Zoom

Zoom is a high quality video and audio online conferencing tool for desktops and smartphones. It’s ideal for online classes, meetings, special events, webinars, remote working and job interviews.

Zoom Logo

What is Zoom?

Zoom is an online video conferencing tool for all University of Melbourne staff. Zoom supports up to 300 participants in standard meetings (webinars support up to 500 or more on request). The service can be used on a desktop or a mobile and is available in the self-service portal on all staff MOE computers. When logging in for the first time be sure to use the SSO-login to access the institutional version of Zoom or follow the setup instructions at getting started with Zoom. 

The Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar tools offer similar features and functionality but have some key differences. Users can also record their screens, screen share and use Zoom for remote desktop control.

Zoom Meetings

Zoom Meetings are designed to be collaborative sessions with the option for instructors to let participants screen share, turn on their video and audio, and track attendance.

We recommend using Zoom Meetings for webinars/online tutorials with your students, rather than Zoom Webinar. Zoom meetings give you a better breadth of features for collaboration, active learning and managing your students (such as breakout rooms). However, there are situations where Zoom Webinar may be more appropriate to your needs, such as when there are a large number of participants and expected participation is more limited.

Zoom Webinars

A Zoom Webinar license (default size is 500 participants) or capacity upgrade can be requested. Once you have been allocated a webinar license, you can schedule a session via the conferencing portal by logging into Zoom with your University credentials. If you expect higher numbers than 500 or have had registrations for more, a higher webinar license allocation (up to 1000 or 3000) can be requested.

By default, attendees can only see and hear the allocated host or presenters in a Zoom Webinar. Attendees can however only use text chat or Q&A to communicate unless manually allowed by the host to activate voice or video.

For further information on Webinars, visit What is a Webinar and how do I set one up?.

Comparison between Zoom Meetings and Webinars

Feature Zoom Meeting Zoom Webinar

Instructors have license immediately

  • Yes

Screen sharing

  • Yes
  • Yes

Polling

  • Yes
  • Yes

Students can turn on their video and audio

  • Yes (though hosts can also mute these)
  • No (only hosts and panelist can)

Students can see list of other students present

  • Yes
  • No

Chat (all participants see questions)

  • Yes
  • Yes

Q&A (questions that are private to teacher until answered)

  • No (private chat messages are possible)
  • Yes

Breakout rooms

  • Yes (*there are room number limits, for different participant numbers)
  • No

Maximum students

  • 300 (can be upgraded to 500 on request)

* see ‘Limitations’ on the managing breakout rooms page for maximum number of participants, for different numbers of Breakout Rooms.

Access and licensing

All University of Melbourne staff and students have access to Zoom through the University licence.

Getting started

Zoom is pre-installed on all University managed computers. Go to the Zoom download centre to install Zoom on another device.

This video will take you through the process of installing and setting up your Zoom application.

Teaching and learning applications

Zoom can be used to provide students with online help in their subjects (virtual office hours) and/or conduct online tutorials and lectures. Zoom sessions can be recorded either locally or to the cloud. Sessions that are recorded to the cloud automatically become available in the host's Lecture Capture (EchoVideo) library which can be easily shared with students as required.

It is important to be aware of privacy obligations when recording and publishing online teaching sessions; please refer to the Student privacy in Zoom guide for more information.

Zoom is integrated with Canvas LMS, allowing staff to schedule and start sessions within a subject. Read more in our Zoom in the LMS guide.

Basic tools useful for teaching staff using Zoom Meeting:

  • Screen share your slides, a video, software or a website. Or alternatively, ask your students to share their screens for in-class presentations.
  • Chat lets your students ask questions to you or each other.
  • Using reactions (non-verbal feedback) toolbar to engage students.

Advanced tools useful for teaching staff using Zoom Meeting:

  • Polling to create quizzes and surveys.
  • Whiteboard allows you to share a virtual whiteboard that you and students (if allowed) can annotate on.
  • Annotation tools allow you and students (if allowed) to draw over images, slides, websites, pages.
  • Breakout rooms can be used to split a Zoom Meeting into separate sessions (up to 50). You can then choose to assign participants to these sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time. You can also broadcast messages to all breakout rooms if required.

Support and resources

Technical support

Zoom is supported by the Service Centre. For technical support and queries, contact the Service Centre team directly on 8344 0777 or submit an enquiry.

A range of knowledge base articles can be found for Zoom in the Staff Services portal, including:

In addition, the Digital Workplace team publishes release notes and further information through the Digital Workplace Hub Sharepoint site.

Learning and teaching advice

For learning and teaching advice regarding using Zoom in your subjects, please submit a support request with Learning Environments.

The following guides provide advice for using Zoom within the LMS and other teaching and learning contexts:

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