The UNMC/Nebraska Medicine IT Department is rolling out Zoom, a new web conferencing tool that has been deployed university-wide, including at central administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska at Omaha and UNMC.
Each campus has its own pool of Zoom licenses.
Since IT took advantage of education bundle pricing, there is a cost saving for both UNMC and Nebraska Medicine in using Zoom, which will now be the campus-supported web conferencing platform, said Michael Kozak, distance learning facilitator.
“Zoom consolidates web conferencing needs to the single service, so we will not have to renew contracts for similar services or other products,” Kozak said. “Zoom does what all of these conferencing products do and more.”
Within the first week of testing Zoom functionality, a number of early adopters were able to realize an immediate savings by not renewing their other videoconferencing contracts.
Linda Love, Ed.D., director of UNMC faculty development, co-hosted a webinar using Zoom on March 8.
“Zoom allowed UNMC Faculty Development to co-host a webinar with NU Online that reached 100 people across the university system and our 500-mile-wide campus,” Dr. Love said. “Our Interprofessional Academy of Educators helped moderate the lively and rich dialogue in the discussion space of the webinar.
“The platform is very easy to use from both the host experience and the participant or learner perspective,” she said. “I am excited about the opportunities this kind of connection creates for us in developing our talent, engaging our learners, and collaborating across the globe.”
For more information on Zoom, including instructions on how to get started with a basic account, click here.