Zoom: How to use In-Meeting Features

The following are a list of features and instructions available to you in Zoom. 

Zoom put together a great comprehensive overview of Host and Co-Host Controls in a Meeting. The following video provides a good overview of these features.

Audio

After joining or starting a meeting, all participants can join audio by phone or by computer. Choose Join Audio by Computer to connect your computer’s speaker and microphone to the Zoom meeting. You can test your audio connection before joining by clicking the Test Computer Audio link.

Hosts will be able to mute individual or all participants. 

How to Mute/Unmute Your Audio During a Zoom Meeting

• Click the microphone icon in your Zoom meeting task bar.
• You'll know your microphone or video is muted (off) when there is a slash through the icon
  
• You'll know your microphone or video are unmuted (on) when there is no slash.
  

Video

• Before a meeting you can explore your video options under the Zoom settings. Click on the Video tab to preview your camera or click the drop-down arrow to choose a different camera.
   
• During a meeting, click Start Video or Stop Video in the meeting toolbar to start or stop your video.

Meeting Security

You must claim the host role to unlock extra in-meeting features. A meeting host can lock the meeting from additional participants, enable waiting room for privacy, control screen sharing and chat, and more. Learn about our Zoom Security Recommendations and Best Practices for which ones ITS recommends you use. 

Invite Participants

After you schedule your meeting, you will see a summary of the meeting details.

Invite Attendees by sending them the Join URL or Copy the invitation and email it to other participants. You are now ready to Start this Meeting.

​​​One person will have to take charge of being the host of the meeting but they can share hosting privileges with other users by assigning a co-host. See Host and Co-Host Controls in a Meeting (Links to an external site.) for details.

Manage Participants

Attendees can only view other participants. If you’re a meeting host, you can manage participants (mute/unmute, control meeting entries, etc.)

1. During a meeting, click the Participants tab
2. In the new panel, click the Invite button to send the meeting information to more participants by email, Zoom chat, phone, or room system.

Share Screen

1. During a meeting, click on the Share Screen tab located in your meeting toolbar.
   
2. You can choose to share your desktop, an individual application/window, or start a whiteboard. 
3. End screenshare by choosing the Stop Share button.
   

Planning to Displaying Media (eg. YouTube videos)?

Make sure that you check the box next to Share computer sound and Optimize Screen Sharing for Video Clip to ensure that your participants can hear the video's audio.

Annotate In-Meeting

1. During your screen share, select Annotate to use screen share tools for drawing, pointing, etc.
   
2. Any attendee in your meeting can start annotating on a shared screen. The attendee can access Annotate in the upper meeting toolbar.

Chat

1. Click Chat to instant message with everyone or privately with other participants while in the meeting (Note: the chat can be saved and private conversation are visible to the host)
2. In the Chat panel, click the dropdown to select whether you want the message to go to everyone in the meeting or a single participant.

Record Meeting

If you’re a host, you can record the meeting and it will be saved to your account.

1. Start the meeting
2. Click Record in the meeting toolbar.
3. Click the arrow on the Record icon to choose to save the recording to the cloud or to your computer.

Access your recordings from the Zoom app

1. Go to the Meetings page
2. Click on the Recorded tab
3. Select the meeting during which you made the recording
4. Click the Open button. It will open a web browser for any cloud recordings or locate the recording files on your computer. 
   

Share a Meeting Recording

Share a Recording (Saved to the cloud)

If you saved your video to the cloud, you can easily share your Zoom recording with others.

1. Go to your Zoom account 
2. Go to the Recordings tab
3. Find the meeting you want to send, and click the Share button
4. Adjust the sharing permissions and settings by toggling the buttons. Once completed, click the Copy sharing information to clipboard link. 
5. Click Done
6. You can now paste this and send it to others. 

Share a Recording (Saved to the local computer)

If you saved your video locally to the computer, locate the recording folder on your computer (see instructions above about how to access a recording) and upload the files to OneDrive, SharePoint, or Panopto to create an easy-to-share link. 

Breakout Rooms

A host may divide participants into breakout rooms for group discussions. Participants may opt to rejoin the main meeting individually or the host can pull them all back into the main room at one time. Participants may be assigned to breakout rooms randomly or manually by the host. Watch a 3-minute video on how to use Breakout Rooms.

You can create breakout rooms during a meeting or pre-assign participants to them before the meeting begins. Visit the Zoom documentation for Pre-assigning participants to breakout rooms using the web portal and follow the steps that are outlined. Important Note:  Before you can pre-assign breakout rooms, ALL students in the class have to first log into https://stthomas.zoom.us to claim their Zoom account. If a student does not do this, they will not be able to access the breakout room that you placed them in.

Polling

A host may create a multiple choice poll in advance to proctor to participants in a meeting. Polls are useful for stimulating discussion and gathering information. The host may display or withhold Poll results with the participants. More information on polling.