Using a waiting room or a passcode adds an extra layer of security to your Zoom sessions. An individual meeting may have a waiting room, passcode, or neither enabled. You can also increase security by allowing only authenticated users to join meetings: (logged in users from with Mount Holyoke accounts only, 5 College accounts only, or any kind of Zoom account).
The three areas that impact which happens is the Zoom default settings, individual user settings, and/or individual meeting settings. You can adjust everything except the default settings while logged into mtholyoke.zoom.us, or from within the Zoom desktop application under "meetings".
Default Zoom settings: Currently meetings created by Mount Holyoke users while logged into your MHC account, and without changing any settings manually will nave neither the waiting room nor passcode feature enabled.
Individual user settings: you can set the default for any meeting you create by logging into zoom at https://mtholyoke.zoom.us, and toggling on or off waiting room or passcode in Settings → Meetings → Security.
Individual meeting settings: when creating a meeting in mtholyoke.zoom.us or the Zoom desktop application, you can select to have a waiting room, passcode, or neither for an individual one-time or recurring meeting. You can also edit these settings in an existing meeting you have created in Moodle, in Google Calendar, or anywhere else by clicking on the name of a meeting, then editing the settings.
This information is up to date as of August 22, 2020. Expect changes to the default setting later this fall, implemented by Zoom in order to enhance security default settings, which LITS will communicate.