Teaching on Zoom: Fixing Problems with Students Joining Authentication-Only Rooms

To help prevent "#Zoombombing" while still allowing for all of the features that, when not being exploited, provide for productive digital classroom experiences, many universities have recommended that faculty turn on authentication-only Zoom rooms for their classes. For most students, this means that they may have to follow one extra click when joining their classrooms that leads them through the single-sign-on (SSO) process and handoff back to Zoom. Unfortunately, this process is not as simple for some students, especially if they already have their own non-University Zoom accounts.

Here are the instructions (also linked as a PDF or a DOCX) I have been giving to my students to help ensure that they access my authentication-only Zoom classroom using their university account. Of course, there are a few small aspects of these instructions that are customized for ASU, but it would be easy to modify the instructions for your institution.

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Instructions for Accessing Zoom Room as Authenticated ASU Zoom User

To help mitigate problems related to "Zoom-bombing", your course Zoom link may be configured to only allow authenticated ASU users into the room. If you are having trouble connecting to the Zoom class room with your properly authenticated ASU account, you should try following these steps:

1. DO NOT use the normal link to enter the room
2. Instead, go to https://asu.zoom.us/ and then click on the Log In button
3. Once you are logged in to ASU Zoom, click on the "JOIN A MEETING" link in the top right of ASU Zoom
4. Use the Zoom ID: (10-digit code from your instructor; also at the end of course link)
   

These steps are designed to ensure that you are logged in to Zoom with your ASU ID.

If the above steps still do not let you into the room, then you need to open your Zoom app and make sure to "Switch Account" to your ASU account. Follow these steps:

1. Open your Zoom application
2. Click on your profile image, as in the image below, and go to "Switch Account"
   
   
   
3. Select "Sign In with SSO", as shown below:
   
4. Use "asu" as the Company Domain, as shown below:
   
5. Follow the prompts to login to ASU Zoom and return to your application
6. Use your course’s meeting ID (or the normal course link) to connect to the Zoom room
   
   

Those steps should help ensure that you are able to get into the class Zoom room with your authenticated ASU Zoom account.

Bookmarklets for Arizona State University (ASU) library proxy

This message goes out to ASU faculty, staff, and students. Doesn't it make you mad when you're off campus and you want to read a paper and the research database that holds the paper doesn't let you view it because you're not a subscriber? I hate that.

Luckily, the ASU library system provides an off-campus scholarly portal from my.asu.edu (under the "Library" option on the left) that can be used to make your off-campus connection look like an on-campus one so research databases will grant you ASU-caliber access. Unfortunately, if you've clicked on a link to a paper, you have to re-do your search within their portal to get your off-campus access, and that's really inconvenient. So I've come up with a shortcut (similar to my OSU LOCSI shortcut).

Drag the bookmarklet below to your "bookmarks toolbar" (that strip of bookmarks that rides just below the "location bar" in your browser).

• ASU LOCSI ("LOCSI" = "Library Off-Campus Sign-In")

When you're on a page you'd like special access to (e.g., the official site of an academic paper of interest to you), click on the bookmarklet and you'll be transported to that site via ASU's off-campus sign in. You may have to use your ASU username and password to login the first time you click on the bookmarklet, but after that you should be granted ASU-level access quickly.

(feel free to rename that bookmarklet as you wish; the name "ASU LOCSI" isn't important to its function)

I hope that helps.