Frequently Asked Questions

A licensed uOttawa Zoom account differs from a regular Zoom account. To benefit from all of the uOttawa organization Zoom features, you will need to use a uOttawa Zoom account. To create your account:

• Navigate to https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us
• Sign in using your uoAccess single sign-on (SSO) credentials. These are the same credentials that you use to access VirtuO and Brightspace if you are a professor or a Teaching assistant, and uoZone and Brightspace if you are a student. Your account should then be automatically created.

Important note for TA’s: If you need to use Zoom for your teaching assistant duties, use your employee credentials to create your account. 

Have an issue creating your account? Refer to the appropriate resource for your role below.

• Students, TA, RA: Creating a Ottawa Zoom account
• Professors: Creating a Ottawa Zoom account

A uOttawa Zoom account for Teaching Assistants (TAs) differs from a uOttawa Zoom account for students. Among other features, a TA Zoom account allows the professor to add you as a co-host to meetings, as well as allows you to host meetings that are longer than 40 minutes in duration. To create your TA Zoom account:

• Navigate to https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us
• Sign in using your uoAccess single sign-on (SSO) employee credentials. These are the same credentials that you use to access VirtuO and Brightspace in a TA role. Your account should then be automatically created.

Important: If the course is in Brightspace as well, make sure that the professor has added you to Brightspace using your employee credentials. This will help ensure a seamless link between Zoom and Brightspace. 

Have an issue creating your account? Refer to the Students, TA, RA: Creating a Ottawa Zoom account resource

Brightspace and Zoom are two different platforms. The access provided in Brightspace is simply a link to the Zoom platform. In order to use Zoom, you need to create a licenced uOttawa Zoom account. Typically when this message appears, it is because Zoom does not recognize an account for the user. Creating a uOttawa Zoom account should fix the issue. 

To create your account:

• Navigate to https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us
• Sign in using your uoAccess single sign-on (SSO) credentials. These are the same credentials that you use to access VirtuO and Brightspace if you are a professor or a Teaching Assistant, and uoZone and Brightspace if you are a student. Your account should then be automatically created.

Important note for TA’s: If you need to use Zoom for your teaching assistant duties, use your employee credentials to create your account. 

Have an issue creating your account? Refer to the appropriate resource for your role below.

• Students, TA, RA: Creating a Ottawa Zoom account
• Professors: Creating a Ottawa Zoom account

Cloud recordings are stored for 150-days on the Zoom cloud before being automatically deleted. The automatic deletion cannot be overridden.

You can schedule a one-time or recurring meeting on the web (uottawa-ca.zoom.us), through the Zoom Desktop client or mobile app, or through the Zoom integration on Brightspace.

Schedule a Zoom meeting in a Brightspace course site

To schedule a meeting within your course site:

1. Click Zoom in the course navigation.
2. Click Schedule a New Meeting.
3. Edit the title, description, and other details if needed.

You can invite others to join your meeting by copying the join URL or meeting invitation and sending it out via email. There are many other ways to invite others to join your meeting – click here to learn more.

No. Zoom meetings can be attended by users inside or outside the University depending on the authentication settings enabled by the host. However, we strongly encourage you to secure your meetings by limiting who can attented. See the PDF document: Restricting Access to uOttawa community.

Join a Zoom Test Meeting (zoom.us/test) to confirm your computer or device's capabilities. In your test meeting, use the Zoom features you plan to deploy during your session. If your test meeting fails, try using different audio or video settings.

If you want to keep anything in the background hidden/private that may distract attendees in your meeting, find a solid wall you can sit in front of, or turn on the virtual background through your application via Settings.

Zoom meeting settings allows you to enable or disable features for your meetings, to review and change your meeting settings access the settings via the Zoom web portal.

As the host, you can mute all participants that are already in the meeting as well as new participants joining the meeting. Learn more about muting participants.

Click Share in your meeting and choose the screen that you would like to share. Learn more about sharing your screen. Consider that participants can see your open tabs.

If you have an iOS or Android device, you can launch the meeting from the mobile app, and share your phone screen. You can also share your screen through the Zoom desktop application often used for annotating using a touch screen device.

You can set up polling questions if you created the meeting. This can be done in advance through the meeting settings in the Zoom app, via Brightspace (using a CSV template) or during the meeting through the Zoom app.

This restricts meeting participants to uOttawa.ca authenticated users only. Unauthenticated participants or those signed in with an external organization domain will not be able to join the meeting.

Hosts can record locally to their computer or to the Zoom cloud. You can enable auto-recording from the meeting’s settings https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/profile/setting.

To access any Zoom recordings that have been made available to you: 

• Log into Brightspace.
• Access your course.
• In the Navigation bar, click on Zoom.
• Then click on the “Cloud Recordings” tab.