Display name question

[mosunshine]

Hello,

We are an online language school and looking to change to Zoom from January 2023, but we need to be able to use the usernames in our LMS for students and teachers to log into the Zoom classrooms.

We would really appreciate help in figuring out a method or workaround to change the Display name simply (the in-meeting [Rename] feature is not quite suitable.

The main reason is for security - showing your real name in the language school online group classes could lead to another student trying to make unwarranted contact on other social media. And a host of other possible issues with privacy.

And also for teacher-student clarity.

So for example: If we have a class and 3 people named John Smith enter the classroom - it would be impossible for the teacher to know which John...
We would really appreciate an option to have students enter the room using their usual student name as their display name.

If they enter the room with their own username (for example JohnS-US, John-AU, John-NZ)- which is the username in the Reservation System - it is clear to the teacher who just entered, who attended/who was absent, etc.

Our current VOIP classroom provider (Electa Live) already has this feature - since it is basically designed to be compatible with their own LMS and also 3rd party LMS including moodle etc.

Is there any way to implement something similar or a workaround, or a solution - using Zoom?

Really eagerly awaiting a response.
Moses

[mosunshine]

Thank you for the reply Zm_COM! Are you a member of the Zoom developing team?

[Ray_Harwood]

Hi, @mosunshine,

Please note that Zoom employees are generally annotated with a purple shield icon.  Some Zoom Community volunteers have been awarded a Zoom Community Champion icon as you'll see next to my name above.  We do often see replies from well-intentioned community visitors, which are sometimes a little off the mark.

Since you are looking at making a move to Zoom in January, I'd highly recommend having someone from your organization get in contact with Zoom Sales, and engage knowledgeable Zoom technical staff to answer your specific technical questions.

I can say that the default display name for each Zoom attendee is set to the Display Name field of the Zoom account, assuming they are logged in to Zoom.   There may be settings which prevent associated accounts from changing the Display Name, so once set by your IT staff, they could not be altered; a Zoom security specialist can discuss this with you in further detail.

You might also look at this Zoom Blog article for advice on ensuring that only authorized attendees are admitted to your meetings:

https://blog.zoom.us/keep-uninvited-guests-out-of-your-zoom-meeting/ 

I'd suggest requiring students to use an account provided by your organization.  These could be "Basic" accounts, which are free. They can attend any meeting for any duration, but any meeting they schedule would be limited to 40 minutes.  Being tied to your organization, meetings could be set to identify attendees with accounts outside of your organization; see this Zoom Support article for some guidance on this identification:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004791123-Identifying-guests-in-the-meeting-webinar 

Setting meeting security for each meeting to "Require Authentication" means all attendees must be logged into Zoom to join the meeting.  Anyone from joining without being logged in and potentially "spoofing" a student's ID.

Assuming you have IT staff who can automate the account creation and deactivation feature, the Zoom API has all of the control features you would need for setting the Default Display Name.  Have your IT staff consult the API here:

https://marketplace.zoom.us/docs/api-reference/introduction/ 

Best of luck!  Feel free to come back here for more questions... but I think the Zoom Sales folks would be your best contact to start.

[mosunshine]

Hello Ray,

Thank you so much for your advice and really detailed explanation.

We kind of have an IT guy, but it is best if I also know what we are specifically looking to achieve before giving instructions. 

I am looking into that idea of having a system to create Zoom user accounts for students just for using our LMS automatically without having to login twice for each class, ie having the two databases link up... it sounds a bit tricky and I wonder what happens if someone is already signed up for a Zoom account - is it possible to have two Zoom accounts?

Thank you so much for this