DECEMBER 2020: UPDATED ZOOM GUIDELINES FROM THE PROVOST’S OFFICE
Zoom is the video conferencing tool used across Hopkins; the Zoom Pro Account allows full-time faculty to host synchronous online video sessions with up to 300 attendees, thus providing a quick replacement for in-person classes, as necessary. The website address for the SON Zoom account is http://jhuson.zoom.us/.
(Note: Some non-full-time faculty can also have access to Zoom Pro Accounts, depending on the type of course – theory or didactic – and the size of course. For any questions about faculty Zoom access, please contact [email protected])
Best practices for securing your Zoom session: There have been reports of inappropriate hijacking of Zoom meetings occurring during class sessions. For increased security to reduce the threat of “Zoombombing“, consider requiring a password for students to join the meeting.
1. If you have already shared your meeting link to your students: You can send them the password you set up –or –
2. You can also choose the setting “Embed password in meeting link for one-click join” option in Settings and share that link to your students. Consult this helpguide for Enabling Password Settings for Your Own Meetings and Webinars
3. Email Zoom session URLs to students or post on a password protected site. Don’t post them publicly.
4. Disable participants’ ability to share their screen when they enter. The host can enable participants to share their screen individually once the meeting begins.
Guidelines for Recording Zoom Meetings
| Requirement | Best Practice |
|---|---|
Opting Out: Students may opt of participating in recorded sessions by muting audio, disabling video, and declining to participate in the chat. Another option is for students to de-identify themselves by changing their name in their Zoom participant tile. | Schedule the recorded part of the class first and the non-recorded interactive part second. Determine alternate ways to assess participation, e.g., a reaction paper (or other type of record) to classmates’ comments, a reaction paper (or other type of record) to instructor comments. |
Not penalizing students: Students should not be penalized for opting out of participation, e.g., they should not receive a “zero” for class participation for that session. They should be marked as attending that class session. | Determine alternate ways to assess participation (see above). |
Deleting sessions: All recorded zoom sessions that include students will need to be manually deleted at the end of the semester. | Instructors will need to manually delete these meetings from their Zoom accounts. |
The Office of the Provost recently developed guidelines for recording Zoom Meetings that are in accordance with the Johns Hopkins Intellectual Property Policy and the Johns Hopkins University FERPA Policy.
Please read the full text of the guidelines here>; a summary is provided below.
Instructors should use the following Zoom settings, accessed via jhuson.zoom.us > Settings > Recordings (located at the top of the page):
If video is desired, enable Record active speaker with shared screen
Disable Display participants’ names in the recording
Enable Require password to access shared cloud recordings
Enable Multiple Audio Notifications of Recorded Meeting, which plays an automated message whenever a recording is started, or a participant enters a session that is already being recorded.
Instructors should notify students beforehand that they plan to record the Zoom session and then remind students at the beginning of class.
Finally, instructors must manually delete all recordings by the last day of the course (however, earlier deletion is preferable unless there is a reason to keep the recordings until the last day of class.)