Zoom for teaching and learning at Penn
Since July 24, when Penn signed an enterprise license for Zoom virtual meeting software, ISC with its academic partners has brought centrally paid, full-function Zoom access to all active students, faculty, and staff – in time for the fall semester.
In addition, ISC has developed a new central Penn Zoom service: upenn.zoom.us. The new service provides a unified infrastructure for remote teaching and learning and enables students to collaborate inside and outside the classroom, form virtual communities and remain engaged in campus activities.
Among the numerous benefits that upenn.zoom.us offers are: smooth collaboration across School affiliations, integration with Canvas and Panopto learning technologies, streamlined PennKey sign-in for users, and simplified administration for participating organizations.
Ten of twelve schools now consolidated on upenn.zoom.us
In preparation for start of fall classes, the University has welcomed ten of Penn’s twelve Schools into the new central Zoom service. Dental will become the eleventh School to join upenn.zoom.us in mid-September.
Among the consolidated schools, SP2 is adopting a hybrid model for the fall semester. New users are able to join Penn Zoom, while existing users will remain in SP2’s School Zoom account while a plan to transition them is being developed.
PSOM is included in the new enterprise license, but will maintain a separate Zoom presence for now, to ensure HIPAA compliance. PSOM faculty, students, and staff will remain eligible for full-function Zoom accounts.
Accessing Zoom at Penn
Faculty, students, and staff in participating schools can access the new central Penn Zoom service by using their PennKey and password to log into: https://upenn.zoom.us/.
Account holders in schools or administrative units that are not using the central Penn Zoom service should continue to use existing methods to log into Zoom. Please contact your local IT support team for information.
Account holders outside of the central Penn Zoom service will be able to attend meetings on upenn.zoom.us, but will have limited access to collaborative features and will not be able to use the central service’s integrations with Canvas and Panopto.
Technical support
Technical support is available for Zoom account holders.
- In addition to contacting their primary support provider, all students may contact the Tech Center at 855-249-3243 (toll-free) or techcenter@upenn.edu.
- Faculty and staff should speak to their local IT support teams. For help finding your local IT support team, see: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/get-it-help.
- IT staff who need assistance with their organization’s Zoom accounts or administration should contact Client Care at help@isc.upenn.edu.
Resources
Web resources are kept updated for both users and administrators of Zoom at Penn.
- Zoom Resources for Users: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/zoom-resources-users
- Zoom Resources for IT Staff: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/zoom-resources-it-staff
- Video Conferencing Tools (compares Zoom, others; guide to sharing sensitive data): https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/video-conferencing-tools
Zoom project team documents and presentations, along with technical and support documentation, are housed in a Zoom Resources folder on Penn+Box (also linked from the Zoom Resources for IT Staff page, noted above).
Expanding and maturing upenn.zoom.us
For this initial back-to-school push, the Zoom team prioritized access and an improved experience for students and faculty in the Schools. As the Penn Zoom service matures, with governance and support systems in place, the team looks forward to inviting centers and administrative organizations to participate.
Those wishing to learn more about the Zoom project can consult this visual overview of its charge, process, and progress. Feel free to direct any additional questions to help@isc.upenn.edu.