How to make the most of Zoom meetings

Got Zoom questions? Here’s what you need to know to make the most of the University of Alaska’s new video conference platform.

Does Video Conferencing Services (VCS) still reserve conference rooms by request for Zoom conferences?
VCS will still assist users to find rooms that fit the needs of their meetings, however, a list of room schedulers and scheduling websites for all campuses is available on the VCS website for self-service options. 

Why do I not have controls for my Zoom meeting when I join through Google Calendar?
If users click “join my meeting” directly from a Google Calendar invite without being logged into the Zoom application, they will join their Zoom meeting as a guest and will not have any host controls. 

To prevent this, hosts will need to log into the Zoom application through alaska.zoom.us or through the Zoom application on their computer prior to joining the Zoom meeting. 

How can I let someone else schedule meetings for me?
This is particularly helpful for those who work with an assistant. This option allows anyone who has access to manage your calendar to schedule Zoom calls for you.

To set up the scheduling assistant privilege: 

  1. log into Zoom at alaska.zoom.us
  2. go to Meeting Settings> Other. You'll see a plus sign next to Assign Scheduling Privilege. Add your scheduling assistants by typing their email addresses, and finish by clicking Assign.

After you add your scheduling assistants, they must log out of Zoom and log back in for the feature to take effect. From this point on, assistants can create meetings for others using the Schedule tool.

Does Zoom do breakout sessions?
Yes!  Breakout Rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually and can switch between sessions at any time.

  • Up to 50 breakout rooms can be created
  • Max 200 participants in a breakout room (requires Large Meeting 200 add-on)
  • Breakout room participants have full audio, video and screen sharing capabilities

If the meeting is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main room, regardless of what room the meeting host is in. If local recording is being used, it will record the room the participant who is recording is in. Multiple participants can record locally.  For more information, watch this short Zoom video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_O7rDILNCM

Where do my Zoom recordings go?
There are two options for Zoom recordings. One is to record the meeting locally on your computer. The other is to record your meetings in the cloud. These are then stored in the University of Alaska Zoom account on Zoom’s Cloud servers. Recordings are held for 1 year, then are automatically deleted. The University of Alaska also has integrated Zoom with our instance of Kaltura, and users can link their Zoom and Kaltura accounts to back up all video recordings made to the cloud. 

How many people can join a Zoom meeting?
Every UA Zoom user has a Pro license and can have up to 300 participants in a Zoom meeting.