Webinars in Zoom

The Webinar format in Zoom is intended for meetings where a Host and Panelists address a group of Attendees. For more information about Webinars in Zoom, visit the Getting Started With Webinar page. The Webinar feature is an add-on that needs to be activated by CSUN IT. Webinar licenses were rescinded from Zoom accounts as of May 31, 2020.

For more information about activating or reactivating Webinars in your Zoom account, please send an email to ftc@csun.edu.

Webinar Roles

The roles in a Webinar are similar to the roles in a regular Zoom meeting and consist of the following:

Host

There can only be one Host in a Webinar. The Host can:

• Begin and end the Webinar
• Share their screen
• Turn their webcam on and off
• Mute and unmute their audio
• Promote Attendees to Panelists
• Promote Panelists to Co-Host
• Mute and unmute Panelist and Attendee audio

Panelist

There can be up to 99 Panelists in a Webinar. Panelists can:

• Share their screen
• Turn their webcams on and off
• Mute and unmute their audio

Attendees

CSUN’s Webinar license allows up to 3000 Attendees. Attendees can:

• Connect to the Webinar through their computer or device
• Chat (if activated by the Host)
• Ask questions using the Q&A feature (if activated by the Host)

For more information about the roles in a Zoom Webinar, visit Managing Participants in Webinar.

Scheduling a Webinar

Once you have the Webinar add-on activated in your account by CSUN IT, you can schedule a Webinar by navigating to csun.zoom.us, selecting Sign In at the top right corner of the screen, and logging in using your CSUN user name and password. Navigate to Webinars in the menu on the left side of the screen and select Schedule a Webinar.

Topic

In the Topic field, enter a title for your webinar. You may also add a description in the Description field, though this is optional.

When and Duration

In the When section, choose a date and a start time. In the Duration drop-down menus, choose how long your webinar will last.

NOTE: The When and Duration options are primarily for scheduling. You can start your webinar any time and the webinar will not end after the length of time chosen in the Duration field.

Registration

By checking the Registration box, attendees will be prompted to provide a name and email address before they can join the webinar. This extra step provides an additional layer of security against anonymous attendees joining and disrupting the webinar.

Webinar Password

When you check the Webinar Password box, Zoom generates a numeric password required to join the webinar. Zoom also adds the numeric password to the webinar link, which automatically enters the password when attendees select the link. This extra step also provides an additional layer of security by preventing unauthorized attendees from joining the webinar using random Meeting IDs.

Video

Setting Video to On for both the Host and the Panelists means their webcams will be automatically activated when they enter the webinar.

NOTE: The video setting does not affect the video settings for attendees.

Audio

Set Audio to Both so that attendees can join using their Computer Audio or by dialing in using a Zoom-generated phone number.

Q&A

Checking the box enables the Q&A function which allows Attendees to submit questions to the Host, Co-Host and Panelists. For more information on customizing the Q&A, visit the Q&A Tab section further down the page.

For more information on the Q&A feature in Zoom, visit the support article Getting Started with Question & Answer. 

Only Authenticated Users Can Join

The Only authenticated users can join feature requires all participants (Host, Co-Host, Panelists and Attendees) to create or log into a Zoom account before they can join the webinar. We don’t recommend using this feature because it complicates the process of attendees joining the webinar.

Record the Webinar automatically on the local computer

Checking the box lets Zoom record the webinar as a video file to your computer’s hard drive.

NOTE: Zoom recordings can range from 200MB to 300MB per hour per recording. Make sure that there is enough space on your computer’s hard drive for the resulting file.

Alternative Hosts

Enter the email addresses of any Alternative Hosts you would like to add to your webinar. If the Host has already started the meeting, Alternative Hosts will join as Co-Hosts.

Select the Save button to save your settings.

Q&A Tab

Once the webinar has been scheduled, scroll down to the bottom of the Webinar page and select the Q&A tab.

• Select Edit at the right of the screen
• Uncheck the Allow anonymous questions box, and select Save

This will prevent attendees from anonymously asking disruptive or offensive questions during the webinar.

Chat

Navigate to Settings in the menu on the left of the screen, then scroll down to the In Meeting (Basic) settings and turn off the Chat and Private Chat feature. Turning off Chat protects the webinar from disruptive or offensive content being shared to the other attendees in the Chat window.

For more information on Webinars and Meetings, visit the Zoom Meeting and Webinar comparison page.