Pre-Meeting Security Settings
Security settings to set before a meeting
It's important to set security features before a meeting begins, so invited participants can attend—and unauthorized visitors cannot disrupt the meeting.
To safeguard your meeting, choose at least one (or all three) of the main security settings:
- Passcode
- Waiting Room
- Only authenticated users can join meetings
Enable security settings when you are scheduling a meeting in Canvas.
Or, edit a previously scheduled meeting to adjust security settings.
Set security when you schedule a meeting
Open Zoom from the link in the Canvas navigation panel and schedule a meeting (or edit a previously-scheduled meeting).
Scroll down to the security section and choose security your preferred meeting security options.
When in doubt, we recommend using Waiting Room. This security option gives you the most control over who is admitted to the Zoom meeting room while not locking out participants who were unable to log in to a UW account before joining.
Meeting security options, in order of least to most secure:
- Passcode (least secure): A code that participants need to enter to be admitted to the Zoom meeting.
By default, meetings with passcodes have a longer updated meeting link that allows participants to skip entering the code directly, effectively negating the security feature. Even if this option is turned off, passcodes are easy to share, so once participants have the code, any participant in the meeting will have the ability to invite others to join. This security feature is not recommended for larger groups of participants that you do not know personally. - Waiting Room (recommended): A virtual lobby for your meeting so that hosts can control which participants they admit after they arrive.
The meeting host and any co-hosts can admit attendees from the Waiting Room via the Participant pane, either one at a time or all at once. This feature can be customized to allow participants who have already logged in to their UW Zoom accounts to skip the Waiting Room.- Waiting Room bypass: in your User Settings Links to an external site. under "Waiting Room Options," you can select Edit Options to customize who is admitted to your Waiting Room vs. who can access the meeting directly. If you host larger meetings, you may wish to set "Who should go in the Waiting Room?" to:
- Only authenticated users can join (most secure): Requires all participants to sign in to their Zoom account prior to accessing the meeting.
When set to "Current UW Faculty, Students and Staff," the meeting will require that each participant has logged in to a UW Zoom account using their NetID prior to joining your meeting. Users who attempt to join the meeting without signing in to the correct account will be prompted to sign in. This makes absolutely sure that you can identify every participant in your meeting, but can cause access issues for users who have multiple Zoom accounts.- Authentication Exception: this option allows you to invite someone outside the UW, such as a guest speaker, to join a meeting that only allows authenticated users to join. If you enter the email address of the invited guest as an authentication exception, they will receive an email with a custom link to your meeting that allows them to join. This link should not be shared with other users.
NOTE:
For a class with more than 50 students, managing a Waiting Room can take time and may not be practical to use as a solo instructor. At minimum, we recommend making sure you have customized your Waiting Room options to allow other UW Zoom users to bypass the Waiting Room.
Zoom video about using Waiting Rooms
Guide from Zoom: Enabling and customizing the Waiting Room Links to an external site.
Guide from UW IT: Allow participants to bypass the waiting room