There are a number of ways you can schedule a meeting in Zoom. These include using a desktop application, via a web portal and directly from within Outlook.
Schedule a meeting using the Desktop app or the Web Portal
You can either schedule a meeting via the web portal or using the desktop application. For more information about the process, please visit the following Zoom help material.
You can also use schedule a meeting using a Zoom template. For more information about the process, please visit the following Zoom help material.
To learn the basics of how to schedule a Zoom meeting, please visit their Learning Center website.
Schedule a meeting using the Outlook plugin
You can also schedule a meeting via Outlook Calendar, which means that in addition to an automatic e-mail that would be sent out to the invited participants, the meeting would be also saved in your Outlook, therefore, before a few minutes of the meeting would take place, you will get reminded by the Microsoft product.
For more information about the process, please visit the following Zoom help material.
Schedule a meeting for someone else
You can also schedule a meeting on behalf of someone, however, before you would do this, please make sure you configure the ‘Scheduling privilege’ settings under your Zoom account and please also make sure that you have the latest version installed on your machine. Please note that if you are using the web version, the updates are automatically completed in the background.
For more information about the process, please visit the following Zoom help material.
Who can start a meeting?
By default the person who scheduled the meeting is the host and they will need to start the meeting. During the setup you will have seen that you can assign an alternative host. This alternative host can start the meeting then if the original host cannot start it for any reason or if you are scheduling the meeting on behalf of another person.
If you are responsible for creating meetings for other people, there is also a specific feature that will allow you to schedule a meeting on behalf of someone else that does not use the alternative host feature.
Once meeting starts, who else can host?
By default the person who scheduled the meeting is the host and they will need to start the meeting. During the setup you will have seen that you can assign an alternative host. This alternative host can start the meeting then if the original host cannot start it for any reason or if you are scheduling the meeting on behalf of another person.
If you are responsible for creating meetings for other people, there is also a specific feature that will allow you to schedule a meeting on behalf of someone else that does not use the alternative host feature.
Once meeting starts, who else can host?
Once the meeting has been start the host can assign co hosts to help run the meeting. You can have as many co hosts as you wish. Alternatively, the host can pass the host controls to someone else and the original host can leave the meeting, if needed.
Security considerations
Security is important, therefore, there are a few simple things you can do to ensure your Zoom meeting is as secure as it can be. For more information about the security configuration, please visit the following Zoom help material.
- Lock your meeting: with this feature, you can lock your meeting which is a bit like you could lock the classroom door after a few minutes of the session. During the meeting, you would need to click on the Participants’ button in the bottom toolbar and then click the button that says ‘Lock meeting’. This would then ensure that there are no unwanted visitors or interruptions of latecomers joining during the meeting.
- Control screen sharing: To give the host more control over what the students are seeing and to prevent them sharing off-topic things, Zoom has now limited screen sharing to host only as default. If you require your students to share their work with the group, then you can allow screen sharing during the meeting by clicking the arrow next to the ‘Share Screen’ button.
- Enable ‘Waiting Room’: If this is not set by default, please make sure it is turned on as when it is enabled, you would have two options:
- ‘All participants’ will send everyone to the virtual waiting area, where you can accept them individually or all at once, and
- ‘Guest Participants Only’ – allows known students to skip the Waiting Room and join, but sends anyone not signed in/part of your school into the virtual waiting area. We recommend you choose this option as this will allow your students in and filter anyone who should not be there.
- Lock down the chat: Hosts can restrict chat by preventing students from messaging each-other privately, causing a distraction. It is better to control chat access via the in-meeting toolbar as you may require interaction from them, at certain points.
- Remove a participant: If there is someone present who should not be there, then to remove them via the ’Participants’ menu, they will not be allowed back in.
For further information, please refer to this Zoom blog on Best Practices for Securing Your Virtual Classroom.
