What should my Zoom Settings be for Hosting a Meeting?

Digging Deeper into the Zoom settings to Have a Successful Online Meeting with Students, Colleagues, and Parents. This doc looks at the Settings in Zoom and How to Host a Meeting to get what you want out of it.

The Comprehensive Guide to Educating Through Zoom is a document created by the company specifically for teachers. It's a great introduction.

Check Your Settings (Things to Consider BEFORE Scheduling a Meeting)

Open the Zoom App and login. Click on the gear in the top-right corner to see the settings.

Take some time to go through these settings to make sure you are happy with them.

General:
- Do you have dual monitors? Do you want to use both for Zoom?
- Do you want to be reminded of your upcoming meetings?
Video:
- Remember Arvind's backward Meadowbrook Flag in his first video? Mirror my video will fix that here.
- Display the participant's name on their videos
- Showing video preview dialog when joining a video meeting lets you make sure the camera is set up correctly.
- Spotlight my video when speaking lets others know who is speaking.
Audio:
- test your Microphone and Speaker here
- Press and hold SPACE key to temporarily unmute yourself option
Share Screen:
- silence notifications when sharing desktop
Virtual Background
Recording
- Choose a folder to store your videos on your computer
- Add a timestamp to the recording (puts it in the video)
- When screen sharing, record both the screen and the video
Profile
- Upload a still image of yourself
- Advanced Settings (see next section of the help doc)
Accessibility
- Always show meeting controls so you don't lose them as the host
- Chat display size (if you want a larger font in the chat)

Advanced Settings (under Profile) or in Chrome, go to zoom.us, login, and click on MYACCOUNT

This takes you to the website zoom.us where you will be logged in and looking at meeting settings. Things to consider here:

Schedule Meeting
- Require a password when scheduling new meetings, so that they remain secure
- Embed password in meeting link for one-click join (anyone with the link can then join, undoing the security. If you're worried about the link getting out and interlopers interrupting, do not turn this on. People attending the meeting will need to type in the password code.
Chat (you can turn on/off the ability for your attendees to chat and/or save the chats)
Private Chat ( you can turn on/off private chats between attendees but keep public ones.)
Auto Saving Chats -- good to do if you have chats and are saving videos
Play sound when participants join or leave, heard by the host only, can be a nice way to be aware of and welcome latecomers.
File transfer in a chat: (You can make google drive files available in the chat. One note here, latecomers to a chat will miss files shared at the start of the meeting. Chats are only seen from the moment an attendee joins the meeting.)
Show zoom windows during screen share (if you want to help someone with Zoom this is a good option)
Screen Sharing for All participants, only host, or none.
Annotation tools for screen sharing.
Whiteboard and auto-saving it.
Breakout Rooms
Remote Support
Closed Captioning (allow someone to type closed captions during a meeting)
Save Captions
Virtual Background on/off
Show a "Join from your browser" link -- will help students who can't install software
Email notifications when a meeting is canceled

Considerations for Teachers During a Meeting

If someone joins a meeting late, they won't see the earlier chats. For this reason, teachers shouldn't post schoolwork there.

Host Controls

1. Audio/Video

To the Right of Mute and Stop Video is up arrows that let you choose your sound input and output options. If you are having trouble with hearing or being heard, check those menus. Choose Virtual Background is also under the menu next to Stop Video.

2. Manage Participants

1. Mute/Unmute an individual, remove them from the room, make them the host

2. Mute/Unmute All

3. Let them vote yes/no or set their status (away, thumbs up)

4. Control other aspects of the meeting (waiting room, door chime, whether they can unmute themselves.)

3. Chat

Chat can be distracting, or useful, depending on the purpose of your meeting and who is in attendance! The host has these options to control chats, during a meeting, under the elipse on the bottom-right of the chat room.

4. Record Meeting

It saves a folder in your Documents/Zoom folder with today's date on it. In there is an audio, a video, and a chat room text file. These need to be uploaded to Google Drive and shared with students if you want them to see them. They will fill up your computer's hard drive over time, so delete them once they're on Google Drive.

5. Closed Caption

You can ask someone in your meeting to type in a closed caption dialog by turning this on.

6. Breakout Rooms

This is where you set them up, assign people, and move between them.

7. End Meeting

Securing your online classroom

The video below by Zoom goes over how you can use the above settings to make your classroom more secure, and prevent "Zoom-bombing", where uninvited or unwanted guests either guess or gain access to your zoom meeting.