Zoom available from 2 September

To support staff and students during this extended period of remote teaching, UCL has purchased an additional live online teaching platform - Zoom. Zoom will be available from next Wednesday (2 September) for all staff and students to use alongside our existing recommended digital platforms such as Blackboard Collaborate and MS Teams.

UCL has purchased a 12-month licence for Zoom as evidence from staff and students suggests it can provide the best performance throughout the world, including in China.

Our teaching staff will need to choose the most suitable live teaching platform for them and their students, based on a variety of factors including their teaching requirements, the nature of the subject being taught, and – critically – whether their live sessions include students who are based in China. Further guidance on how to choose the right platform for live teaching is now also available.

When is the UCL Zoom account going live?

We apologise for the delay in launching the UCL Zoom account. We identified some issues during testing and wanted to ensure that the launch did not negatively affect a large number of existing Zoom users. This has now been resolved and the UCL Zoom account will be available from next Wednesday, 2 September.

Disruption to scheduled Zoom events

Please be aware that from 6pm on Tuesday 1 September we will begin the process of launching the UCL account and migrating existing UCL accounts to the central UCL account. As a result, there will be some impact to Zoom accounts and events during this time. To avoid disruption to your event, we would strongly advise you to avoid scheduling Zoom meetings during this time (6pm on Tuesday 1 September until 9am on Wednesday 2 September). Please note: Any data/recordings from your existing Zoom account will not be affected.

Existing Zoom Account holders

If you have already registered for a Zoom account with your UCL email address you can either transfer your account to the central UCL account to use it for UCL purposes, or keep it for your own private use by changing the email address on your account to a non-UCL account. This will ensure that your account is integrated with Moodle once this becomes live from mid-September. It will also allow you to access the benefits of the central account such as large meetings functionality (up to 300 participants) and cloud storage. From next Wednesday, you will be prompted to join the central UCL Zoom account the next time you sign-in to Zoom. Once you have joined the central account, you can then log on in future via Single Sign-on using your UCL email address and password. 

The meeting functionality in Zoom should be adequate for most staff and student needs. For individuals with a large-scale event requirement (for example several hundred participants or external speakers) there may be a need to use alterative platforms. ISD will be launching a virtual event service shortly and will be able to provide advice based on your event requirements.

Please note: Our choice of platform for live teaching will be reviewed during 2020/21 and there is no guarantee that we will extend the Zoom licence beyond the remote teaching period.

For more information about the introduction of Zoom at UCL please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions or email zoomsupport@ucl.ac.uk.