Zoom: Waiting Room

Zoom meetings will have a Waiting Room enabled by default. There are now three options for users regarding Waiting Rooms, this article will outline all three options.

Instructions:

Zoom meetings will have a Waiting Room enabled by default.

• All users with an university system domain email address will bypass the Waiting Room and directly join the meeting. Users should follow these steps to ensure they are properly logged in to Zoom.
• You can learn more about customizing and using the Waiting Room experience here.
• Zoom has improved their Waiting Room notifications so the meeting host can now receive a visual and auditory notification that an attendee has entered the Waiting Room.

For newly scheduled meetings, or meetings with waiting room enabled.  If your students are accessing Zoom via Canvas they should have been prompted the first time they used the integration to log in with their campus Zoom account to establish the link. If you continue to have your students access Zoom from Canvas they should bypass the waiting room and go directly to your class.

What are Waiting Rooms and how do they work?
The Waiting Room feature allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting by placing participants in a Waiting Room prior to joining the session. It is recommended that you review your Waiting Room selections and options for ‘join before host’ and which participants to place in the Waiting Room.

For a detailed overview of how to allow domains to bypass the Waiting Room and other Waiting Room features, please see this Zoom support article.

For course Zoom sessions its recommended to keep the settings as they are.  If students still enter the waiting room prior to the meeting, its more than likely its because they are not signed into Zoom correctly with their institution credentials.  see:  Zoom: How to Sign In

For Office Hours, where you will want to meet with a single student at a time, you may choose the option of "Everyone"  this will override the domain authentication and place everyone in a waiting room to be admitted to the meeting.  This ensures that only one student at a time will be in your Office Hours.  NOTE:  This is an account setting and affects all meetings. 

Edit Options:

Custom Text:

Users can elect to include some custom text for attendees that hit the waiting room.  You can add and adjust the text as needed by adding text under Customize Waiting Room.  Example below:

 

How will Waiting Rooms affect participants joining the meeting by phone?
For meetings with Waiting Rooms, participants will dial in as they normally do. They will hear a prompt that they are in the Waiting Room and the host will have to admit them.

How will Waiting Rooms affect the host joining the meeting by phone?
If the meeting has Waiting Rooms enabled and ‘join before host’ is disabled, then the host will be able to start the meeting and disable the Waiting Room by entering their host key. The host will hear audio prompts indicating that the Waiting Room has been disabled, all attendees will be admitted, and they can lock or unlock the meeting by pressing * 5.

Can I disable Waiting Rooms for all new meetings?
Yes, waiting rooms can be disabled for all new meetings from within your user settings. Sign in to your campus portal Zoom account (unh.zoom.us plymouthstate.zoom.us, keene.zoom.us). Click Settings, on the lefthand side, and then select the Meeting tab. Navigate to the Waiting Room option under the Meetings tab and click the blue button until it shifts positions and turns grey. The Waiting Room option for all new meetings is now disabled.

Important note: this option is only available until Zoom enforces the user of Waiting Rooms or Passcodes for all meetings. 

How do I enable the use of Passcodes for meetings?
The use of a passcode is setup from the meeting settings. To learn more, visit this Zoom support article and scroll down to the "Users" section.

How will Passcodes affect participants joining the meeting by phone?
Your security selection for meetings will not affect phone Passcode requirements unless you select “Require a Passcode when joining by phone.”

Can I make all participants enter a Waiting Room?
Yes, waiting rooms can be disabled for all new meetings from within your user settings. Sign in to your campus portal Zoom account (zoom.unh.edu, plymouthstate.zoom.us, keene.zoom.us). Click Settings, on the lefthand side, and then select the Meeting tab. Navigate to the Waiting Room option under the Meetings tab, click Edit Options and under Who should go in the waiting room? select Everyone.

How will this affect my calendar invitations when scheduling meetings?

1. If you already have a Passcode or Waiting Room on, there will be no change to how you schedule meetings.
2. If Passcodes are added to existing meetings, calendar invites need to be resent to include the Passcode. If Passcodes are added to new meetings, the Passcode will automatically be embedded into the meeting link (unless you have specifically disabled this feature)
3. Enabling Waiting Room for new or existing meetings does not affect calendar invitations.

Outcome:

The users will be able to use the three options regarding Waiting Rooms on Zoom.

Further reading:

For more information on assuring your meeting attendees are signed in properly, see:  Zoom: How to Sign In

For more details, including a comprehensive FAQ document, please visit the Zoom Support page.

Need additional help?

Contact the Technology Help Desk team on your local campus or fill out this Zoom Web Conferencing help form with as much detail as possible.