Guidelines for Recording with Zoom

Category: Information Technology

Responsible Office: Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Responsible Executive: Vice President and Chief Information Officer (VPCIO)

Date Established: March 27, 2020

On this page:

Summary

Zoom is a third-party product that UB is making available for course instructors to use for synchronous (real-time) video sessions with their students. Instructors can record these sessions and then share with students who are participating in the course session asynchronously. Zoom is not the recommended tool for creating pre-recorded lectures that can be shared with students. Instead, Panopto is the preferred tool with more options and flexibility for creating asynchronous content. Other tools may be preferred or supported in certain areas of decanal units (“Nodes”).

Guidelines

The choice to record a Zoom session is a decision made by the instructor; recordings should only be made if the instructor determines there is a pedagogical reason to do so. Like other course content created as part of university activities, these recordings are subject to applicable university policies. Zoom recordings should be treated as subject to federal student privacy law (FERPA) and university Administrative Regulations if students are personally identifiable in the recordings. Please contact the Registrar with any questions.

If an instructor chooses to record Zoom sessions, please do so in accordance with the following guidelines:

  • Instructors should use the following Zoom settings (accessible by going to buffalo.zoom.us and navigating to Settings and then Recordings – instructors should consider reaching out to divisional IT staff to assist with configuring these recording settings):
    • Disable Local Recording. For most instructors, recordings should be kept in the cloud and not downloaded to a local computer.
    • If video is desired, enable Record active speaker with shared screen
    • Disable Display participants’ names in the recording
    • Enable Require password to access shared cloud recordings
    • Enable Multiple audio notifications of recorded meeting, which plays an automated message whenever a recording is started, or a participant enters a session that is already being recorded.
  • Instructors should notify students beforehand that they plan to record the Zoom session and also remind students at the beginning of the class (either orally or using a slide). Students should also be notified in writing in advance that they may opt-out from identification in the recording by muting their audio, not enabling video, and not typing into the Chat window.
  • As with synchronous Zoom sessions, instructors should maintain the scheduled time(s) and day(s) that class meets as specified in their syllabus. Instructors should not reschedule their virtual classes for times and days that the class does not normally meet, nor extend class time beyond scheduled hours. This ensures that class meetings do not conflict with each other and students do not need to adjust their schedules to participate in their classes.
  • If an instructor chooses to record a Zoom session, they should not require student participation during the session. Students should be provided the choice to opt-out from identification in the recording by muting their audio, not enabling video, and not typing into the Chat window. In these cases, students should still be considered in attendance and not penalized in any way.
  • If an instructor requires participation during class (either by audio, video, or chat), they should only use Zoom in a synchronous session and not record the session.
  • Instructors must manually delete all recordings after final exams, or after final grades have been submitted (however, earlier deletion is preferable unless there is a reason to keep the recordings until grades are submitted).
  • These guidelines only apply to general university use for instruction and do not meet HIPAA requirements.

Contact Information

Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer
517 Capen Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: 716-645-7979
Email: vpcio@buffalo.edu
Website: http://www.buffalo.edu/ubit.html

Information Security Office
201 Computing Center
Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: 716-645-6997
Email: sec-office@buffalo.edu
Website: http://security.buffalo.edu  

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