The standard Zoom meeting is effective for hosting discussions among a relatively small number of users. However, some events require a controlled environment similar to a traditional lecture or presentation format.

Zoom offers a webinar service designed for very large meetings and events. To schedule a webinar, you need a specific license for that purpose. You can either buy this license to permanently link to your account or borrow one from the University for a period of two days. Any Zoom account can attend a webinar, but the host and cohosts have many more options for controlling attendee participation. If you need a webinar license, complete the Zoom Webinar License Request at the service portal.

Differences Between a Webinar and a Meeting

• Webinars are typically used for events where the number of participants makes an unstructured discussion format unmanageable, or where attendees are purely an audience, not active participants.
• In a Zoom webinar, you may assign different roles to attendees. For example, you may make some attendees cohosts to help you manage the webinar. Also, others may be panelists, so they can share their own material onscreen and speak to the rest of the webinar attendees.
• By default, most attendees can only view a webinar and their feedback is limited at the host's discretion. Webinars include a Q&A option to allow attendees to ask questions of the panelists and interact with the rest of the meeting when called on by the hosts.
• Webinars do not have the breakout room feature.

Zoom provides a detailed comparison of webinars and meetings so you can choose the option that is best for you.

Get Started with Webinars

In order to organize a webinar and host a webinar from your Zoom Web Portal, you need a webinar license and need to Install Zoom Client for Meetings. After you schedule a meeting, you will be able to invite panelists and attendees to the meeting ahead of time. This is done in a similar manner to invitations to a Zoom meeting, except that panelists will always receive a direct email from Zoom confirming their participation in the webinar.

When you schedule a webinar, you can require users to register ahead of time to provide an additional level of security to your meeting. This ensures that only attendees of your choosing are allowed into the webinar. Read the Zoom support article Scheduling a Webinar With Registration to learn more about webinar registration.

Good preparation is critical for a positive webinar experience for all participants. Read the Zoom Webinar Preparation Checklist to find everything you need to be ready for your webinar.

To start your webinar, go to Webinars in the Zoom app. Select Start next to the webinar title to open the webinar space. All participants will be able to use the distributed link to join the Webinar as if it was any other Zoom meeting.

Purchase a Webinar License

You need a webinar license to access the Zoom webinar features and to schedule webinars. There are two ways for obtaining a webinar license: you can buy a dedicated license for an existing Zoom account with your Oracle Cloud Financial Account information information, or you can borrow a license from IT Services at no cost. You may only schedule one webinar at a time per license, if you need to schedule more than one webinar at the same time you will need a separate license for each.

The cost of a dedicated license is based on the total number of participants in a meeting. The University's contract with Zoom is a three-year contract. 

• Webinar 500: $690/year
• Webinar 1,000: $3,102.75/year
• Webinar 3,000: $9,900/year
• Webinar 10,000: $64,900/year

Some licenses may require additional approval depending on the total cost.

Borrow a Webinar License

You can also ask to borrow a webinar license from IT Services. The University has a limited number of licenses to loan out, so it is important to establish a definite schedule for your webinar first. You may request a webinar license loan no more than fourteen days before the event. Be aware that access to a license is not guaranteed, and administrators will consider requests on a case-by-case basis. The borrowed license will be removed two days after your webinar is over.

Note: The borrowed webinar license must be attached to an existing Zoom account. You must pull any webinar recordings from the cloud and save them before the license expires.