Zoom video conferencing

The University uses Zoom for online and hybrid meetings, webinars and teaching.

Your Zoom account

Set up Zoom for your phone, tablet or personal computer

  1. On your phone, tablet or computer, open zoom.us/support/download and download Zoom.
  2. Once installed, open Zoom and choose Sign in with SSO. Use essex-university for the company domain, then sign in with your Essex IT account.
  3. Join a test meeting to check everything is working.

If you have a University supplied computer and you can't install Zoom because of security restrictions, please contact the IT Helpdesk.

Zoom Meetings and Webinars

The Meeting and Webinar platforms offer similar features and functionality but have some key differences. See meetings and webinars comparison to learn more.

Get started with Zoom Meetings

Create a meeting for another host

Zoom will only allow a host to run one session at a time. If you wish to run multiple sessions simultaneously, each meeting will need to have a unique host. To create a meeting for another host, they will first need to give you permissions to do so by following the steps explaining how to set up scheduling privileges.

Once you have been given scheduling privileges, you will see a “Schedule For” drop-down menu when you create or edit a meeting. You will be able to select who will host the meeting. You can find out more about scheduling the meeting for another host by reading this article.

To view your current permissions you can log into your profile settings and see the permissions listed at the bottom of the page under the ‘other’ section.

University of Essex virtual backgrounds

Zoom's Virtual Background lets you display an image or video as your background during a meeting. This can help give your meetings more of a professional feel, and a bit more privacy by hiding what's behind you.

We recommend you use an official University of Essex Zoom background.

Recording guidance

 Access your recordings

To access your recordings, sign in to your Zoom account and choose the Recordings tab.

Schedule a recording

When scheduling your meeting, always choose Record the meeting automatically in the cloud.  You should always let your attendees know at the start of the meeting that you will be recording.

How long are recordings kept for?
  • Your own recordings are kept in the cloud for three months and then automatically deleted. If you want to keep your recordings, you’ll need to download and save them to a diffenent file storage service.
  • For automatically scheduled recordings of teaching events, recordings are kept in the cloud for 24 hours and then automatically deleted without warning. However, the recording will be automatically imported into and made available in Panopto (Listen Again).
  • If the recording is a learning resource, you can manually import it into Panopto for later use in Moodle.

Learn more about recording.

Your responsibilities

  • Safeguarding. Our duty of care to promote and safeguard the welfare of vulnerable groups also applies to online meetings. Read the University's safeguarding guidance (.pdf) if you are planning to use Zoom to meet a child, for example a student or participant who is under 18 years old, or an adult at risk.
  • Etiquette. Our online meeting etiquette guide .(pdf) provides useful information about attending and hosting meetings.

Zoom Rooms

Teaching and meeting spaces equipped with Zoom video conferencing technology are known as Zoom Rooms. You can use Zoom Rooms for online teaching and meetings, and hybrid meetings.

How to use a Zoom Room

There are three types of Zoom Room.

Zoom Room Description Room instructions (Moodle course)
Standard Use the computer on the lectern to start your Zoom session. Standard room instructions.
ZoomPlus Use the touch screen panel on the lectern to start your Zoom session. It will automatically share your screen. ZoomPlus room instructions.
ZoomDave A ZoomDave is a portable trolley mounted video conferencing system that has an audience facing camera. Use the controls on the system to start your Zoom Session. ZoomDave room instructions.

Learn more

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