Zoom is a cloud-based video communications app that allows TU students, faculty and staff to set up virtual video and audio conferencing, webinars, live chats, screen-sharing and other collaborative capabilities.
The first time using your TU Zoom account follow these quick steps:
Options for future Zoom access
If you’re in the Waiting Room of a TU Zoom session, you most likely aren’t logged in with your TU account. Logout and log back in securely following these directions (PDF).
Towson University holds an enterprise account for Zoom. Using TU’s account allows us to provide the features of the Zoom video service while helping to protect you, and our data when teaching and conducting business.
Additionally, the TU Zoom enterprise account offers additional account privileges that a basic/unlicensed account does not. This includes a 24 hour meeting window, which means meetings can be held for longer than 40 minutes.
To get up and running in Zoom follow the steps below to activate your account, then download the Zoom client (app) to your desktop.
Go to zoom.towson.edu, click Sign In.
If your existing Zoom account is tied to your TU email, follow these steps to join TU’s account for the first time:
Personal or paid accounts might receive additional emails and may experience a short delay in joining TU’s environment. Customized settings and special additional features, like Zoom Video conferencing for telehealth, could be lost when joining TU's account, so consider contacting the OTS Faculty/Staff Help Center for guidance.
Using your TU Zoom account to conduct TU business, versus an account tied to a personal email, helps protect TU's information — and yours. Read and follow TU’s Zoom security guidelines for configurations to see how to protect confidential data during a meeting.
Please note: This service is cloud hosted and updates are not controlled by Towson University. Towson University documentation for the service is reviewed quarterly to bring it into alignment with the most recent version of the service or software.
Many of the links below take you directly to Zoom support resources. Please note that if instructed to sign into zoom.us, always choose Sign in with SSO and type towson-edu as the company domain.
Getting started (PDF) & (VIDEO) with Zoom. Learn how to sign into the TU Zoom portal to activate your account, and how to download the Zoom client (app).
Creating Breakout Rooms and Pre-Assigned Breakout Rooms (PDF).
Contact the OTS Faculty/Staff Help Center at 410-704-5151 or submit a TechHelp ticket for assistance using this request type: Employee > Collaboration, Video Conferencing, etc. > Zoom.
Yes, the limit is 300 attendees per meeting.
No, not without prior consent. Such activity is a violation of student privacy and FERPA guidelines. Because electronic platforms are able to show photos and list students' names, we are not permitted to take photos of the screen and post that photo on social media or anywhere else without participant permission. See the “Instructional Lecture Capture Guidelines and Release Form” section on this page if you’re thinking about recording or taking a screenshot during your session.
Zoom bombing or raiding is an unwanted, disruptive intrusion, generally by Internet trolls and hackers, into a video conference call that jeopardizes privacy concerns. Follow the “Security Tips” on this page to help prevent that.
Faculty and staff who intend to use instructional lecture capture resources supported by Towson University are to adhere to the Instructional Lecture Capture Guidelines to ensure the FERPA regulations are not violated.
If a faculty/staff member intends to reuse recordings where the image, voice or materials of students are captured, the Instructional Lecture Capture Release Form must be used. *Be sure to read the guidelines (above) first.
