OIT Video Conferencing Service announces new conferencing platform
Video Conferencing Services (VCS) has selected Zoom as its new conferencing platform. Zoom will be available to students, faculty, and staff later this month.
“We are excited to announce that the University of Alaska is launching Zoom as our new web conferencing solution,” said Kelly Gitter, UA OIT US VCS Manager. “We have selected Zoom for its simplicity and reliability, not to mention consistency across devices for a seamless user experience. After researching several options, Zoom was the best choice to fit the communication needs of our staff and faculty.
Zoom is a unified communications tool that combines video conferencing, online meetings, and content sharing with calendar, lecture capture, and Blackboard integrations. This will replace the legacy video conference bridges and web conferencing service, Pexip. All students, faculty, and staff may claim their pro account.
What you need to know:
- Zoom accounts will be available to students, faculty, and staff mid-July 2019
- Users who have Zoom accounts already will be migrated into the UA licensing. Paid
accounts can be prorated.
- Existing video conferencing classrooms and spaces will continue to work with Zoom.
- Any conferences or classes already scheduled (pre-Zoom) will continue as planned.
Please contact the VCS office if you would like to migrate your conference to the
Zoom platform.
- VCS will retire Pexip, the current video web-conferencing solution connecting personal devices to codecs 9/30/19 and will be retiring the current bridging solution 1/31/20.
Implementation Timeframe
- July/August 2019 - Zoom will be available for students, faculty, and staff. Claim your account at alaska.zoom.us using single sign-on. Faculty can find Zoom available within your course tools in
- September 30, 2019 - Pexip, VCS’ current personal device web-conferencing solution will be retired. All connections through personal devices will then occur through
- January 13, 2020 - all UA video conference courses will use the Zoom
- January 31, 2020 - Retirement of legacy video conferencing
For more about Zoom, visit https://is.gd/a5qArj.