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Zoom

Zoom

Zoom allows you to quickly and easily hold video conferences (hereafter: meetings), sharing your screen or a presentation and exchanging ideas via a chat function. For larger events, webinars can be held, with their own moderation options. The Universität Hamburg's Zoom service supports various forms of collaboration in research, teaching and administration, as well as digital teaching, and also allows users to conduct job interviews.

For users of the Universität Hamburg, the Zoom service can be accessed exclusively via the site

https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us

Any necessary registration - e.g. for an invitation to a meeting - is done via your university user account and the Universität Hamburg's secure authentication systems. Meeting content - audio, video, chat, presentations - is stored on the servers in the Regional Computing Center of the Universität Hamburg and therefore remains confidential. Therefore, Zoom can also be used for sensitive usage scenarios. The data protection information on the Zoom service of the Universität Hamburg in accordance with Art. 12 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation can be found here. It is generally prohibited to use other Zoom services to set up meetings.

The use is only possible via special Zoom software. A good way to familiarize yourself with the various functions is to consult the help pages and the video tutorials on the Zoom WWW pages. In addition, we provide our handouts on the use of Zoom for teachers and students especially for the scenario "Digital Teaching":

Basically, two perspectives - participation and invitation - have to be distinguished:

1. Participation in a meeting

  1. You receive an invitation link and a password (e.g. by e-mail).
  2. You join the meeting by clicking the link.
  3. In the following step, you have the option to join the meeting via the Zoom software.
  4. Joining a meeting does not require registration. You have the option to use a pseudonym instead of your real name.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, see: Join a meeting

2. Invitation to a meeting

Notice:

As part of the invitation, the participants of a conference must be informed of the possibility of pseudonymized participation, of the prohibition on passing on access data, and of their data subject rights under Articles 12 to 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation. The following notice text must be used for this purpose. 

Notes on the use of Zoom:

Participation in a meeting requires the installation of the Zoom software. Participation via your browser is not possible.
Passing on login data and recording are prohibited.
You will be asked to provide your name before participating. It is not necessary to give your full name. If it is necessary to establish your identity, the use of a pseudonym (e.g. for students the matriculation number and for employees the routing number) is sufficient. If there is no need for you to be present with a picture, it is recommended that the video function be switched off.
The requirements of the service instruction (https://attachment.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/796ec102/en-210730-dienstanweisung-zoom-online-pruefungen-markiert.pdf) must be observed. For more information on using Zoom and data processing, especially your data subject rights under the GDPR, see https://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/zoom and https://uhh.de/datenschutzrechtliche-information-zoom (PDF, in German).

Procedure:

  1. To set up a meeting, log in with your university user account at https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us or in the Zoom software (see below).
  2. After logging in, use the "Schedule New Meeting" button to schedule a meeting and start it directly if needed.
  3. After a meeting has been created, send the information required for participation (invitation link, password, etc.) as well as the above-mentioned "Notes on using Zoom" to the participants (e.g. via e-mail).

You can also find detailed step-by-step instructions for this under: Start meeting (in German)

Maximum number of participants & meeting duration

With regard to the maximum number of participants in Zoom meetings, there are basically the following three variants:

  • Regular meeting (max. 300 participants): This is the default setting of every university Zoom account, regardless of whether student or employee. So, up to 300 people (with video and audio) can always participate in a meeting with no time limit.
  • Large meeting (max. 500 participants): The large meeting differs from the regular meeting only in the maximum number of participants possible. There is only a limited number of licenses for large meetings, which is why they must be requested manually by e-mail to the ServiceLine.
  • Webinar (max. 5000 participants/spectators): A webinar is a meeting extended by the role "spectator". Webinars are suitable for very large events (>500 TN). If an event is to be recorded, this is only possible with a webinar. As with the large meeting, there are only a small number of licenses for webinars, which must be applied for individually for an account. At https://uhh.de/zoom-webinar you can find the corresponding application form (only for UHH employees).

The maximum meeting duration for meetings scheduled via the university Zoom account is generally unlimited.

However, please note the following restrictions:

Meetings with the following constellations will automatically end after 24 hours of duration:

  • One host, no participants
  • One host, any number of participants
  • No host, any number of participants (joining before host)

A special feature applies if all participants have left a meeting and only the host is still present. In this case the meeting ends 40 minutes after the last participant has left the meeting.