Like many universities around the world, UTS has, unfortunately, been the victim of ‘Zoom bombers’ gatecrashing tutorials and disrupting learning with abusive and inappropriate conduct. We’ve already given you some tips for controlling behaviour in Zoom meetings, and now we’ve done even more to prevent this from continuing by quickly changing a number of default settings in UTS Zoom. This will help to further secure Zoom meeting rooms and give Zoom ‘hosts’ more control over the way meeting participants interact.
Hosts can control screen-sharing
By default, participants in a UTS Zoom meeting will not be able to share their screen at all, with anyone – only the host and co-hosts will have this authority. However, hosts can enable screen sharing for all participants in the meeting if they need to for student presentations. Meeting hosts can also allow individuals to share their screens by promoting trusted participants to co-host status – simply click on the ‘up’ arrow found next to the ‘Share Screen’ button on the host control tool bar, and the ‘Advanced Sharing Options’ to modify the screen sharing privileges.
Be aware, however, that when students are in breakout rooms, they have full audio, video, and screen share capabilities.
Hosts can control the chat
While the chat function can be a useful addition to any online meeting, it can also become the home to distracting and sometimes, unfortunately, inappropriate interactions. By default, private chats are now disabled in UTS Zoom. As a meeting host, you have control over the chat function and can prevent participants from chatting with anyone, or allow them to chat with only the host or with everyone publicly.
Hosts can ensure the right people are in the meeting
To help control who can join a UTS Zoom meeting, hosts are now able to specify if they want selected groups to be allowed to join a meeting. They can choose from:
- UTS Staff and Students – who must be signed into a UTS staff, student or alumni Zoom account. No guests allowed.
- UTS Staff – who must be signed in via a UTS staff Zoom account. No guests allowed.
- Anyone signed into Zoom – who must be signed into a Zoom account. Non-UTS participants will be sent to the waiting room. Clicking on the meeting link will force the user to log in if they have not already done so.
Luckily, it’s not hard to for hosts to manage the waiting room:
- Staff and students accessing a meeting via the Single Sign On (SSO) will always bypass the waiting room
- Hosts can identify guests and approve entry to the meeting – the word ‘guest’ will now always appear in brackets next to the name of a guest user, their name set against a light orange background
- Hosts won’t be able to disable the waiting room
FAQs
What happens to my existing scheduled Zoom meetings?
The following features will automatically be applied to existing scheduled meetings:
- The waiting room is enabled by default
- Hosts will control who can share their screen
All other settings will remain the same.
Why can’t I just invite my class group to a Zoom meeting?
Zoom isn’t set up to work with class groups. Look at Microsoft Teams if you need to meet online with a specific group of students.
Will guests be able to act as co-hosts in meetings?
Yes, if they have been designated as a co-host by the host during the meeting.
Can participants admit guests to meeting from the waiting room?
No, only hosts and co-hosts can admit guests.
Can people outside the UTS community be an alternative host?
No, only UTS staff and students can be an alternative host if logged into the UTS Zoom server. Please note that the main role of an alternative host is to start a meeting in the absence of the main host.
What about alumni? How do I invite them to a meeting?
Zoom treats alumni as if they are students if they login using their UTS alumni email address.
We recommend you start your class with a slide to establish appropriate behaviour when using Zoom. This slide, along with advice on how to manage your Zoom class, can be found here: https://lx-dev.uts.edu.au/blog/2020/03/26/6-tips-for-managing-interaction-in-your-zoom-class