Teaching with Zoom

Security and Privacy

Zoom provides a variety of settings and tools to help you keep unwanted external participants from entering your class space and for managing disruptive participants.

Learn More

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2020). Teaching with Zoom. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/zoom/

Establish Your Zoom Account and Schedule Your Online Sessions

View Tips on Getting Started with Zoom.

Faculty, instructors, and TAs can use Zoom to hold class sessions or office hours remotely. The Zoom video conferencing tool is integrated with CourseWorks and is accessible from a computer and mobile device.

First, create a Zoom basic account at http://columbiauniversity.zoom.us by selecting the Sign In button.

For CUIMC faculty: after your basic account is created, go to this link and submit a request for a Pro account. If you need help, you can contact CUIMC IT at zoomaccountrequest@cumc.columbia.edu.
For all other faculty, after creating your basic account, follow these instructions based on your affiliation. To make the request :
- A&S faculty and staff request Zoom Pro through CUIT (via email zoom-admin@columbia.edu) and submit written approval from the DAAF or Chair for their account without a charstring. CUIT will provision the account and bill A&S.
- The Business School provisions Zoom Pro accounts for their faculty and staff.
- School of Professional Studies provisions Zoom Pro accounts for their faculty and staff.
- Barnard faculty and staff request through CUIT (via email zoom-admin@columbia.edu), identifying themselves as a Barnard affiliate. CUIT will provision the account and bill Barnard. No chartstring is necessary.

The Zoom software is available for Mac, Windows, and mobile devices. The Zoom download center at zoom.us/download provides links for all your devices.

Note: For schools that are managing their instructors’ use of Zoom, please refer to school-specific communications. If your school or department is not managing class Zoom sessions, please follow these instructions to schedule your course meetings:

Use Zoom to schedule your meetings:

Log in at columbiauniversity.zoom.us
Select “schedule a meeting”

Host Your Class Online Using Zoom

With a Zoom Pro account you may set up Zoom class sessions through CourseWorks.

Using the CourseWorks navigation, go to “Zoom Class Sessions”
Select “Schedule a New Meeting,” choose settings, and save
Renavigate to “Zoom Class Sessions” in CourseWorks navigation to view all your “Upcoming Meetings”
Start the meeting

If Zoom is not enabled for your course, see the section on enabling Zoom in “Using Zoom in your Canvas course“

Learn more about Zoom through CUIT’s resources.
Review the Zoom Essential Features Guide.
Review the Zoom Educational Technology Fact Sheet
Learn how to screen capture and record video sessions in Zoom.

Some schools and departments have enabled the Zoom feature to automatically record sessions scheduled within CourseWorks. Also, any Zoom recordings that were scheduled within CourseWorks will be automatically transferred to the course’s Panopto Recordings area which is available to all students in the course. Please keep this in mind when you are scheduling one-on-one meetings such as office hours within Canvas. You can easily uncheck the option to automatically record a session under “meeting options” for a scheduled meeting.

Taking attendance in Zoom:

You may ask students to type their full name into the chat, then save the in-meeting chat.
Access usage report
- If you have a personal account, go to: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/account/my/report (log in with your UNI).
- If you have a shared account go to: https://zoom.us/account/my/report (and sign in with the shared credentials)
- In the “Participants Source” column, click on the number, for the meeting of interest and you can see information about all your participants.
- You can also download this meeting info as a CSV file.
You can also use the Canvas Roll Call Attendance tool or your favorite application to tally the attendance.

Security and Privacy in Zoom

For more information, see the Security and Privacy in Zoom webpage.

Zoom frequently updates its applications with important security fixes. Use the “Check for Updates” command to ensure that you are using their latest software. This should be your first step.

There are privacy and security considerations for any online class. Zoom provides a variety of settings and tools to help you keep unwanted external participants from entering your class space and for managing disruptive participants. You can also access the Zoom security help documentation directly for more information.

Pedagogical Resources for Zoom:

Swarthmore College offers an overview of student engagement techniques instructors can employ while teaching via Zoom.
The University of Iowa’s Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology provides a practical guide for teaching with Zoom, including creative assignment options.
The University of Minnesota provides a “How-To” Guide on teaching online class sessions with Zoom.
Zoom offers Tips & Tricks for teachers educating on Zoom.

Zoom: Annotation and Whiteboard Tools
For more details on how to use these tools, please see: Using annotation tools on a shared screen or whiteboard and Sharing a whiteboard.

Additional Tools

The following resources offer additional options to facilitate and support remote classes.

Host a video conference with BigBlueButton (built into CourseWorks).
Use collaborative tools freely available through LionMail Drive such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, Hangouts, and more:
- Learn more about LionMail Drive at Columbia.

The CTL researches and experiments.

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning provides an array of resources and tools for instructional activities.

Overview