Join a Zoom Meeting (As a Participant)

The article assists students or meeting participants (not instructors or meeting hosts) in joining a Zoom meeting/live class. If you are an instructor or meeting host, please contact ITS for assistance.

To join a Zoom meeting or enter as a class participant, follow these steps:

  1. If your instructor (or the meeting host) provided a link (or URL), click the link or paste it into your web browser. Or, if they provided only a Meeting ID then go to and enter the Meeting ID there.
  2. If you have not previously installed the Zoom desktop app it may begin downloading. If it does not begin downloading, click “Download & run Zoom.”
    Message indicating that Zoom app needs to be downloaded.
    You may need to find the download in your browser’s download area and follow the process that you normally would for opening and installing.
    Browser download list showing zoom package
  3. After following the prompts to install the package, you may be prompted for your name. Provide your actual name rather than your username. This will be your display name in the virtual meeting room.
  4. You will be asked to join the audio conference. Choose “Join by Computer” if you wish to use your computer’s speaker and microphone to listen and speak.
    Dialog box for choosing how to connect to audio source
    If you wish to join by telephone, click “Join by Phone” and use the provided information to dial into the conference line.
    Dialog box for dialing into Zoom conference
  5. Once you are in the meeting, you can turn your microphone and webcam on/off, or adjust other settings, using the icons in the lower left corner of the Zoom window.

More information can be found on Zoom’s support site.