Zoom Videoconferencing User Guide

Your account is ready! You simply need your NetID and password to log in here: https://tamu.zoom.us. 

To get support or learn more on using the service email helpdesk@tamu.edu or see related knowledge articles here: Zoom Conferencing (TAMU)

To Assign Breakout Room

To assign Breakout room ahead of time, you need to enable a setting in the advanced meeting options:

1. Log into Zoom

2. Click Settings in the left-hand menu on the page

3. Find Breakout room in the "In Meeting (Advanced)" section, and click the box next to "Allow host to assign participants..."

To Add Breakout Room Assignment

1. Scroll all the way back to the top of the page, and click Meetings in the left-hand menu

2. Click the link of the meeting you want to edit

3. Scroll down, find and click Edit this Meeting

4. In the Meeting Options section, you will see a new option called Breakout Room pre-assign

5. Check the box for this, and then click Create Rooms

6. Create your rooms and assignments, using the students' @tamu.edu email addresses

Managing Breakout Rooms

Click on Managing Video Breakout Rooms and follow the details.

You can also use the Zoom plugin for Outlook to schedule meetings from Outlook. For more information, click here

1. Basic Recommended Settings

• Topic
  -Rename to Course Name and/or Number
  -Change date and time
  -Set duration
• Meeting ID
  Generate Automatically
• Password (optional)
  Require Meeting Password
• Video
  Host ON; Participants ON
• Audio
  Telephone and Computer Audio
• Advanced Options
  Only authenticated users can join

2. Click Schedule

1. When you click Schedule, a dialogue box will appear with information for your participants.

2. Click on Copy to Clipboard.

3. Paste the copied information to your established communication channel so that your students can access the meeting information.

Follow these steps to allow external guests to join a Zoom meeting through the Web interface (without installing the Zoom application):

1. Go to https://tamu.zoom.edu and click Sign In.
2. Click Settings on the left side of the page.

3. Look for the setting in the Security section, “Only authenticated users can join meetings from Web client”, and turn it OFF (Gray color).

4. Enable the Show a "Join from your browser” link  

This will allow guests from companies with higher IT restrictions to join the meeting through the Zoom website if they are not allowed to install the Zoom application.

Learn more here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/200917029-Getting-Started-With-Webinar

Audio Setting

Adjusting Audio Setting

Video Settings

Testing your video

Recording a ZOOM Class / Meeting

1. When in a meeting, click the Record icon

2. To access recording links, navigate to zoom.us/recording in your browser. You will be prompted to enter your login credentials if you are not logged into your ZOOM account.

3. Press the Share icon next to the recording you would like to distribute. You can update the sharing settings and distribute them using the provided link.

ZOOM Engagement Features

•    Attendee Attention Tracking
•    Polling
•    Breakout Rooms 
•    Non-Verbal Feedback
•    Virtual Backgrounds 
•    Screen Sharing 
•    Whiteboard
•    Annotation
•    Transcription of Meetings
•    Chat

ZOOM Features that Enhance Teaching and Learning

Video ON/OFF

• Once in a Class / Meeting, you can turn your video ON by clicking the Start Video icon on the bottom left of your screen
• To turn video OFF, click the Stop Video icon
• Learn more 

Muting Participants 
To ensure minimal background noise during your ZOOM Class / Meeting, it is recommended that you mute everyone on the call when they are not talking. 

• To do this, click on the Participants icon at the bottom of your screen 
• Click Mute All in the side panel
• Learn more

Managing Participants

•  As the host of a Class / Meeting, you can manage participants such as Renaming, Muting, Stopping Video, and other controls for participants
• Learn more

Sharing Screen

• Click the Share Screen icon at the bottom of your screen to share your desktop
• If you would like to share specific windows or applications, you can choose to do so from the dialog box
• Watch a Video

Optional Feature Enhancements:

• Select Share Computer Sound and any sound played by your computer will be shared in the Class / Meeting
• Select Optimize for Full Screen Video Clip if you will be sharing a video clip in full screen mode. Do not check this otherwise, as it may cause the shared screen to be blurry.
• Learn more

Virtual Background

• Once in the meeting, you can select a virtual background by clicking the up caret [ /\ ] to the right of the Start Video icon. 
• Learn more

Chat in a Class / Meeting
Meeting participants can ask questions during a ZOOM Class / Meeting via the meeting Chat. 

• Start by clicking the Chat icon on the bottom right of your screen
• The chat panel will open up on the right and you can view and respond to all public chats
• Use the three dots [ … ] to choose whether you want to send messages to all meeting attendees or the host privately

Click here to view the full guide.

1. If errors appear when trying to add someone as an alternate host, the user scheduling the meeting should check with the person they are trying to add to verify the email address shown on the Zoom profile page when logging into tamu.zoom.us.  On the profile page, look for this line:

It’s possible the person they are trying to add needs to sign in to tamu.zoom.us at least once before they can be added

2. Only one meeting associated with a single user’s account can be connected at a time, so if the admin schedules a meeting for two different committees at the same time, or back-to-back meetings run long, attendees for one of the meetings will get a message saying “The host has another meeting in progress.”

The best practice is to either have the committee chair schedule the meeting themselves or the committee chair give scheduling privilege to the admin (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362803), so the admin can schedule meetings on their behalf.

3.  If you create meetings through the web interface on tamu.zoom.us,  you can just copy the Join URL link shown on the meeting information page

• Zoom Help Center
• Texas A&M University’s Help Desk Central
• Zoom Help (30 min)
• Live Training: Zoom Meetings (1 hour)

If you are experiencing any issue(s) with latency, frozen screen, poor quality audio, or meeting getting disconnected while using a home or non-enterprise WiFi connection, make a note of the following:

• For the best experience, start Zoom WITHOUT connecting over VPN.
• Zoom requires a stable connection, therefore stay close to your home WiFi router or use LAN (network cable) connection to your router
• Use the Test feature to verify audio-video quality: Test Your Zoom Settings
• Join using PC audio.
• To get a troubleshooting solution search the portal: Zoom Help
• Check out Zoom FAQ page here for other commonly asked questions for our campus.