Zoom: Scheduling and starting meetings

In this video, I’ll be demonstrating how to schedule a meeting in Zoom, as well as how to start a scheduled meeting. I’ll also show you how to change the settings for your personal meeting room in Zoom.

Your Personal Meeting Room

First, let's talk about your personal meeting room. At IU, every Zoom user has a dedicated meeting room of their own, and the option to set a personalized URL for your personal room that’s easy to remember. You can use your personal meeting room for meetings that you schedule, as well as for unscheduled meetings.

Changing the settings for your personal meeting room

To change the settings for your personal meeting room, you’ll first need to log in to Zoom at IU at zoom.iu.edu.

• Once you’re logged in, you’ll be brought to the Meetings section of Zoom.
• To access the settings for your personal meeting room, in the navigation across the top of the page, click Personal Meeting Room. The settings for your room will load.
• To start the process of editing your settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Edit this meeting
• The Edit Meeting options will load – here, you can change the meeting’s settings as needed.

When you’re finished changing any settings for your meeting room, you can click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Creating a personal link for your meeting room

If desired, you can set a personalized link for your personal meeting room.

• To do this, in the navigation menu on the left side of the page, click Profile.
• In the profile options, look for the listing for your personal link – to edit it, to the right of your personal URL, click Customize and type in what you would like to use for your custom link. A suggestion for a personal URL might be to use your IU username, or something that’s easy to remember.
• When you’ve finished changing the custom URL, click the Save Changes button to save the changes you’ve made.

Scheduling a meeting

Next, let’s explore how to schedule a meeting.

• To start scheduling a new meeting, in the navigation on the left side of the screen, click Meetings.
• On the Meetings page, near the upper left side of the page, click the Schedule a New Meeting
• The Schedule a Meeting page will load – here, you can fill out the information for your meeting, such as the meeting’s topic, a description for the meeting, and change other settings as necessary.
• You can also indicate whether a meeting is recurring or not. For holding class sessions online, you’ll likely want to schedule a recurring meeting.
• Once you’ve set the date and time for the initial meeting, check the Recurring meeting checkbox to adjust the recurrence options for the meeting. For example, for a class that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, you’ll set the recurrence to Weekly and check the boxes for Monday and Wednesday. You can also set an end date for your recurring meeting.

Next, we’ll want to look at the Security settings.

• If you choose to set a passcode, Zoom will generate one for you – you can also enter your own if desired. You’ll want to share this passcode with participants ahead of time, to ensure they can enter the meeting room.
• If you choose to turn on the waiting room, participants will be placed into a waiting room and will need to be admitted individually to the meeting. For more information about using the waiting room in Zoom, watch the video Zoom: Tools for Securing Meetings.
• Once you’ve adjusted the settings as needed, click the Save button to save the meeting.

Sharing the meeting invitation and invite link

After saving your meeting, you’ll be brought to the meeting details page – you’ll find a link to the meeting room on this page. This link can be shared with meeting participants as needed. To share the link, you can right click the link and choose Copy, then paste it wherever you need to. For example, if you’re using Zoom to host your class sessions, you may want to add the link to your Canvas course, as well as email it to your students.

To share detailed information about your meeting and how to connect, you can click Copy Invitation – this information will show up in a dialog box. Once the dialog box opens, you can click the Copy Meeting Invitation button at the bottom of the dialog box. Your meeting’s information will be copied, and from here, you can paste it into an email or a page on Canvas. This invitation includes all the information about a meeting, including how to connect and what the meeting passcode is, if one was set.

Starting a meeting

You can start a meeting in one of two ways: using the Zoom website or using the Zoom desktop client.

Start a meeting using the Zoom website

• To start a meeting using the Zoom website, you’ll first want to make sure you’re logged in to zoom.iu.edu, if necessary.
• Once logged in, you’ll be shown a list of your upcoming meetings. To start a meeting from here, click the Start button for the meeting you want to start.
• Zoom will open, and the meeting will begin.

Start a meeting using the Zoom desktop client

• To start a meeting from the Zoom desktop client, first, you’ll want to make sure you’re logged in with your IU account through the Zoom desktop client.
• Once you’re logged in, in the navigation at the top of the Zoom window, click Meetings.
• A list of your scheduled meetings will appear – to select the meeting you want to start, in the list of meetings on the left side of the Zoom window, click the meeting listing.
• The meeting’s details will appear in the right side of the window – to start the meeting, click the Start
• Zoom will open a new window, and the meeting will start.

Now you know how to schedule and start meetings in Zoom.