Zoom

Written by Sara Bijani.
Maintained by LEADR under the direction of Gillian Macdonald

Last updated 12/16/2017

Zoom is a web conferencing platform licensed by MSU that includes a built-in recording function. Although calls must be organized by someone with a current MSU NetID and initiated from a web-connected computer or mobile device, anyone can join via telephone or the web. To record your own oral history, interview, or phone call.

First Time Setup

  1. Go to http://msu.zoom.us/ and download the Zoom software (anyone who wants to use Zoom via the web will have to download the software – it’s a very small and fast download and setup)
  2. Login using your MSU credentials
  3. Hover over the ‘Host a Meeting’ button in the top right and select either with or without video. You may need to approve the launch of the Zoom software.

Note on setup: Once you have completed these steps, you should be able to open the Zoom.us application and it will remember your details. If you log out and then try to log in using your MSU email, it doesn’t seem to recognize your information and you’ll likely need to login and re-launch through msu.zoom.us.

After Inital Installation

  1. From the Zoom application window, you should have four options:
    • Start without video (start a meeting room without video)
    • Start with video (start a meeting room with video)
    • Schedule (arrange for a meeting in the future)
    • Join (join an existing meeting)

  2. Whenever you start a meeting, you’ll be prompted to select audio. You can either join the audio by computer, or by calling in using the provided phone number and meeting ID. If you’re using headphones and an external microphone (recommended), you may want to click ‘Test Computer Audio’ and make sure you select the proper input and output.

  3. To invite others, click on the ‘Invite’ button on the bottom. You’ll have a few options, beginning with sending by email. ‘Default Email’ will open whatever the default client is (often Outlook) and paste the necessary meeting information into the body. You can also hit ‘Copy URL’ or ‘Copy Invitation’ to paste the information through whatever means you’d like. This Invitation will have both a custom URL for the meeting and a phone number and custom Meeting ID number for the meeting. If other users want to join via the URL, they will need to download the Zoom software to join (though they will not have to have an MSU ID).

  4. On the right side of the menu at the bottom, you’ll see a ‘Record’ button. This will start a recording and send a notification to everyone that the call is being recorded. You can stop and start the recording multiple times during the call and all will be saved. Make sure you hit ‘Stop Recording’ before ending the call, and then finally click ‘End Meeting’ This will start a conversion process where it takes the recording and turns it into an .mp4 (video) and .m4a (audio) file. This may take a few minutes, especially if you have a long video meeting. 5. Once Zoom has finished processing, it will open a Finder/Windows Explorer window displaying the files. You can find the recordings in a ‘Zoom’ folder the program creates – probably in your ‘Documents’ folder.

More Help with Zoom

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