Zoom's authentication profiles allow K-12, primary, and secondary school students access whiteboards outside of meetings securely, while also preventing unauthorized access from users outside of the school or school district. When external authentication is enabled, a teacher with an account can only share a whiteboard with a link or by adding the external access users (typically a student) to the whiteboard’s share sheet.
When using external authentication, the students do not have their own Zoom accounts, but are using a school email address with an identity provider (sometimes referred to as an SSO).
This article covers:
Prerequisites for sharing Zoom Whiteboard with external authentication
- Zoom desktop client for Windows, macOS, or Linux: Global minimum version or higher
- Zoom mobile app for Android or iOS: Global minimum version or higher
- Zoom Web App
- External authentication enabled by admin
How to share Zoom Whiteboard with external authentication
- Open or create a new whiteboard.
- At the top right, click Share to open the Share Whiteboard dialog box.
In the Share Whiteboard dialog box, you can manage the access and set the permission level and sharing privileges for users who can access your whiteboard:
Contact, Channel or Email
This field allows you to invite specific users by email, members of a channel, or an existing Zoom contact.
- Enter an email, contact name, or channel in this field. To add a student using external authentication, use their school email address.
- Next to the Contact, Channel or Email, click the down arrow
and set the access rights to the users. - (Optional) Add a message to help recipients understand why this project was shared with them in the email that will be sent to them.
Link Access
This field determines who can access the whiteboard when clicking on the link. There are 3 different options:
- Only invited members can access this board: Select this option to share a whiteboard with specific users' email addresses. You will then need to add the collaborators or channels explicitly in the Contact, Channel or Email field.
- Anyone within your account (name): Select this option to share a whiteboard with other faculty members within your account securely without having to explicitly add each collaborator. Note: This option is unavailable for Zoom Web App.
- Anyone within your account and external authentication: Select this option to share a whiteboard with faculty members within your account and students (using external authentication) securely.
Note: This option is unavailable for Zoom Web App.
Next to the selected Link Access option, set the permission who can view, edit, or comment on your whiteboard.
Sharing privileges
- Anyone can share at or below their level: Select this option to delegate similar privileges to users within the same organization they share the whiteboard to. When this box is selected, collaborators who have access to the whiteboard can add additional collaborators.
- External users can be invited: Select this option to delegate similar privileges to external users and if they can invite others or not as an additional security option. When this box is selected, the whiteboard can be shared with collaborators outside their organization.