Zoom: Signing Up For An Account
Objectives and Overview
This lesson introduces Zoom, an online conferencing tool. Zoom is flexible and useful, and is a crucial tool tool since many companies and schools switched to teleworking. Zoom is useful for communication and collaboration. Let’s get started by creating a Zoom account.
Lesson Objectives
- Create a Zoom account
What is Zoom?
Zoom is a video conferencing tool that is used for a variety of purposes ranging from school, business, to social gatherings. As social distancing was introduced in March 2020, Zoom’s popularity skyrocketed. Zoom suddenly became a central work tool as folks adapted. It’s likely that Zoom (or similar video conferencing tools) are going to continue to be important tools to know for work and school.
You may be familiar with similar tools such as Discord. While Zoom does have chat and social features, the primary function is for remote gatherings (such as meetings). Let’s get started!
Signing Up For Zoom
Let’s start by creating a Zoom account. Even if you already have an account with a personal email, go through this process and create one with your professional email. If you’re enrolled in programs at the Digital Harbor Foundation, use your DHF youth email address. It’s often a good idea to have personal and professional logins for online tools.
Open your browser and head to http://zoom.us
Next, click the Sign up, it’s free button in the top right corner:
After clicking that, you’ll need to enter your birthday. Zoom uses this for verification and states that they don’t store this information.
Once you enter your birthday, click the Continue button:
Zoom asks for an email address. This is the email address you’ll use for your login. Choose an email address that you’ll use for professional work, such as your Digital Harbor Foundation email address. Click the Sign Up button.
Zoom sends a confirmation email to your email address with the subject “Please activate your Zoom account.” The last step is to open that email and verify.
Check your email for this and click the confirmation link to verify your account. Click the Activate Account button in the email:
You’ll be taken to a new page. Zoom asks if you’re creating the account for a school. Select no and click the Continue button:
Next, you can enter your name and password. Be sure to choose a safe, secure password! Fill out the information and click Continue:
After you continue, Zoom asks you to invite friends or coworkers. You can skip this by clicking the Skip this step button:
Your account is now created! Zoom provides your personal meeting URL (the example in the image is blurred) and prompts you to create a test meeting. The meeting URL is what you’ll send to folks when you want them to join your meeting.
Keep this URL safe! If you send it to people you don’t know (or if you publish it online) and you don’t have security settings enabled, people can join your meeting.
You now have a Zoom account! The email address that you use is how you’ll login to Zoom. The next lesson walks through how to download and install Zoom on your computer.