Here are some best practices for using Zoom safely and effectively. The list was compiled by educational developers at the Centre for Teaching and Learning and the most recent version of these recommendations is available online at https://ctl.guide/quickhelp.

1. Mute participants on entry. This option is available in the settings when you create the Zoom meeting. Unmute users as required. Students in breakout rooms will be able to unmute.
2. Pre-organize students into breakout rooms as an option. For this to work however, all participants need to be signed in to Zoom with their University profile. See this article for details: Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms in Zoom
3. The Host can only enter one breakout room and have one chat window open at a time. Users may only chat with others in the same room, not across others. The Host can broadcast a message to all rooms.
4. The “Connect speaker and microphone” button will take users through a set-up process before clicking “Join with computer audio”.
5. Disable screensharing by students to prevent meetings from being hijacked. Click Share Screen, choose Advanced Sharing Options…” and then set Who Can Share to Host Only.
6. For security reasons, limit private chats and file-sharing. Click the Chat button, click ••• and set the option to “Host only”. Co-hosts can still privately message everyone.
7. If recording, choose “Record to the Cloud”.
   If you have a long meeting, consider breaking your recording into parts by clicking Stop (instead of Pause) and then resuming your meeting at intervals (or during a natural break). Instead of a long and unwieldy video, this will create shorter and smaller videos that are more manageable by Hosts and Participants if viewed at a later time.
8. Disable Virtual Backgrounds in case of inappropriate or distracting use. You can do so via the Meeting settings at zoom.com (when logged in with your account).
9. Consider granting hosting co-host privileges to TA's/RA's, etc for them to manage activities such as breakout rooms, chats, questions so that you may focus on lecture delivery.