Create a Safe Digital Learning Experience on Safer Internet Day: Sameer Raje, Zoom

On February 9^th, Safer Internet Day Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) shares a reminder for its users to evaluate the way online interactions are secured. This is especially the case for remote teachers and learners, as the virtual classroom is likely here to stay. No matter the type of classroom or educational program, Zoom wants everyone to have the same productive — and secure — learning environment as a traditional classroom setting.

A message for the users from Sameer Raje, General Manager & Head of India, Zoom Video Communications.

According to EDsmart, 63% of people choose online education because it works best with their current work/life responsibilities. Virtual classrooms tend to be more adaptable and flexible, encouraging students to learn in an environment that best suits them.

Here are Zoom’s pre-stocked security features designed to help secure virtual classrooms.

Lock your virtual classroom

Did you know you can lock a Zoom session that’s already started, so that no one else can join? It is like closing the classroom door after the bell. Give students a few minutes to file in and then click the Security icon at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the pop-up, click the button that says Lock Meeting.

Control screen sharing

To give instructors more control over what students are seeing and prevent them from sharing random content, Zoom updated the default screen-sharing settings for education users. Sharing privileges are now set to “Host Only,” so teachers by default are the only ones who can share content in class.

However, if students need to share their work with the group, teachers can allow screen sharing in the host controls. Click the arrow next to Share Screen and then Advanced Sharing Options. Under “Who can share?” choose “All Participants” and close the window. You can also toggle sharing privileges under the Security icon in your window or change the default sharing option to All Participants in your Zoom settings.

Enable the Waiting Room

The Waiting Room feature is one of the best ways to protect your Zoom virtual classroom and keep out those who aren’t supposed to be there.

This feature is on by default for K-12 education users. When enabled, you have two options for who hits the Waiting Room before entering a class:

1. All Participants will send everyone to the virtual waiting area, where you can admit them individually or all at once.
2. 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.

The virtual Waiting Room can be enabled for every class or for individual classes at the scheduling level. If you forget to turn it on, you can quickly enable the Waiting Room from the Security icon. You also can send people already in the meeting back to the Waiting Room. Next to an individual name in the Participants panel, just select More to the right of their name and Send to Waiting Room and they’ll be removed from the live meeting and placed into the virtual waiting area.

Lock down the chat

Teachers can restrict the in-class chat so students cannot privately message other students. We recommend controlling chat access from the Security icon (rather than disabling chat altogether in your settings) so students can still interact with the teacher as needed.

Remove a participant

If someone who is not meant to be there somehow manages to join your virtual classroom, you can easily kick someone out from the Security icon or from the Participants panel. Mouse over a participant’s name in the Participants panel, and several options will appear, including “Remove.” Click to remove them from your virtual classroom, and they won't be allowed back in.

Report a user

Teachers and other hosts can report users to Zoom’s Trust & Safety team. Find this option within our Security icon, where you can attach screenshots and other documentation as needed.

Suspend participant activities

If your class is getting disrupted, hosts and co-hosts can pause the meeting to remove and report the offending party and prevent further disruption. Click the Security icon and select “Suspend Participant Activities” to temporarily halt all video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotation, screen sharing, and recording, and end Breakout Rooms. You can resume the class by re-enabling the individual features.

Renaming participants

You can disable the ability for any Zoom participant to rename themselves at the account, group, and user level in your settings. Or if class is already in session, you can toggle this capability in-meeting under the Security icon. All of the above features can be found with the Security icon on your meeting toolbar. Here’s a video overview of those options.

Security options when scheduling a class

The cool thing about Zoom is that you have these and other protection options in-meeting and also when scheduling a class. Here are a few of the most applicable:

• Passcode-protect the classroom: Create a passcode and share with your students via school email so only those intended to join can access a virtual classroom.
• Require registration: This shows you every email address of everyone who signed up to join your class and can help you evaluate who’s attending.
• Restrict annotation: This feature prevents students from annotating on shared content.
• Use a random meeting ID: It’s best practice to generate a random meeting ID for your class, so it can’t be shared multiple times. This is the better alternative to using your Personal Meeting ID, which is not advised because it’s basically an ongoing meeting that’s always running.
• Allow only authenticated users to join: Checking this box means only members of your school who are signed into their Zoom account with an approved email address can access this particular class.
• Disable join before host: Students cannot join class before the teacher joins and will see a pop-up that says, "The meeting is waiting for the host to join."

Note: For schools scheduling classes through an LMS, some of these settings might appear a little differently.

Additionally, teachers have a couple of other in-meeting options to control their virtual classrooms:

• Disable video: Turn off a student’s video to block distracting content or inappropriate gestures while class is in session.
• Mute students: Mute individual students or all of them at once. Mute Upon Entry (in your settings) is also available to keep the clamor at bay when everyone files in.
• Attendee on-hold: An alternative to removing a user, you can momentarily disable their audio/video connections. Click on the attendee’s video thumbnail and select Start Attendee On-Hold to activate.
• Hide profile pictures: Under the Security icon, teachers can hide profile pictures of any participants that don’t have their video on. Only their names will be displayed. You can also set this option as a default in the In Meeting (Basic) section of your Zoom settings.

Important reminders for teachers

A quick reminder to never share your Zoom classroom details (meeting ID and passcode) on any public forum, such as social media or even your school’s public website. Meeting disruptors search the internet for publicly posted meeting IDs. If you learn that a student or someone else has posted your meeting information online, please change the meeting ID before the next class.

We also encourage you to NOT post pictures of your virtual class on social media or elsewhere online. While it’s fun to share in the excitement of connecting over Zoom, we are particularly committed to protecting the privacy of K-12 users and discourage publicly posting images of students, especially minors, in a Zoom virtual classroom.