Zoom Video Conferencing

Zoom is a full-featured video and collaborative technology that unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and group messaging into one easy-to-use platform. Zoom accounts allow for video, audio, and content sharing from any device including Windows and Mac computers, Android and iOS devices.

All students, faculty, and staff have access to a premium university account, click "login below" to get started. Anyone can join meetings that you invite, they don't need to be affiliated with the university or have a Zoom account.

Use your StarID and password to sign in and set up your Zoom account.

Getting Started Guide

New Zoom User Guide - By Minnesota State
Test your Zoom account - By Zoom

Key Features of Zoom

HD video and audio

Invite up to 300 people to regular meetings or host a webinar space and invite up to 500.
Built-in collaboration tools

Multiple participants can share their screens simultaneously and co-annotate for a more interactive meeting.
Meet securely

encryption for all meetings, role-based user security, password protection, waiting rooms, and place attendee on hold.
Streamlined calendaring

Supports scheduling or starting meetings from Outlook, Gmail, or iCal.
Team Chat

Chat with groups, searchable history, integrated file sharing, and 10 year archive. Easily escalate into 1:1 or group calls.
Recording and transcripts

Record your meetings locally or to the cloud, with searchable transcripts.
Helpful tools:
Screen share and use digital whiteboards for visual aids during meetings. Review meetings later with the option to record and download.

Always use our secure login portal, minnstate.zoom.us, to ensure that your data is safe. Your account is already set up, just log in with your StarID and StarID password.

If you have a personal Zoom account, please log out of it and sign into Zoom using our secure login portal at minnstate.zoom.us.

Do not use the free version of Zoom as it could pose potential security threats.

To boost your security when using Zoom, use these simple settings when creating your meeting:

Consider using a generated created meeting ID, not your personal meeting ID (this can be done in the schedule meetings option)
- In the Zoom Desktop Client Select Schedule

- Then under "Meeting ID" select "Generate Automatically"

Screenshot from the Zoom Desktop Client
Use meeting passwords for your meetings.

Screenshot from the Zoom Desktop Client
- If using a password for a class, you can share the password in D2L with your class.
Allow only authenticated users, users who are signed into zoom, to join your meeting.
- To enable, Sign into the Zoom web port here.
- Scroll down to "Only authenticated users can join meetings" and enable if not already.

Screenshot from the Zoom Settings

What Minnesota State is Doing to Protect Users

Beginning April 1, 2020, the default for any newly created Zoom meetings at minnstate.zoom.us will have these two features enabled by default to ensure security in meetings:

Waiting Rooms Enabled for Guest Accounts
- Waiting Room is a virtual staging area that prevents users from joining the meeting until the host is ready to start the meeting.
- Guest account is anyone who is not signed into a Zoom account
Only Hosts Can Share (Hosts can grant this permission to participants)

While these new settings shouldn't interrupt your meetings, your meeting participants may now be asked to wait until the host joins the meeting, or they may see another new screen.

Missing the view of Southwest Minnesota State University while living, learning or working off-campus? Show your Mustang pride by downloading images and branded graphics to use as virtual backgrounds for your next Zoom meeting.

We suggest the use of virtual backgrounds as a best practice for online security, as your personal work environment is not shown. Download the images below by clicking on the ones you like and saving them to your device.

HOW TO USE A VIRTUAL BACKGROUND IN ZOOM:

Click on the image(s) or video(s) below, to download them to your computer.
Open the Zoom app and click the Settings button (gear symbol) in the top right corner.
In the Settings panel, select Virtual Background from the menu at left.
Select the image (or upload an image using the plus+ button) to set your virtual background.