Zoom: Setting Up Your Personal Meeting Room Like a Webinar

This document provides an overview of how to set up your Zoom Meetings like a Webinar

SIUE licenses three Zoom Webinar meeting rooms. One license for a 1000-person maximum and two licenses for 500-person maximum. However, with the multitude of settings in Zoom, you can create a "faux webinar" by using the following settings. Some of these settings must be set before the Zoom meeting begins and some can be set once the meeting has started.

Settings during Scheduling:

Host Only Video

In the Video section, select On for Host video and Off for Participants video.

*Note: The Participants can turn on their video once they enter the room. To prevent that, follow the steps in the next section (In-meeting settings).

Mute Participants Upon Entry

To prevent unwanted conversations, mute the participants upon entry.

Click on Advanced Options. Check the box "Mute Participants upon Entry."

In-Meeting Settings:

Once you've started the meeting, click the Security button in the Zoom control bar.

On the Allow Participants to:

Uncheck Share Screen
Uncheck Unmute Themselves
Uncheck Start Video

Unchecking those options will prevent participants from unmuting themselves, starting their video, or sharing their screen.

Chat vs. Q & A

Only webinars have both the chat function and Q&A function. The Q & A feature allows the participants to type their questions. Depending on the settings, the participants may not be able to see others questions until they have been answered. In a Zoom Meeting Room, only chat is available but you can set the chat to be viewed only by the hosts.

In the Meeting Room

Open the Chat panel. Click on the ellipse in the bottom of the panel.

Click on Host only in the menu.

Consider using the Everyone Publicly option. Once a question is answered, the entire group can see the answer. This would benefit participants that have the same questions.

If you have a large group of participants, consider having one or more helpers to just answer questions on the chat. This will free up the presenter to concentrate on the presentation.

Now you have a "faux webinar" meeting!

Zoom: Setting Up Your Personal Meeting Room Like a Webinar

Zoom: Setting Up Your Personal Meeting Room Like a Webinar

Settings during Scheduling:

Host Only Video

*Note: The Participants can turn on their video once they enter the room. To prevent that, follow the steps in the next section (In-meeting settings).

In-Meeting Settings:

Chat vs. Q & A

In the Meeting Room

See Also