Getting Started with Zoom

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• Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit (opens in a new tab)

The University of Pittsburgh’s standard Zoom environment is not HIPAA compliant. However, the University provides access to a separate HIPAA-compliant Zoom environment for those who are conducting tele-medicine appointments or are hosting meetings that discuss protected health information.

To use Zoom for HIPAA-related meetings, please see the Zoom and HIPAA Compliance page.

To create or sign into your University Zoom account on the web, log in to pitt.zoom.us and click Sign In. Then log in with your University Computing Account username and password.

• Important: Already have a Zoom account that uses your Pitt email address? Please review the following guidelines for merging existing accounts…

If you are creating or logging into a University Zoom account from the desktop client, follow these steps:

1. Install the Zoom desktop client and click Sign In.

2. Click the SSO icon.

3. In Company Domain, enter pitt (so the full domain reads pitt.zoom.us) and click Continue.

4. If prompted, click Open Zoom to launch the desktop client.

Verify Account

To verify you are signed in correctly, please do the following:

1. Sign into pitt.zoom.us (opens in a new tab).
2. Go to Account Profile in the left navigation menu.
3. Verify the following information:
   1. Account Type: Education
   2. Account Name: University of Pittsburgh
4. If you do not see the correct information, sign out of Zoom by clicking on your profile icon in the top-right corner and select Sign Out.

To verify from the Zoom desktop client, click your profile icon in the top-right corner, click your email address, and select My Profile to view your profile on pitt.zoom.us (opens in a new tab). Follow the steps above to verify your account on the web portal.

To verify your Zoom account in the HIPAA environment, please see the Zoom and HIPAA Compliance instructions (opens in a new tab).

1. If you have not yet done so, download the Zoom desktop client.

2. Launch the desktop client and click Schedule.

3. Enter the meeting details and click Schedule.

4. Copy the URL or meeting invitation to send to participants, or add it to your calendar with the available plugin.

1. Log in to pitt.zoom.us (opens in a new tab), click Sign in, and log in with your University username and password.

2. Click Meetings in the left-hand column, then click Schedule a New Meeting.

3. Enter the meeting details and click Save.

4. Copy the URL or meeting invitation to send to participants, or add it to your calendar with the available plugin.

To schedule meetings from Outlook, you first need to install the Microsoft Add-In for Zoom using the steps below.

1. Open Outlook and click Get Apps/Add-ins.

Windows:

Mac with Old Outlook:

Mac with New Outlook:

Outlook on the Web

2. In the Search Apps field that should appear, type Zoom for Outlook, then press Enter.

3. In the search results, find the Zoom for Outlook app/add-in (make sure it has this exact title), click Add, then click Continue.

4. After the add-in has been installed, you can access it from a meeting window in Outlook. Start a new meeting request, then click Add a Zoom Meeting from your Outlook toolbar.

Windows and Mac with Old Outlook:

Mac with New Outlook:

Click the New Event button.
Then in the New Event window, click […] and select Zoom > Add a Zoom Meeting.

Outlook on the Web

5. You will need to sign in to the Add-In. Click Sign in with SSO near the bottom of the login screen. Enter pitt in the domain field and click Continue, then sign in via Pitt Passport.

6. Proceed with scheduling your meeting.

Note: If you have the older Zoom Plugin for Outlook installed, you should remove it because it is no longer supported. The old Zoom plugin looks like this in your Outlook toolbar.

To remove it, click File, then Options, then Add-Ins, and then select COM Add-ins from the Manage drop-down menu. Select ONLY the Zoom Outlook Plugin (make sure to deselect all other plugins that you do not wish to uninstall) and click Remove.

• Review the University Center for Teaching and Learning's step-by-step instructions for starting a Zoom meeting through Canvas (opens in a new tab)

You may have an assistant that already schedules meetings on your behalf through Outlook. You can also enable your assistant to schedule Zoom meetings on your behalf. They can schedule meetings using the Zoom desktop client, web portal, or Outlook Plugin. Once you have scheduled a meeting for someone, they can start the meeting without you needing to be present.

• Set up scheduling privilege to allow someone else to schedule your Zoom meetings (opens in a new tab)
• Schedule meetings via the Zoom desktop client or web portal (opens in a new tab)
• Schedule meetings via the Zoom Outlook Plugin (opens in a new tab)
• Transfer meetings to someone else (opens in a new tab)

Designating an alternative host (opens in a new tab) allows someone else at Pitt to start your Zoom meeting if you are unable to do so. When you designate someone as an alternative host, they’ll receive an email confirmation that contains a link they can use to start the meeting.

Zoombombing refers to an unwanted, disruptive intrusion into a Zoom videoconference. In a typical Zoombombing incident, trolls or hackers might disrupt a meeting by inserting material that is lewd, obscene, racist, or antisemitic in nature.

Secure Your Meeting

Information for securing your meetings can be found in the Zoom Security Guide (opens in a new tab).

Reporting Zoombombing

If you experience a Zoombombing incident, please work with the meeting host to report it. Note that only meeting hosts can report incidents using the options below.

During a meeting

Complete the following steps to report an incident during a meeting. Your report will be sent directly to Zoom.

1. As the meeting host, click the Security icon in your meeting toolbar and select Report.

2. Select the name of the participant you would like to report and select the reason for reporting this participant. You also have the option to add comments, photos, or screenshots of the incident.

3. Click Send.

After a meeting

To submit a report of violations of Zoom’s Terms of Service (opens in a new tab) or Acceptable Use Guidelines (opens in a new tab), please submit your report by completing the web form available at https://zoom.us/trust-form (opens in a new tab). Please include specific details about the meeting disruption in your report such as how the intruder(s) violated our Terms of Service and if there was a certain type of abusive content that was shared by the offender(s) (via chat, audio, or video). Meeting hosts can also complete the University's Report a Zoombombing form (opens in a new tab). The report will be sent to Zoom, Pitt Digital Security, and Office of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion.

Hosts may designate a meeting attendee to provide live captioning. The captioner types text into a field and presses Enter to display that text for any meeting attendee who has chosen to view closed captions. Captioning may or may not be Section 508 compliant. Learn more about live closed captioning in Zoom (opens in a new tab)

By default, all meetings recorded to the Zoom cloud have their audio transcribed. Audio transcripts are not available in real time, but they can be viewed during playback of the recorded meeting. Meeting hosts can edit transcripts as needed. Please note that audio transcripts are not Section 508 compliant. Learn more about automatic audio transcription in Zoom (opens in a new tab)

This captioning feature uses artificial intelligence to display what the speaker is saying as text at the bottom of the meeting video. This feature is designed to improve overall user accessibility of Zoom meetings and webinars and can be enabled by the host. Any participants can view the captioning as needed. Learn more about automated captions in Zoom (opens in a new tab)

Note: Breakout rooms and the Zoom HIPAA environment do not currently support the use of Automated Captions.

Automated captions is available in multiple languages, and it is recommended that you speak clearly for best results. The accuracy of Zoom’s automated captions feature depends on many variables, such as background noise, volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice, the speaker's proficiency with the English language, etc.

1. To activate the Automated Captions as a host, locate the Show captions button in meeting controls, then choose the spoken language. Once enabled, the Show captions button will change to Hide captions.

If you do not see the Show captions button, click the More button and then select Captions.

2. To view or hide the visibility of the transcript in the sidebar, click the arrow to the right of the Hide captions button, then select View full transcript.

3. To hide or view subtitles displayed over the video, click the Hide captions button.

4. To save the transcript, click the Save transcript button at the bottom of the Full transcript window.