Before You Begin

Zoom offers two products: Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar. Zoom Meeting is the product currently used by all faculty, staff, and students. You can have up to 300 people in your Zoom Meeting and it’s designed to be collaborative but can be locked down for additional security. Zoom Webinars are more like a virtual lecture hall or auditorium. Webinars are ideal for large audiences (between 300 and 10,000 people) or events that are open to the public. Typically, webinar attendees do not interact with one another. Though Zoom provides options for you to get more social engagement with your attendees, your average webinar has one or a few people speaking to an audience. Zoom Webinars require a separate license at an additional cost. For more information see, Zoom Webinar Services.

For the most part, if your meeting has less than 300 people a regular Zoom Meeting will work well with just a few changes to your settings and following these best practices to prevent unwanted disruptions.

Zoom Meetings Settings to Replicate a Webinar

Below are some recommended settings to make a Zoom Meeting mimic a Zoom Webinar as closely as possible. Before you begin, we recommend you check for Zoom updates. Ask that any co-hosts or technical helpers check for updates as well. It’s important to be on the latest version for a few recently released features.

1. Navigate to zoom.nd.edu and login to your account.
   
   
2. On the left, click Meetings on the left navigation.
   
   
3. Click the Schedule a New Meeting button.
   
   
   
4. Enter the Topic (title) for the meeting.
   
   
5. Enter the dates and times for the meeting. Optionally, select recurring if the meeting is set to recur on a regular basis.
   
   
6. If this is a public event or virtual conference, you will likely want to enable Registration. Registration will allow you to keep track of how many participants you can expect in the session. It also makes it easier to market the event publicly, while preventing sharing the actual Zoom Meeting link to the world. For more information on registration in Zoom, see Zoom’s “Registration for Meetings" guide.
   
   
   
7. Make sure the Meeting ID is set to Generate Automatically.
   
   
8. If you are requiring registration, a meeting passcode is not needed.
   
   
9. Next to the Video section, set the participant video to Off. Since this is a large event that’s not collaborative, participants' video is not likely needed and can be distracting to the presenters.
   
   
10. Next to the Audio section, set to Both.
    
    
    
11. Next to the Meeting Options section, set:
    

    a. Check the box for Enable join before host (On)

    b. Check the box to Mute participants upon entry (On)

    c. Check the box to Enable waiting room (On). Turning the waiting room on will allow the host, co-hosts, and any technical helpers to join the room and make sure everyone is ready to start the event before letting everyone in. Once the meeting is underway, the technical helper can allow the late individual(s) in as needed.

    d. Uncheck the box for Only authenticated users can join (Off)

    e. Uncheck the box next to Breakout Room pre-assign (Off)

    f. Record the meeting automatically can be checked or unchecked (On/Off) depending on your preference for the event. The Host can always enable recording manually at any time during the meeting.

    g. Uncheck the box next t o Enable additional data center regions for this meeting (Off) unless you anticipate an audience joining from China or Hong Kong.
    

12. You can add alternative hosts if needed. This generally should only be used if you are scheduling the event for someone other than yourself. This is not the same as co-hosts. Co-hosts can only be assigned once the Zoom meeting has started.
    
    
13. Click Save.