Zoom

This page is about Zoom’s video conferencing feature. Luther also uses Zoom’s phone service.

Employees and students can create and join Zoom meetings, with pro features enabled for employee-created meetings. Zoom is a remote meeting and collaboration tool used for web conferences and online presentations. It is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to organize and attend online meetings.

There are several ways to use Zoom: Click an invite link to someone else’s meeting, sign in to the Zoom app on your phone or computer, or visit luther.zoom.us. You can even set up Zoom meetings from your Google Calendar. When you host or join a Zoom meeting, you’ll usually get sent through Luther’s Common Login Portal, but you might need to choose “Sign in with SSO”, or “Sign in with email”, or “Sign in with Microsoft” first.

Features

Zoom is feature-packed but here are some of the most notable:

• Any computer, phone, or tablet can use Zoom
• Share you screen or audio
• Chat with other participants or the host
• Collaborate with the in-meeting Whiteboard
• Record the meeting
• Student-hosted meetings up to 40 minutes, and employee-hosted meetings up to 30 hours

Guidance for meeting hosts

When you make a Zoom meetings with a Luther account, features that promote collaboration and safety are turned on by default, but sometimes you’ll want to modify those settings. Here’s what we suggest:

• Double check your name before you join. If you’re signing in with a Luther account, it will be your legal name. If you go by another name, want to list your title or preferred pronouns, or make any other name customizations, visit your Zoom profile. Changes made here only apply to Zoom, often for that session only. For more lasting changes that affect all Luther services, see our Change Your Personal Information guide page.
• Don’t disable the password requirement or use a Personal Meeting ID—These are important safety features. Don’t worry: Participants won’t need to “know” the password, because it’s already embedded in the meeting link. If someone is joining by phone, the invite email invite will contain the password.
• Don’t enable “join before host”—it creates confusion and invites mischief. Participants who arrive before you will simply see the message “Please wait for the host to start this meeting.”
• You might want to prevent participants from sharing their screen; by default. You can always turn it on during the meeting
• Keep out unknown participants. That means being careful about who has access to the link and, usually, choosing to “Allow only authenticated users to join”
• It’s polite to give participants a moment to gather themselves after they join. Choose “Video off for participants upon entry” and “Mute all participants upon entry.”
• If you’re using more complicated features, like breakout rooms, it’s a good idea to practice managing participants in a meeting beforehand.
• Show your school spirit with a virtual background. Go Norse!
• If Zoom isn’t right for your meeting, consider Google Meet instead.

Learn more

• Getting Started
• How To Host a Meeting
• How To Schedule A Meeting
• How Do I Start Screen Sharing
• Zoom 101: Breakout Rooms
• How to use Breakout Rooms
• Zoom 101: Polling (In-meeting)
• Screen Share & Annotation for EDU
• Sharing a whiteboard
• Using annotation tools on a shared screen or whiteboard
• Comprehensive Guide to Educating Through Zoom
• How to use Waiting Rooms to Manage Office Hours & Drop-In Visitor Times
• Zoom Video Tutorials