Zoom Pro is available to all Columbia University faculty for instructional purposes. Using Zoom, you may schedule a meeting and distribute invites to your attendees via a link -- students/attendees do not need to have a Zoom account in order to join the session, and need only click on the meeting link in order to join the Zoom session


Faculty will need a Zoom Pro account in order to hold a Zoom meeting that lasts longer than 40 minutes. To determine if you already have a Zoom Pro account, please login to the following website using your UNI and UNI password:


https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/signin


One logged in, please look for the "User Type" field on the Account Profile page. If you have Zoom Pro, this will say "Licensed":


If it does not say Licensed, please contact CUIT at askcuit@columbia.edu and request a Zoom Pro account -- in your email to CUIT, please be sure to note that you are requesting Zoom Pro for instructional purposes, which will ensure that the license is made available to you free of charge.


Basic Zoom Instructions:


Getting Help:

  • Zoom has a dedicate support phone number to assist users with both Scheduling/Creating meetings and Joining meetings. A Zoom support agent -- not an automated system -- will answer your call as soon as possible. 
  • You may contact Zoom support at the following number for assistance:

    1.888.799.0125


Detailed Zoom Instructions for creating a Meeting with a Columbia Zoom account:


To schedule a zoom meeting, first login to your Columbia Zoom account via the following link:


https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/signin


Once you have logged in, click "Schedule a Meeting" in the top-right corner of the page:


On the Schedule a Meeting page, please give your meeting a Title, time/date, and duration. Meetings my last for up to 24 hours, and may include up to 100 participants. If your meeting requires more than 100 participants, please contact CUIT at askcuit@columbia.edu and inquire about a Large Room Zoom license -- the Large Room licenses are a premium product and the current price is $400/yr.


If the meeting will be a recurring meeting, then tick the appropriate box. If this will be a one-time meeting, then leave this box unticked.



In the "Meeting ID" section, it is typically best to let Zoom generate your Meeting ID for you.


Only tick the "Require meeting password" if necessary. If you do not require a meeting password, anybody with the Zoom link in the invitation will be able to join the meeting. The most common scenario is to not require a meeting password:



In the "Video" and "Audio" sections, the person creating the meeting will be considered the "Host". Everybody else will be a "participant'. 


In the "Video" section, you may choose what users' webcam/video will be automatically enabled. If you will simply be presenting a class via Zoom, you will most likely want to have Video turned "On" for the host, and "off" for the participants (e.g., students can see you, but you cannot see them).


In the "Audio" section, you will choose how users may connect their audio to the meeting. The safest choice is "both", which allows users to use either the microphone on their computer, or to dial in via telephone.



In the final section, "Meeting Options", you may configure further options for your meeting as listed below:


The most important of these options are "Enable join before host", "Enable waiting room", and "Mute participants upon entry".


"Enable join before host" -- turning this option on will allow the users you have invited to the meeting to join the Zoom meeting prior to the time that you (the "host") have joined the meeting. So, if a meeting was set for 12pm, but the "host" does not join until 12:15, this option will allow the invited users to join the meeting and wait for the host to arrive.


"Enable waiting room" -- turning this option on will place all users who join before the designated start time of the meeting into a "waiting room". As soon as the meeting start, the waiting users will be placed directly into the meeting.


"Mute participants upon entry" -- turning this option on will ensure that all participants (except for the host) will have their microphones muted until they intentional unmute themselves. This is desirable for class meetings via Zoom, as it can be distracting to hear all of the participants typing during a class session.


When you have configured your meeting as desire, you must click the Save button as seen below:


Distributing the invitation


Once you have saved the meeting, you will be taken directly to the "Meeting Information" page.


The most important pieces of information on this page are the "Join URL" and the "Copy the Invitation" button.


The "Join URL" is the web link that you (and your users) will click on to join the Zoom meeting.


The most convenient way to send this information to your attendees is to click "Copy the invitation" link -- this will copy the full details of the meeting invitation to your computer's clipboard. You may then paste this invitation into an email or CourseWorks message, and distribute it to all of the users who will be joining the meeting.


Attendees need only click on the Join URL, and they will be automatically joined to the meeting. 


For the meeting host (e.g., the instructor or faculty member) -- the best way to join a meeting that you are hosting is the following:

  1. Login to the Columbia Zoom site: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/signin
  2. Click "Meetings" on the left-hand column:

    Or go to the meeting list directly: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting
  3. Choose the meeting in question from the list of "Upcoming Meetings" and click the "start" button for that meeting. You will be automatically joined to the meeting as the host.