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Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

Activating & customizing your Zoom account

Last updated: January 13, 2023, 3:40 p.m.

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that can­ be used in an academic setting to facilitate online learning. Faculty members can use it to provide lectures, tutorials and office hours. It is also helpful for online meetings, thesis defense, job interviews and guest speakers. All Concordia faculty and staff are entitled to an institutional account that provides advanced functionality. Refer to this page to find out to set up your institutional account and how to customize your account settings.

Checklist Faculty, staff, new employees Teaching Assistants Zoom App Customizing settings

Equipment Checklist

You will need the following equipment to run virtual classes online:

  • a desktop or laptop computer
  • a reliable Internet connection
  • a microphone
  • camera (optional)

Concordia will be using Zoom to host online virtual classes. You must activate your Zoom enhanced licence before using Zoom for the first time.

Activating your enhanced Zoom licence (faculty, staff, TAs, RAs and all new employees e.g., exam invigilators)

To activate your Zoom licence, follow the following steps.

Follow these steps to activate your Concordia email address and request your employee netname and password. Please note that an employee email and netname are not the same as a Concordia student email account and netname. If you already have a Concordia employee email account, netname and password please proceed to 5. Obtain an @concordia.ca email address to activate and verify your employee account.

1. Visit the MyConcordia portal and select Activate your netname.

This graphic shows a screen capure image of the MyConcordia portal login page. The screen capture graphic shows a light blue colour banner at the top of the page with the MyConcordia logo and information. The screen capture graphic shows a pink box surrounding the New employee netname activation selection link which must be selected to advance to the next Employee Account activation option.

2. Select Employee Account

This graphic shows the screen capture of the MyConcordia Account Management page. The screen capture graphic shows a light blue colour banner at the top of the page with the MyConcordia logo. It shows a pink box surrounding the Employment Account name as the account type which must be selected to advance to the next activation page which is a form that must be completed and submitted in order to request a Concordia employee email, and netname and password.

3. Complete the form as indicated and select Submit Request.

This graphic shows a screen capture of the MyConcordia Account Management page which has a light blue colour banner at the top of the page with the MyConcordia logo and information with fields page on a white page for resetting and/or requesting a new netname account. has fields for Employee ID or Netname, Date of Birth, Postal code, with information concerning the agreement for complying with all of the rules and regulations at Concordia when accessing Concordia's computing facilties. The screen capture graphic also shows a check box next to the words, "I agree to abide by Concordia's Policy on Computing Facilities" with graphic of the PDF to view Concordia's Policy on Computing Facilities. There are two blue buttons beneath at the bottom of the screen capture which are "Submit Request" and "Cancel".

4. Once you have submitted your request you will automatically see your assigned netname displayed in the highlighted Netname field. You now need to create a password for your new netname in order to login to your Concordia employee account. 

This graphic shows a screen capture of the MyConcordia Account Management page which has a light blue colour banner at the top of the page with the MyConcordia logo and information with fields page on a white page which shows Netname (highlighted with a surrounding pink colour), Password, and Confirm Password with fields next to these for entering a password entering to confirm passwoord. The screen capture image also includes text information with password requirements. The graphic also shows two blue buttons called "Change Password" and "Cancel" both highlighted in a pink surrounding colour with instructions directly above with the request to not double click the submit button and furthur instructions at the bottom of the image concerning IT Support.

 

NOTE: If you have not received your Employee ID number please contact Concordia's Human Resources.

Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 3666
Email: hr-reception@concordia.ca.

 

Note: If you receive any errors during any of these steps please contact IITS

Phone: 514-848-2424 ext 7613

Email: help@concordia.ca

5. Obtain an @concordia.ca email address

In order to use Zoom at Concordia University you need to have @concordia.ca email address. To activate your email account for the first time, visit the Concordia Email page and sign in using your Concordia netname and password.

This graphic shows a screen capture of the MyConcordia Concordia Email Status page which has a light blue colour banner at the top of the page with the MyConcordia logo, the MyConcordia menu options navigation on the left side with the Accounts and Settings menu selected and the Concordia Email sub-menu selected. The information on the main page to the right of navigation menu shows the Concordia Email Status with a welcome message and the information showing on the white page "Your email address is: @concodia.ca" and beneath this text the message, "Your Unique Principal Name (UPN) is: @staff.concordia.ca". The page also shows short instructions beneath the two text lines on how to access and manage your Concordia email as well as graphics representation of links for information for using Office 365 Education for students, Office 365 for Education, staff on the IT catalogue page, and for requesting technical support from the IITS Service Desk.

A message will appear indicating that you have successfully activated your email account

6. Authenticate in Zoom

Go to https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/ and click Sign in. On the next page enter your netname and password and click Sign in.

concordia.ca.zoom.us

NOTE: If you receive Error Code 2216 please contact moodle@lists.concordia.ca

Please include following information (TAs must have approval from the course faculty instructor):

  • your name
  • your staff netname
  • your @concordia.ca email address 
  • short name of the course you are TAing (ex. PSYC 101 A 2194)
  • name of the teacher of the course

Make sure to 'cc the faculty instructor in this email and mention that you need TA access for Zoom.

Some TAs may have difficulties accessing Zoom meetings through Moodle depending on their assigned role in Moodle or their email address associated with Moodle. If TAs have problem, they can enter using a link the instructor provides for them (see instructions below on Sharing the Zoom Meeting Link with Others), or follow the instructions below:

1. After logging into Moodle, click ton your name in the top right-corner.

The user menu appears.

