CCC TechConnect* is a grant-funded project from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, (CCCCO).
Provided on this page are resources and specific updates on how each of the three services provided by CCC TechConnect can assist you.
TechConnect Zoom is an online conferencing platform that provides faculty, staff, administrators, and students in our system the ability to meet virtually. TechConnect is ready to support you and your college.
Usage
TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) is intended to be used for academic-related purposes only. If you'd like to host social events please sign up for a standard, free Zoom account at Zoom.us. It is recommended that you use a personal email address, not the one you use for TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) and Canvas.
Account Requests
In order to be able to access your account from within Canvas, it is important that you sign up for an account from the TechConnect Confer/Zoom website, (if you sign up from the corporate Zoom website you will not have access via Canvas or other benefits provided with the TechConnect Confer/Zoom account).
Only faculty, staff, and administrators who will be 'owning', (i.e. scheduling and inviting others), a class, meeting, appointment or other Zoom event will need an account. Accounts are not necessary to attend an event.
If your school would like to establish accounts for 30 people or more, please contact us so we can assist you with the most efficient way to do this.
If your college needs less than 30 accounts, individuals can sign up at TechConnect Zoom.
Reminder: Students do not need an account to participate in a class, meeting, appointment, or other Zoom event.
TechConnect Zoom accounts can accommodate up to 300 simultaneous attendees. If you need to accommodate a larger group, please email us.
Best Practices
Keeping out uninvited attendees
Tips for Meeting Set Up
Schedule sessions through the ConferZoom.org website or the Zoom app on your computer: Additional security features are available when you schedule directly from the TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) website that are not available when you schedule using the Canvas ConferZoom feature in your Canvas course.
Do not use Personal ID for sessions: Your personal ID stays the same, so if you use this for class sessions anyone with the ID can join you in any of your sessions. Ensure this is toggled off in your account settings from the TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) website.
Use a password for sessions:
When you schedule a Zoom session via TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) rather than from within Canvas, one of the options is to require a password. Doing this will prevent someone from randomly your meeting ID and joining your session. You can provide students a one-click join option by putting the link in your Canvas page.
Utilize the waiting room: The waiting room allows you to admit students individually or as a group when class begins and prevent individuals from joining later without permission.
Keep your Zoom clients (pcs, macs, tablets, mobile devices, etc) updated: Zoom updates and patches regularly to improve the users’ experience as well as to add security when issues are discovered. Protect your events by keeping your Zoom apps up to date.
Set participants as muted and video off at meeting start: When setting up meetings, select "Mute participants" upon entry and start with video off.
Do not allow removed participates to rejoin: Toggle off the setting that allows participates to rejoin if they are removed by the host. If a disruptive student is removed, they will not be able to rejoin the session.
Ensure that you are not allowing remote control during screen sharing: Toggle off the remote control while sharing option to prevent accidently allowing participant’s access to hosts screen.
Consider using meeting registration (only available if scheduling via TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom.org): Meeting registration requires attendees to register their name and email address prior to being emailed a link to join the session. This is the only way to require attendees to provide an email address to the host.
Reduce Disturbances During A Session
Manage participants options: Do not allow participants to Unmute or Rename themselves. This menu is accessed by selecting “manage participants” in the zoom app and then selecting “more” at the bottom of the participants window.
Consider locking the meeting after a certain amount of time: This will prevent individuals joining after meeting is locked.
Pro: This prevents individuals from randomly joining late if they discover your session ID after the session begins.
Con: students cannot join the session late or rejoin if they have a technology problem.
Consider turning off the participant screen sharing:
The host can turn participant screen sharing off by default in the settings from the TechConnect Zoom (ConferZoom) website prior to scheduling and/or choose to allow participant sharing during a live session.
Consider turning off annotations by participants: Annotations allow participants to write on the screen. This feature can be disabled during the session while in screenshare mode.
Avoid clicking on unverified links that may appear in Chat windows
Recording and Storage
Conserve storage: Please be selective on what you store. For example, if you teach the same course at three different times, select the best recording to share with all groups and delete the others from your account.
Consider before you record: Will you be sharing the archive? If no, please consider not recording the event or recording it to your computer if you do not require a transcript of the meeting (please see our guide on recording to your computer).
One of TechConnect Cloud's services is to provide faculty, staff, and administrators of our system with individual, private accounts for uploading, storing, and sharing their media files. With regards to COVID-19-Coronavirus and potentially more on-line recordings, TechConnect wants to remind users of a few facts:
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and TechConnect are dedicated to continuing the efforts to limit the spread and impact of COVID-19. To support this, and the current directives of our state and local authorities, we have decided to move the premier face-to-face 2020 Online Teaching Conference to an online event. Although we regret not being able to come together in person, we are excited to present OTC’20 as a multi-day event at no cost to our attendees.
Now more than ever, it is important to provide our faculty, staff and administrators the tools needed for online instruction, learning and student success. The OTC Team is committed to bringing the online teaching community together in a digital format while presenting the same quality content it has provided in person over the last 20 years. We are working on creating a balanced program that not only continues to enhance the needs of seasoned online teaching professionals but also those who are new to online instruction given the current circumstances. (updated 5/6/20 Registration – Singular registration will allow entry in to all OTC’20 sessions! Register now and watch for access details at a later date. Register Now for OTC’20)