News and Announcements

UW-Madison Zoom now available with initially limited support

Posted: 2020-08-31 16:09:07   Expiration: 2020-09-30 16:09:07

Disclaimer: This news item was originally posted on 2020-08-31 16:09:07. Its content may no longer be timely or accurate.

An announcement of the soft launch for UW-Madison Zoom. Support will be initially limited.

UW-Madison Zoom now available

We are pleased to offer UW-Madison Zoom for university use.

When campus shut down in March with the early uncertainty of COVID-19, UW-Madison faculty quickly learned and implemented new tools to best accommodate the classroom experience. With their experience, and in anticipation of the ongoing need for nimble virtual classrooms, faculty called for Zoom in time for the fall semester. In response, the Division of Information Technology outlined a pathway to implement a secure, viable product in a very short period of time.

We are pleased to be able to grow our service offerings to meet campus needs now, because as Chancellor Rebecca Blank says:"We're on the cusp of what is sure to be one of the most unusual fall semesters in our university's history."

Because of the speed of this implementation and the desire for the service to be available as soon as possible, UW-Madison Zoom will launch immediately and we will refine service features and support over the course of the fall semester. If you are already familiar with Zoom, this may be a good time to adopt UW-Madison Zoom. If you have never used Zoom before, please consider using a UW-Madison supported tool you are familiar with until you have an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the service.

What can Badgers expect from the UW-Madison Zoom launch?

Features

  • Easy scheduling, including recurring meetings and integration with Outlook
  • Ability to have up to 49 participants on one screen
  • Breakout rooms that may be pre-assigned by the host
  • Waiting rooms so hosts can organize incoming attendees if desired
  • Whiteboard technology that makes collaboration easy, agile and fun
  • Up to 300 people in a meeting
  • Polling and surveys with immediate results
  • Connectivity options across desktops, mobile, web browsers and traditional phone

Coming soon

Additional integrations, enhancements and refinements are planned through spring 2021, including:

  • Meeting licenses for meetings >300 participants
  • Zoom Webinar
  • Service account integration for supported and approved use cases
  • HIPAA-compliant accounts
  • Additional training options

Support & documentation

UW-Madison Zoom is an exciting addition to our collection of video conferencing tools and will not replace any existing tools, including Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Google Meet, and Blackboard Collaborate, which will remain the Canvas-integrated video conference tool.

Migrating from personal to UW-Madison accounts

Many Badgers are already using Zoom, and we will fold those accounts into our future transition plans to ensure the Zoom accounts are secure and supported. Learn more about how this may impact your personal Zoom account, and how you can transition into the campus-wide UW-Madison Zoom service and maintain access to your current data.

Collaboration and partnership are key to implementing an IT service for the university. Special thanks to Laurent Heller (Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration) and Karl Scholz (Provost) for funding this initiative. We appreciate the support provided to our teams by Lois Brooks (CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology) and David Pagenkopf (Deputy CIO). Thank you to the Information Technology Committee for supporting and sponsoring a faculty survey and advocating for this service. Finally, many thanks to the Zoom project team members who continue to collaborate across organizations, divisions, and departments to bring this service to campus.

Please follow our UW-Madison Zoom implementation project page for updates on features, integrations, and support.

-- DoIT Help Desk: Dana Gerber-Margie