2. Click Switch Role to…

 

The user menu appears and the the Option to Switch Role to... option is highlighted

TAs should now be able to access the Zoom Session via the Moodle link.

 

To revert back to your default role, click on your name and click Return to my normal role.

The Moodle User menu shows Return to my normal role highlighted

Using the Zoom application (app)

Downloading the Zoom application (app)

Follow these simple steps to download the Zoom client application, make sure it is up to date, and connect it to Concordia Software Client:

1. Go to the Concordia Zoom web conferencing portal.

2. Download the Zoom client application from https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/download.

Note: Mobile users can download the mobile application directly to their device by visiting the app store (iTunes, Google Play Store, etc.) and searching for the 'Zoom' application.

The Zoom web conference portal is displayed with an arrow pointing to the DOWNLOAD button

Once the download is complete, open your Zoom client application.

 

Logging into the Zoom app

1. Click Sign in.

2. To make sure to connect to the Concordia Software client, click Sign In with SSO.

The Zoom Zoom Sign in page has an arrow pointing to the SIGN IN WITH SSO button

3. In the “Company Domain” field, type: concordia-ca, then click Continue.

The sign in with SSO page shows a box around "your company domain" box with the text CONCORDIA-CA

4. In the pop-up window, sign in using your Concordia netname and password

5. Click Launch Zoom.

Updating your Zoom application

In order to take advantage of the new regularly-released feautres and security updates, be sure to update your Zoom app regularly. To ensure that your Zoom application is up to date:

1. Open your Zoom app.

2. Click on the profile picture (or picture placeholder with your initials) in the top right corner of your application interface.

3. Select Check for Updates from the drop-down menu.

zoom-update

4.  Click Update (if applicable).

Customizing your Zoom settings

Some default settings in Zoom have been modified to provide a more secure and safe Zoom virtual classroom environment. You may need to modify your personal settings to regain access to some interactive features. To access to some of the interactive features of Zoom (e.g., whiteboard, breakout rooms, student screen-sharing, etc.) you will need to reactivate these settings by logging into your personal Zoom accounts and modifying the default settings.

  1. To access your personal settings go to https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/ and click Sign in.
  2. On the next page enter your netname and password and click Sign in.
  3. Select Settings from the left side navigation and you will now see a list of options under Meeting.
     

Scroll down the Meeting page to find the settings you would like to re-enable. 

Zoom Sign In

Note: Re-activating these features will make your Zoom sessions less secure so please be sure to monitor your course for possible disruptions.

File transfer

Enable this selection on to make the File Transfer feature available. This feature allows hosts and participants to send files through the in-meeting chat. The File Transfer feature has been disabled by default to prevent file sharing. Enabling this selection is not recommended and may lead to security risks and disruptions. 

Zoom How to Customise File Transfer

Screen sharing

Only the host (Faculty/TA) can share their screen with the participants (students). The Screen sharing feature has been disabled by default to prevent students from sharing their screens. Changing this selection to All Participants is not recommended and may lead to security risks and disruptions. 

Zoom How to Customise Screen Sharing

Note: Without enabling this setting, it is possible to allow screensharing within the meeting controls while in a meeting.

Annotation

Enabling this selection will allow participants (students) to use the annotation tool to add information to shared screens. The Annotation feature has been disabled by default to prevent participants from adding information to shared screens.It is recommended to only enable this feature if you plan to use annotations in your classes. Once enabled, it is possible to disable annotations in a meeting through the meeting menu.

Zoom How to Customise Annotation

Note: You may want to also enable the whiteboard to use annotation with the Whiteboard (below) feature. Otherwise, participants will only be able to annotate during screen share (i.e. on your powerpoint). 

Whiteboard

Enabling this selection will allow participants (students) to share whiteboard during a class meeting. The Whiteboard feature has been disabled by default to prevent participants from sharing whiteboard. It is only recommended to enable this feature if you plan to use this feature. 

Zoom How to Customise Whiteboard

Breakout rooms

Enabling the Breakout room feature will allow the host to split meeting participants into separate rooms. The Breakout room feature has been disabled by default to discourage the use of this feature for security risks and disruptions. Therefore, it is recommended to only enable this feature if you plan to use it.

Using Breakout rooms is a great way to increase engagement and promote active learning in live Zoom sessions. However, please note that ther are some security risks involved in using Breakout rooms, and so those faculty who choose to use Breakout rooms do so at their own risk. Faculty are reminded that if they do use Breakout rooms they must monitor these rooms at all times to make sure they are used only for appropriate course related activities.

Zoom How to Customise Breakout Room

Authentication

Be sure to disable the setting as shown below, Only authenticated users can join meetings from Web client. This will allow students to access course meetings without being prompted to sign-in in order to access their Zoom/Zoom meetings. This setting is turned off by default in the global settings but it is important to check to make sure it is disabled if students indicate that they are being prompted to login to the Zoom meetings. See Customising Your Zoom Settings for details on how to access your personal settings in Zoom.

How to disable Zoom Web client option
Find out how to schedule your Zoom sessions in Moodle
Learn about engaging students using Zoom

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Assistance

If you think you’ll need assistance with this workflow, please contact us at  teaching@concordia.ca.   

We are here with you to help you through this process. 

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