Zoom – Coming soon for UCL staff and students

To support staff and students during this extended period of remote teaching, UCL has purchased an additional online teaching platform – Zoom. 

Zoom will shortly be available 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 it is currently the most reliable platform for access from China.  

Our teaching staff will need to choose the right teaching platform based on a variety of factors including their teaching requirements, the course subject, and – critically – whether their live sessions include students who are based in China. 

ISD is currently putting the finishing touches to UCL’s Zoom Support Site and producing guidance to support teaching colleagues in deciding which platform is most suited to their needs. 

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.

Access to the UCL Zoom account will be available from the middle of next week. Moodle integration will be in place by Mid-September.  

Existing Zoom Account holders 

If you have already registered for a Zoom account with your UCL email address you will need to transfer your account to the central UCL Account. This will ensure that your account is integrated with Moodle once this becomes live. 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.  

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. 

For more information about the introduction of Zoom at UCL please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions or get in touch.