Important information about Zoom settings and security

Based on feedback from faculty and students, the university has taken steps to provide easier access to a safe and secure learning environment in our Zoom virtual classrooms.

Zoom’s default settings have been changed, so you may need to modify your personal settings to regain access to some interactive features. We also recommend that some people generate and share new meeting IDs to benefit from the improved security.

New default settings

Some default settings in Zoom have been modified to provide a more secure and safe Zoom virtual classroom environment. Consequently, access to some of the interactive features of Zoom (e.g., whiteboard, breakout rooms, student screen-sharing, etc.) may require you to reactivate these settings by logging in to your personal Zoom account and modifying the default settings.

The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has made user guides available online to help faculty members customise these settings. For more information, please visit Running a Zoom Session and go to “Customising Your Settings in Zoom.”

Those who require additional assistance can email help@concordia.ca. We apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Meeting ID numbers, Moodle usage and passwords

To reduce the risk of participants disrupting your meetings and classes, and to avoid having them access other meetings arranged with your Personal Meeting ID (PMI), we recommend that you generate new sessions with a specific meeting ID.

To further reduce the risk associated with recurring meetings, we strongly recommend that you only share meeting IDs with your students through Moodle. As a third step, we are testing Zoom’s password features, details of which will be shared, based on our findings.

Details of these recommendations and tips on how to manage your PMI settings and Zoom meetings are available on the CTL website. In the meantime, if you need help generating new specific meeting IDs, please email help@concordia.ca.

Complaints about disruptive behaviours

If one of your classes has been disrupted by someone bombarding participants with irrelevant or offensive material, you can email help@concordia.ca.

Finally, please note that the changes mentioned above should greatly reduce this risk for all newly generated Concordia Zoom sessions.