Zoom and Privacy Consideration for Faculty During COVID-19

Dear Faculty, 

As we prepare for remote instruction for Spring quarter and you spend more time with UCI’s learning management system (LMS), with Canvas and with Zoom, I write to offer the following: 

1.      We have prepared this script for you to announce at the beginning of class meetings: 

“This [class meeting/discussion group/etc.] is being conducted over Zoom.  As the instructor, I will be recording this session.  I have disabled the recording feature for others so that no one else will be able to record this session.  I will be posting this session to the course’s website at [LMS/Canvas location].  If you have privacy concerns and do not wish to appear in the recording, you may turn video off (click “stop video”) so that Zoom does not record you.  If, when you disable live video, you also want to use a profile image (other than a picture of you) instead of your name, please let me know which image you will be using so that I know who you are during the session.  If you would like to ask a question, you may do so privately through the Zoom chat by addressing your chat question to me only (and not to “everyone”), or you may contact me by another private method.  If you have questions or concerns about this, please contact me.” 

2.      You can protect the privacy of your students and enable students with disabilities to absorb each session by taking the following steps: 

A.    Record your sessions in Zoom (after modifying your settings as described below), record the session locally, and upload the recording into YuJa for embedded distribution with YuJa Media Chooser.  This will: (i) make it very difficult for someone to grab the link and share/download the session and (ii) allow you to modify the settings in your Zoom profile settings. 

B.     Modify settings as follows in your Zoom profile: 

·         Settings/meeting: turn OFF “auto saving chats” 

·         Settings/meeting: turn ON “allow host to type closed captions or assign a participant/third party device to add closed captions” 

·         Settings/recording: turn OFF “local recording: allow hosts and participants to record the meeting to a local file” 

·         Settings/recording: turn ON “cloud recording: allow hosts to record and save the meeting in the cloud” 

3.      I encourage you to provide your remote instruction via UCI’s LMS/Canvas.  Although it is not perfect (and we are working to improve it), it provides you with the best protection related to copyright issues in two ways: (a) you have more protection from claims that you have infringed someone else’s copyrights when you use another’s work in your materials if your course is delivered via LMS/Canvas, and (b) the technology of LMS/Canvas makes it more difficult for anyone to copy and distribute your materials. 

Thank you for all you are doing for our students so that they can continue their academic progress,