Overview
WSU will be implementing Zoom for both individual faculty and staff, as well as a replacement for the central AMS bridging services used to support meetings and classrooms.  We expect individual Zoom licenses to be made available to faculty and staff by the end of Spring 2019, and for classrooms and meetings to begin using Zoom for Fall 2019.  We are cataloging the Q&A’s associated with this deployment as we receive your questions and learn new information from central ITS.

 

Who will receive Zoom licenses, what licenses will they receive, and will Zoom be used for classes?
Zoom Pro licenses will be deployed to all Faculty and Staff, and Room Connector licenses will be purchased for all video conference enabled rooms.  Both meetings and classes will be streamed over Zoom.  For details on the capabilities of the Zoom Pro license, please review https://zoom.us/pricing.

 

When will Zoom be used for classes and conference rooms?
Both meetings and classes will be streamed over Zoom beginning Fall 2019 as Zoom replaces the physical video conference bridge hosted by AOI and ITS.

 

When will Zoom be available for individual use?
We expect Zoom to be available to Faculty and Staff near the end of the 2019 Spring semester.  There is no exact date at this time, and the timeline could change if more resources are needed to ensure Zoom is ready for academic use by the start of Fall 2019.  Details will be widely announced when accounts are available for use.

 

Will using Zoom for classes change room requirements, or how students connect to their classes?
No, at this time it is not expected that the migration to Zoom will have any impact on what equipment is supported in classrooms or meeting spaces and there is no intent at this time to change policies to allow students to participate in a videoconferenced class from home.  Any change to student participation or room requirement policies will be handled through the appropriate governance committees or bodies, not by the team implementing Zoom.

 

What if I need a Zoom capacity beyond the “Pro” license level?
There will be a pool of licenses for 500 and 1000 participant events that will be available to be checked out on a per-event basis.  This will allow a request to be submitted for a time range in which your account will be able to host 500 or 1000 individuals.

 

Will Skype for Business be going away?
No, Skype for Business will continue to run and be supported.  The long term plan for Skype for Business is that it will be phased to the Microsoft hosted version of the service called Office 365 Groups, which are targeted at team collaboration.

 

 

Will Zoom have a toll-free dial-in number?
At this time ITS is not planning on including a toll-free dial-in option.  The reason to not include the dial-in option is to avoid the need for internal billing, which would create a cost-burden for the service.  Fee’s can be avoided by connecting through the Zoom mobile app over the internet.  Additionally, if you need to host an event for which toll-free dialing is critical, please submit a ticket to cit.support@wsu.edu so we can help address your need.

 

What if I have more questions about Zoom?
Please contact us at cit.support@wsu.edu.