In Zoom, you can host meetings by scheduling a future time or inviting participants to an ad hoc meeting (e.g. your Personal Meeting room). It is strongly encouraged that you schedule your class sessions in advance rather than using your Personal meeting room so that you can:

Define your session settings upfront (such as muting all participants upon entry or allowing users to access the room before the class starts).
Obtain an attendance report.
Define an alternative host (i.e. Please note that the first alternative host to join the meeting will automatically become the host. You can reclaim host controls from within the meeting by selecting ‘Participants’, then ‘Reclaim Host)
- Only users with a Zoom Pro account can be added as alternative hosts.
- If you are co-teaching a class, only one of the instructors should create a class session meeting. The other instructor(s) should be named as alternative hosts.

Scheduling a future Zoom meeting

You can schedule Zoom meetings through the Zoom desktop app or the web interface. The web interface offers more features at the time of scheduling recurring meetings, so you should visit zoom.us to schedule those.

You can also set up a meeting with multiple 'alternative hosts'. This allows others to host the meeting if you can’t attend. As a reminder, only individuals with a Zoom Pro account can be added as an alternative host.

Please note that defining a user as an ‘alternative host’ does not mean that you have scheduled a meeting on their behalf. The meeting is still on YOUR account. If you wish to schedule a meeting on behalf of someone else, you would need to be granted scheduling rights on behalf of another user.

Finally, co-hosts cannot be defined at the time of scheduling meetings. A participant can only be made a co-host during a meeting. Please refer to the Zoom: Managing Participants section for more details

Scheduling meetings with the Zoom Desktop app

Open Zoom on your desktop and log in (for instructions on how to download the app and log in, click here).
Select ‘Schedule’ to open the Schedule meeting screen

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A. Enter a descriptive meeting title in the ‘Topic’ field (i.e. Corporate Finance, Class Session 7, Section 1).

B. In the ‘When’ section, select a start date, time and expected duration for the meeting.

C. Ensure that Generate Automatically is selected to generate a unique meeting ID for your class session. This will ensure that you can obtain attendance reports for each class session.

D. In the ‘Video’ section, choose whether ‘Hosts’ and ‘Participants’ can use video in the meeting by marking the radio buttons ‘On’ or ‘Off’. We recommend that Video be turned on for both Participants and Hosts.

E. In the ‘Audio Options’ section, ensure that "Telephone and Computer Audio" is selected.

3. Under Advanced Options, you will have the following options:

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In the ‘Meeting Options’ section, you have access to the following options by selecting ‘Advanced Options’:

A. Enable waiting room: Allows you to control when participants can join the room. This option is useful if you would like to connect with your TAs via Zoom before the class session begins. When you are ready to start teaching, you can admit students in the waiting room individually or all at once.
B. Enable join before host: Allow participants to join the meeting without you or before you join.
- You cannot select both Enable Waiting Room and Enable Join Before Host at the same time.
C. Mute participants upon entry: If Join before host is not enabled, this will mute participants as they join the meeting. Participants can unmute themselves after joining the meeting.
D. Only Authenticated Users can join: Sign in to Zoom. Do not check this option. Students will not have Zoom accounts created for them.
E. Record the meeting automatically: You must check this option to ensure that your Zoom meeting is automatically recorded. Select In the Cloud so that ITG can upload your course recording to Echo360.
F. Alternative hosts: Enter the email address of another Zoom user to allow them to start the meeting in your absence.

Best Practices for scheduling meetings

1. Do not use your personal meeting room. Schedule your class sessions up front in order to define your meeting room settings.

2. If you choose to Enable Waiting Room, you will be able to join your zoom call as a host, ensure you are successfully broadcasting and connect with your TAs/support staff before you allow students into the class.

- If you choose to Enable the Waiting Room, it is strongly encouraged that you disable it once you've started teaching your class. Otherwise, you (or your TA) should be prepared to monitor the waiting room in case someone joins late or re-joins after getting disconnected.

3. Make sure Automatically Record Meetings is selected and that the recordings are uploaded to the Cloud.

4. We recommend that video be turned ON for both hosts and participants, but participants' audio should be muted upon entry.