Below are frequently asked questions about our Hampshire Zoom accounts. If you have a question not answered below, feel free to reach out to the Help Desk and/or view Zoom's Getting Started for additional assistance.
Hampshire has purchased 200 host Zoom license for use by our employees. Employees needing to host Zoom sessions longer than 40 minutes for teaching or work can get a Hampshire licensed by following these instructions (login required). When you sign in for the first time, your account is automatically created.
Go to zoom.hampshire.edu and click on sign-in. When directed to a Hampshire log in page, enter your Hampshire account information.
Since we did not purchase licenses for all employees, if you don't expect to host sessions for more than 40 minutes and still want to be on the Hampshire Zoom, please sign in and then let us know you don't need the full account. We can make your account a basic level in the Hampshire system that does not take up a license.
We would like to save the majority of the Hampshire licenses for faculty and staff, but we can also have unlicensed basic users in our account. Students that log into the Hampshire Zoom will automatically get a "basic" account that is not licensed. With a basic account, the meetings you host will be limited to 40 mins if you have more than 2 participants. There are not restrictions on attending Zoom meetings.
Students using a basic Hampshire Zoom account will have their access removed upon conversion to an alumni account. Alumni can always use a free Zoom account on the non-Hampshire zoom.us site.
A benefit to using a generic/departmental account is it allows multiple people to manage meetings in one place. If you want to use a departmental account, you can, but please limit the number of licenses you are using by asking the Help Desk to downgrade any individual accounts to basic accounts when possible. We have unlicensed basic users available in our account. The meetings you host in a basic account will be limited to 40 mins if you have more than 2 participants, but there is no limitations on attending meetings. If you would like us to change any account to basic, please email the Help Desk.
Many of the advanced features need to be first turned on in your settings. Go to zoom.hampshire.edu, sign in, then click on settings on the left side menu. Scroll though the settings and decide which ones you want to have on or off. If you ever want to experiment with various settings, feel free to ask an IT support staff member to join you in some testings.
Co-hosts do not have access to the following controls as they are only available as host controls in a meeting:
Co-hosts also cannot start a meeting. If a host needs someone else to be able to start the meeting, they can assign an alternative host in the meeting set up. For more information, view the Zoom help center article and video Host and Co-Host Controls in a Meeting.
Yes, our Zoom/Moodle integration makes it easier for your to display the meetings and recordings related to a particular course in one place that is readily available to you and your students. Any meetings you create from a Moodle course will display only in that course and not in others. For steps to add a Zoom activity to your course, please view our Zoom/Moodle Integration page in the The Moodle Guide for Faculty
The sharp increase in the use of Zoom has exposed some security concerns either with Zoom's own security protocols or with bad actors infiltrating meetings to cause mischief or spread malware. Zoom has created a list of guidelines to ensure that your meeting is secure, but below are some important ones we want to call your attention to.
Starting September 27, Zoom will require that all meetings have a Passcode or a Waiting Room enabled for all paid accounts. If you don’t have a Waiting Room or Passcode enabled by September 27, Zoom will enable a Waiting Room for your meetings. IMPORTANT: If you add Passcodes to an existing meeting, calendar invites will need to be resent to include the Passcode. Please visit the Zoom support page FAQ Meetings Waiting Room and Passcode Requirements, September 27, 2020 for additional details and suggestions.
It’s best practice to generate a random meeting ID for your session, so it can’t be shared multiple times. This is the better alternative to using your Personal Meeting ID, which is not advised because it’s basically an ongoing meeting that’s always running. Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events. When you share your meeting link on social media or other public forums, that makes your event … extremely public. ANYONE with the link can join your meeting.
Meetings should require passcodes for an added layer of security. Passcodes can be set at the individual meeting level or can be enabled at the user, group, or account level for all meetings and webinars. View the Zoom Help Center article on Meeting and Webinar Passcodes for more details and instruction.
To give instructors more control over what students are seeing and prevent them from sharing random content, Zoom recently updated the default screen-sharing settings for our education users. Sharing privileges are now set to “Host Only,” so teachers by default are the only ones who can share content in class.
However, if students need to share their work with the group, you can allow screen sharing in the host controls. Click the arrow next to Share Screen and then Advanced Sharing Options. Under “Who can share?” choose “Only Host” and close the window. You can also change the default sharing option to All Participants in your Zoom settings.
By default we have enabled the option to display "If you cannot download or run the application, start from your browser." when joining a meeting. Click on the start from your browser to join the meeting in your browser instead of the app. We suggest you use Chrome as other browsers do not let you join the computer audio. Even if you are using Chrome, you'll find that the experience is less satisfying. You can only see the video for the current speaker, for instance. You can find instructions for uninstalling the Zoom software on a Mac here, but note that there are two different procedures depending on which version of the Zoom client you have.
Zoom comes pre-stocked with numerous security features designed to control online classrooms, prevent disruption, and help educators effectively teach remotely. Here are some best practices provided by Zoom for securing your virtual classroom. Check out this Zoom blog posted on April 8, 2020 to review the new enhancements for ensuring the security and privacy of your account. To update to the latest version of Zoom, visit their download page. To get more tips and tricks for securely using Zoom, check out Zoom’s YouTube page or the Zoom Blog.
If you have any questions or problems, please let us know at helpdesk@hampshire.edu or enter an IT Ticket (login required). Additionally, Zoom has excellent documentation and video tutorials on their Zoom help site.