Zoom is a full-featured video and collaborative technology which unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and group messaging into one easy-to-use platform. Fairfield University Pro Zoom accounts allow for video, audio, and content sharing between up to 50 participants from any device including Windows and Mac computers, Android and iOS devices.
Claim Your Zoom Account
If it’s your first time using Zoom, visit: fairfield.zoom.us in any web browser to claim your Fairfield-provided account. Choose SIGN IN and enter your Fairfield NetID & current password to proceed to your personal Zoom management page.
Account Management
Once you’ve claimed your account, you may immediately begin hosting meetings from your computer or mobile device using the official Zoom App. However, there are some important settings and features available on the browser-based management page worth noting.
My Profile allows you to customize the cosmetic aspects of your account- your profile photo and Zoom meeting ID and URL. (The ‘keys’ your viewers can use to enter your meetings.)
My Settings, a tab found on the My Profile page, allows you to toggle some Zoom features on & off completely. (Chats, Breakout Rooms, Recordings, etc.)
My Meetings allows you to schedule future meetings and allow viewers into them early.
By default, only faculty and staff have licensed Zoom accounts. If a student needs a licensed Zoom account for academic purposes, they or the instructor can request an upgrade for the semester by emailing academiccomputing@fairfield.edu.
The Zoom App
If you haven’t already done so, install Zoom on the computer or mobile device you’d like to use it on.
For the computer download, go to Zoom and choose Zoom Client for Meetings.
For an iOS or Android device, simply download Zoom from the device’s App Store.
Setting up Zoom
Open the app.
Option 1: Locate and open the Zoom application. Zoom can be found as an icon on your desktop. Once you have located the Zoom Icon Double click to open the application.
Option 2: Search for it using the navigation bar.
Signing Into the Zoom App
The Zoom application will open. It will either open up with the user already logged in or require a login. If you are already logged in, move on to step 3.
If you are not logged in yet, you will log in with your Fairfield NetID, by going to “SSO“ also known as Single sign-on.
Type fairfield into the textbook and choose Continue.
Sign in with your NetID and password on the next screen.
Because Zoom adapts to the type of device you’re using it on, you may want to consult Zoom’s official Getting Started guide.
- Open the app.
Open Spotlight by clicking the Spotlight magnifying glass icon in the menu bar, or by pressing Command + Space Bar on your keyboard
Type Zoom.us into the spotlight search. Spotlight will automatically populate options as you type.
Select Zoom from the list. This will open the application
Signing Into the Zoom App
The Zoom application will open. It will either open up with the user already logged in or require a login. If you are already logged in, move on to step 3.
If you are not logged in yet, you will log in with your Fairfield NetID, by going to “SSO“ also known as Single sign-on.
Type fairfield into the textbook and choose Continue.
Sign in with your NetID and password on the next screen.
Because Zoom adapts to the type of device you’re using it on, you may want to consult Zoom’s official Getting Started guide.
Getting Familiar with the Zoom App
The Quick Start Menu
Once Zoom is downloaded and you are successfully signed in with your Fairfield Net ID, you will see a Quick-Start menu.
The menu appearance may vary slightly from platform to platform.
- Choose New Meeting to open a room.
- Choose Screen Share Meeting to open a room in which you’ll be sharing a presentation or application.
- Choose White Board to open a room in which you'll be sharing a whiteboard.
- Choose Video meeting to open a room in which you’d like viewers to see your face as you speak to them.
- Regardless of how you start a meeting, you can always use any combination of webcam video, audio, and screen-share.
- Choose Join to join someone else’s Zoom room. (Students can use it to join your room.)
- Schedule allows you to schedule a Zoom meeting for a future time.
- Chats and Contacts allow you to get in touch with anyone using a Fairfield Zoom account without entering a room. You can now use Chats to send messages to yourself and take notes during meetings.
- Meetings allows you to review scheduled meetings.
- Settings offers plenty of device-specific options to help you customize your Zoom experience. Advanced hardware, notification, and recording settings can be found here.
- Certain settings are only available via the web interface (log in at fairfield.zoom.us or choose “Advanced Settings” in the app).
- Accessibility Settings: Under Advanced Settings, go to My Meeting Settings and choose Recordings. Under the Advanced Cloud Recording, check audio transcript. Any videos that are recorded to the cloud will then be automatically transcribed.
Starting a Meeting
Unless you’ve changed your settings, entering a meeting will give you an option of joining its audio via computer/Internet (VoIP) or telephone. In most cases, you’ll want to join using computer/Internet audio.
Once the room is live, there are a number of ways to invite your viewers into it. You may provide them the room’s Meeting ID, the Invitation URL, or even choose Invite to send invitation Emails.
The Zoom Toolbar
Use the Zoom toolbar to manage your meeting- who sees, hears, and speaks at all times.
- Mute/Unmute: Toggles your microphone on & off.
Start/Stop Video: Toggles your webcam broadcast on & off.
If your microphone or video aren't working, select the arrows to the right of the microphone/video icon, respectively, and select a different input or output source from the menu.
- Security (Host Only): Lock the meeting the prevent more people from joining, enable a waiting room, and manage participant options including the ability to screen share.
Participants (Host Only): Displays a list of everyone in your room and allows you to toggle their cameras and microphones on & off, as well as share your moderator privileges. You can also invite more participants through here.
- Chat: Monitor and contribute to a class text-chat. Also allows private messaging.
Share Screen: Allows you to share an entire computer desktop, individual applications like PowerPoint and Excel, an interactive whiteboard, or even an iOS device’s full screen through a computer.
When you share your screen from an iOS device, you will not be able to project to an Apple TV using AirPlay.
If you are a participant and unable to share our screen, the host may need to use the Security settings to enable screen sharing.
- Polls (Host Only): Launch an existing poll or create a new one on the fly during your meetings.
Record: Start recording your Zoom session to your local computer or the cloud.
Only licensed users have access to record to the cloud. If a recording is saved to the cloud it will also be available in your Kaltura My Media files. Zoom Cloud recordings will expire after 1 year.
- Live Transcript: Enable (if you're the host) or request live AI captioning.
- Break Out Rooms (Host Only): Create breakout rooms for your participants to work in smaller groups.
- Reactions: Use reactions to share your thoughts or "raise your hand" to call attention to the speaker.
- White Boards (Host Only): As a host, you can enable the digital white board for your participants to collaborate in.
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