Zoom At Carleton

• New Minimum Version Enforced: On April 29th, 2023, all Carleton University Zoom users will be required to upgrade to the newest version of the Zoom desktop client and mobile app. These minimum version updates ensure that you receive the newest features, as well as any privacy and security enhancements. The first time you open Zoom after April 29th, you will be prompted to update. Please log in a few minutes in advance of your meetings to allow time for the update. If you haven’t already done so, you can also set automatic updates for your desktop client.
• Regular Sign On: To increase security and improve metrics around account usage, Carleton University Zoom users will now be regularly required to sign into their Zoom account before they can join or host a meeting. Please give yourself a few minutes in advance of meetings to prevent disruption while you sign into your account. The steps to access Carleton Zoom accounts can be found on our Single Sign On support page.
• Auto-start and Visually Modify Captions: Zoom has improved the accessibility around their captions! Meeting participants and webinar attendees can now select, through the Zoom Desktop Client accessibility settings, to have automated captioning automatically appear. Users can also customize the width of captions in a meeting or webinar to suit their needs.
• Screen-sharing Layouts for Immersive View: When using an immersive view and a participant begins sharing their screen, the immersive view will shift to provide space for the shared content to be viewed in a modified layout. Previously, starting a screen share caused the immersive view to be stopped for all. This feature is only supported for up to 25 participants.
• Additional Gallery View Sorting Options: Hosts can now sort the order of participant video tiles in Gallery view, choosing from options including Sort by First Name (ascending and descending), Last Name (ascending and descending), and Meeting Entry Time (ascending and descending).
• New Meeting Chat Experience: Users can now enable the new meeting chat experience in their individual settings. This experience allows meeting participants to use threaded replies, text formatting, quoting, and in-line image preview. Users can also decide modify this feature to include allowing participants to delete messages in meeting chat, allow participants to send screenshots in the meeting chat, and react to meeting chat messages using emojis.
• New Join Flow: The two meeting wait steps, join-before-host and waiting room, have been merged into one newly designed and improved waiting room experience. The button design for self-preview has changed. (This button is used to turn the video camera and mic on and off.) Hosts can now upload a short video to play to their meeting participants while they wait to be admitted to the meeting or webinar.
• Sign Language Interpretation: Zoom now supports Sign Language Interpretation in meetings and webinars! Up to 20 participants may be assigned as interpreters, and attendees can toggle the view on and off, as well as move the interpretation video box around their screen as needed. The Interpreters appear as a separate video feed in Zoom cloud recordings, increasing the accessibility of online meetings. NOTE: this feature does not provide the sign language interpreters. An interpreter must be invited by the Host. This feature cannot be used in a Personal Meeting ID, must be enabled before the meeting, and the Host must be joining from an up-to-date version of the Zoom Desktop Application, not the web browser or a mobile app.

• Meeting Q&A – Hosts can now enable the Q&A feature in their Zoom meetings, a feature that was previously only available in Webinars. The Q&A feature provides easier navigation of questions as it is separate from the in-meeting chat. Questions can be upvoted by participants, putting the most relevant questions at the top. Hosts can allow users to ask anonymously, answer in writing, and remove irrelevant or inappropriate questions.
• Slide Control – Presenters can now give the ability to other participants in a Zoom meeting to control the progression of the slides in a PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides presentation. This provides smoother flow when multiple presenters are presenting from the same document.
• 100 Breakout rooms – Zoom meetings now support up to 100 breakout rooms, regardless of the participant limit in the meeting. The standard participant limit for Carleton University Zoom meetings is 300. This increase provides improved communication and collaboration in breakout rooms, as smaller groups promote better discussion.
• Breakout Rooms from Poll Results – Hosts can split participants into Breakout Rooms based on the way they answer a poll. Hosts can still set a participant limit for each room, and manage the participants after launching the Breakout Rooms. This allows Instructors to better manage their students based on the content of the lesson.
• Waiting room video – Hosts can now customize the Waiting Room to include short videos. The video must be in MP4, MOV, or M4V format, and cannot exceed 30 MB. Videos can include sound, but are muted by default.

Zoom updates its platform on a near weekly basis. You can find the Zoom Release Notes on the Zoom Support Site. Note that the complete list of release notes will include Zoom products that Carleton has not licensed.

Below we’ve summarized the highest priority changes Carleton users will notice in Zoom from September 2022 to January 2023.

For a complete list of changes specific to Carleton users, please submit a request to tlssupport.carleton.ca.

