowances of different settings. Here are best practice settings for a lecture: 

  1. Make sure the box next to "Enable join before host" is not checked, so the participants who join your meeting will be on standby before you start. 

  2. By default, Zoom automatically has the participants' audio on, but it is probably best to check the box next to "Mute participants upon entry" so you don't have to worry about muting anyone's microphone and disrupting lecture.  

  3. Enable waiting room so your students can enter the Zoom session once you start it 

  4. Always record your lectures TO THE CLOUD

Sending a Meeting Invite 

• After selecting "Save" (or schedule) you will be able to invite others by google, outlook or yahoo calendar. 

  1. Because the University uses Outlook, it is recommended that you select the Outlook Calendar option.

• You can also copy the invitation, which will allow you to copy and paste the invitation into an email and send to the participants manually. 

Here is a video to show you the steps of creating a meeting and sending the invite:

Adding a Poll to your meeting 

Here is an article explaining more on Polling in Zoom.

Adding Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms to your meeting 

Here you will find an article on how to Pre-Assign Breakout Rooms.

Starting a Meeting/Lecture 

• When you are ready to begin a meeting, after you sign in to your account, you will go to "Meetings" under Upcoming Meetings and select "Start" on the right side of your meeting block.

• The Zoom client should then launch automatically to start the meeting. 

• Once your meeting screen pops up, make sure to test your speaker and microphone and Join the Computer Audio as shown in the picture below.

Screen Share

• In order to share your screen, click on the green "Share" button at the bottom of the Zoom screen.

• From there, a screen will pop up giving you options on which window or desktop to share. 

• After clicking on the window you will be sharing, be sure to click on both of the checkboxes on the bottom left of that window to ensure all sound and video clips on your screen will be seen and heard from your participants.

• After those boxes are selected, you can press the share button on the right side of the window. 

• You can then select Stop Share (in red) at the top of your screen at any time. 

Here is a video to show you how to start and stop your Screen Share:

While in your meeting, you can start breakout rooms if you are the host. Zoom gives you the option to automatically assign breakout rooms or gives you the opportunity to manually assign them. Here is an article showing you how to start Breakout Rooms in your meeting.

Recording in Zoom and retrieving your Recording

Here are articles showing you how to record to your computer and to the cloud along with where to find your recordings once they have finished processing. 

Recording to the Cloud

Recording to your computer

Manage Zoom Cloud Recordings

This is a best practice to help the University, faculty, and staff continue to provide the best options for you and our students in any given unforeseen circumstances. 

Zoom has a support website available to you 24/7 with easily accessible information and step by step How-To guides. The link to their support site is here: www.support.zoom.us