Department Webex accounts (also known as "shared" or "generic" Webex accounts) are UConn Webex Accounts that are not tied to a NetID. Instead, these accounts have login credentials that are shared among department members.
There are some complexities that arise with the use of a Department account. Please read below before requesting a Department account.
These Department accounts reside on a different site (the VTC site) than the NetID-tied accounts (CMR site) and the UCHC (UConn Health) accounts. The Department accounts must reside on a discrete site to bypass the NetID integration. This means CMR/UCHC accounts cannot be made Cohosts of VTC Meetings/Webinars and vice versa while scheduling. Participants of other sites can be made Cohost/Host once the session is in progress.
If a user joins a VTC meeting with a VTC account, Webex creates a tie between that user and that VTC account. If the user joins another VTC meeting through their personal CMR account, their name will appear as that recent VTC account name. This can sometimes be fixed by completely removing Webex from your computer using the Webex Removal Tool.
Scheduling meetings through integrations, like the Outlook add-on, becomes complicated as you must now be sure you are using the correct Webex account. If you cannot add a certain user, you know you are using the incorrect account.
The Personal Room will not lock automatically.
Overview
Department accounts are functionally equivalent to NetID accounts.
All users will sign in with the same username and password instead of using NetID credentials.
Only one (1) user needs to sign into this account to initiate the Meeting. Once the Meeting has begun, all other users should join using their personal (NetID) account.
If another user signs into the same account and joins the same Meeting, they will take the Host role from the department member that joined before them.
Accounts can be used by more than 1 user at a time.
There is one (1) Personal Room that is shared and can be accessed by all users. If a second user enters the Personal Room while signed into the shared account, the account name will appear twice in the Participants list and both users will be able to participate.
This account may have up to 5 concurrent scheduled sessions. This means you may only schedule up to 5 sessions for one time. It does not matter if you participate in the sessions, the account can only have 5 scheduled sessions concurrently.
Requesting a Department Account
Read the warning above.
Complete the Webex Support Form. Within the form,
Explain that you would like to have a department account created for you.
Specify what you would like the account to be called. The account name can share your department's name (example: Geography Department).
Specify which email address you would like to have associated with the account. For more information about this email address, review the Account Email Association section below.
Enter any text into the Phone, URL of Webex Meeting, Browsers, and Computer fields of the form as these don't apply to the request.
A member of the Academic IT (AIT) department will get in touch with you.
Every Department account must have a unique email address.
Account Email Association
You will likely want this address to be your department email address.
When you schedule a Meeting, this address will receive a confirmation email.
Any address may be used as long as it is not already associated with another department account.
This address may be changed at any time by contacting the support below.
If you do not provide an email address, a placeholder (fake) address will be entered instead. This isn't a problem per se, but it may confuse the invitee if they try to respond to emailed invites:
Invitees will not know that this email is a placeholder unless they try to send a response to the invite email.
If no email address is provided, the placeholder address will be the address that sends invitees the Webex invitation.
If an invitee tries to send a response to a Meeting invite that came from a placeholder address, the invitee will receive a notification stating that their response "failed to send," because the placeholder email address does not actually exist.
Accessing Your Department account
You will use a different site from the one you typically use for NetID-tied Webex accounts.
For your Department account, navigate to the Webex login page.
Click on the blue Sign In button in the top-right corner.
Enter the username and password that the AIT Department provided to you.
Alternatively, enter the credentials that you have created post-account creation.
You can then change your password and PIN. You do not need to inform AIT when you do so.
The AIT department will not be able to see your custom password but can reset your password for you.
Using Your Department Account
Only one (1) user needs to sign into this account to initiate the Meeting. Once the Meeting has begun, all other users may join using their personal (NetID) account.
If another user signs into the same account and joins the same Meeting, they will automatically become Host.
This generic account functions exactly like an account that is tied to a NetID.
You may schedule Meetings and use the Personal Room just like you would in your personal Webex account.
Recordings will reside in this VTC account rather than your personal, CMR, account.
Additional Support Articles
For more information about sharing your Personal Room details, see Sharing Webex Information Online.
For troubleshooting help, see Troubleshooting Webex.
For more information about customizing how your recordings will look, see Webex Recording Options.
For more information about changing/customizing your account information, see Customizing your Webex Profile.
Now that Profile Pictures show during Meetings, you may wish to add one. You may add a custom picture, but remember that the picture will receive a circular crop when uploaded. For a generic picture that you may download and use, see Webex Virtual Backgrounds.
These articles also apply to personal accounts.
Department Account Support
For assistance with Webex, contact the Audio Visual Technology Support team at avt@uconn.edu.