Prevent Disruption in Zoom Meetings

Unwanted disruption can affect any meeting or class held in Zoom. Use the tips below to help prevent disruption and respond if it happens.

Note: The latest version of Zoom includes a new Security button that you can access at any time during your meeting or class. All of the features in the Security button are available elsewhere in Zoom, but the button makes them easier to find during a meeting or class.

For more information, see "About the Security Button in Zoom."

Prevention

1. Do not share meeting IDs publicly, including your Personal Meeting ID (PMI), especially on social media.
2. Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) for public events. Learn about meeting IDs, including how to generate a random meeting ID.
3. Remind students that online class behavior is covered by applicable policies such as Acceptable Use and Honor Code.
4. Consider using the Waiting Room feature to control who enters the meeting.
5. If needed, prevent participants from sharing their screen during one meeting or across all meetings on your account. In a teaching setting, teaching assistants (TAs) and students will not be able to share their screens.
6. Lock the meeting after everyone joins. In the meeting, click Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the Participants window, click Lock Meeting.

Additional prevention options for higher-risk meetings

If there is a greater risk of disruption or a history of disruption, consider these options:

1. Create Zoom Meeting Restricted to Notre Dame Participants. This is useful if you want to host a meeting for participants who have a Notre Dame NetID and password.
2. Allow only signed-in users to join. This helps you control your guest list and invite only the people you want at your event, such as students or colleagues.
3. Use meeting passcodes. You do not need to share the meeting link. Generate a random meeting ID when you schedule the event and require a passcode to join.

Dealing with a Disruptive Participant

1. Remove unwanted or disruptive participants: From the Participants menu, move your pointer over the participant’s name to show more options. Select Remove to remove the person from the meeting. They will not be able to rejoin.
2. Put them on hold: You can put attendees on hold to disable their video and audio temporarily. Click a participant’s video thumbnail and select Start Attendee On Hold. When you are ready, click Take Off Hold in the Participants list.
3. Disable video: Hosts can turn off a participant’s video to block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate gestures.
4. Mute participants: Hosts can mute or unmute individual participants or all participants at once. This helps block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate noise. You can also enable Mute Upon Entry in your settings to reduce noise in large meetings.
5. Turn off file transfer: In-meeting file transfer lets people share files through chat. Turn this off to prevent unsolicited pics, GIFs, memes, and other content.
6. Turn off annotation: Annotation lets participants mark up shared screens or whiteboards. Disable annotation in your Zoom settings to prevent people from writing on shared content.
7. Disable private chat: Zoom allows participants to chat with everyone or send private messages. Restrict private chat to reduce distractions and prevent unwanted messages during the meeting.

Troubleshooting

1. Allow removed participants to rejoin: If you remove someone by mistake, you can change your settings to allow removed participants to rejoin.
2. Zoom’s Support Site has additional information and tutorials.

Additional Links

• https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/20/keep-the-party-crashers-from-crashing-your-zoom-event/
• https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/27/best-practices-for-securing-your-virtual-classroom/

Suggested titles:

• Prevent Disruption in Zoom Meetings
• Manage Disruptive Participants in Zoom
• Zoom Meeting Security and Disruption Controls