• New minimum enforced version: On Jan. 4, all Carleton University Zoom users will be required to upgrade to the newest version of the Zoom desktop client and mobile app. These minimum version updates ensure that you receive the newest features, as well as any privacy and security enhancements.
  The first time you open Zoom after Jan. 4, you will be prompted to make the update. Please log in a few minutes in advance of your meetings to allow time for the update. If you haven’t already done so, you can also set automatic updates for your desktop client to avoid manual updates in the future.
• Chromebook users migrated to progressive web app: On Jan. 4,  all Carleton University Zoom users that operate Zoom within the ChromeOS app with be migrated to the Zoom Progressive Web App (PWA). There is no action required on the users part.
• Q&A: (Coming Soon!) The ever popular Question & Answer tool in Zoom Webinars is now available in Zoom Meetings. Hosts can enable this feature in their meetings and control whether the responses are anonymous or not. Questions can also be set to allow voting by participants, with the most highly voted questions displayed prominently and less popular questions moved to the bottom of the list. Participants can also be given the ability to comment on questions. This feature helps the host manage questions that used to appear in the in-meeting chat. Questions can also be answered privately using the Type Answer option. Upon completion of the meeting, a Q&A report will be generated by Zoom for hosts to reference.
• Creation and editing of polls directly in a meeting: Previously, hosts had to create and edit basic and advanced polls in the web portal. Now, hosts can create polls directly from within the meeting. For MacOS users, this feature requires macOS version 10.12 or higher.
• Dimmed video if flashing images or patterns are detected: Participants that are sensitive to visual triggers can now enable a setting in their Zoom client settings under Accessibility that will dim the incoming Zoom video when such triggers are detected. See below for a screen shot of the Dim Screen Share Video setting.

If you have any questions about these updates or need support, please reach out through the TLS Support Portal.

Zoom updates its platform on a near weekly basis. You can find the Zoom Release Notes on the Zoom Support Site. Note that the complete list of release notes will include Zoom products that Carleton has not licensed.

Below we’ve summarized the highest priority changes Carleton users will notice in Zoom from May 2022 to September 2022. For a complete list of changes specific to Carleton users, please submit a request to tlssupport.carleton.ca.

• New minimum enforced version: As of Aug 29 2022, all Carleton University Zoom users will be required to upgrade to the newest version of the Zoom desktop client and mobile app. Instructors, staff, and students who are using an older version should update their apps by Aug 29th to ensure uninterrupted access to all Zoom meetings, including those within Brightspace. Download the latest version of Zoom here.
  Zoom users who have already updated to the newest version of Zoom can also choose to set automatic updates for their desktop client.
• Authentication required by default: Since May 2, 2022, Zoom hosts have had the option to require authentication to ensure that only users who have securely signed into their MyCarletonOne account can join their meeting. Authentication helps ensure your Zoom meetings are secure and prevents incidents of Zoombombing or other unwanted interruptions.
  As of Aug. 29, authentication will be required by default for all meetings, however users will have the option to disable this setting as needed, or to keep it enabled and add known non-Carleton participants to a list of exempted users.
  You can learn more about authentication settings on our Zoom Privacy and Security page.
• Gesture recognition: Gesture Recognition in Zoom now allows for visual hand gestures to automatically display a corresponding meeting reaction. This feature currently supports Raise Hand and Thumbs Up reactions. A timer will appear on the participants screen before the reaction is activated. This can be easily toggled on and off from the up-arrow button in the Reactions section of the in-meeting toolbar.
• View breakout room activities: Hosts and co-hosts can now quickly view breakout room activities. This includes participants’ audio and video status, if they are sharing their screen, and any active reactions or nonverbal feedback happening in the breakout rooms from the main session.
• Broadcast microphone audio to all breakout rooms: Hosts can now broadcast their microphone to all breakout rooms simultaneously. This new feature allows for better management and communication during group and solo work in online class sessions.
  
• Enable email notification for alternative hosts by default: Users that are assigned as an Alternative Host on a meeting will now receive an email notification from no-reply@zoom.us with the meeting information. This and other email settings can be managed in your individual settings.
• Cloud recordings automatically delete after 120 days: Zoom cloud recordings are now automatically deleted 120 days after they are recorded. This setting can no longer be disabled. All cloud recordings by Carleton Zoom users are automatically transferred to your Kaltura Mediaspace account and are only deleted 4 years after the last time they are viewed. You can access your cloud recordings in Mediaspace by navigating to My Media.
• Search breakout rooms: Hosts and co-hosts are able to better manage breakout rooms with the ability to search participants or breakout rooms by name, allowing them to quickly view, assign, or move participants between breakout rooms.

If you have questions about these Zoom changes, or any of your Zoom settings, please connect with the Zoom Support Team at tlssupport.carleton.ca. The Zoom Support Team is happy to consult about making the best use of your Zoom license for engaging teaching and learning!