Using Zoom in Canvas

Canvas features the ability for students and instructors to join or create meetings in Zoom. The Zoom Canvas Integration allows you to view Upcoming Meetings, view Previous Meetings, view your Personal Meeting Room, and view Cloud Recordings.

Audience

This article is intended for students and instructors using both Canvas and Zoom.

Platform

Canvas, Zoom

Joining a Zoom Meeting

If Zoom has been enabled for your Canvas course:

  1. Select the Canvas course where you want to use Zoom.
  2. Click Zoom from the course navigation menu to launch the app.
  3. Click the Upcoming Meetings tab if it is not already selected.
  4. Click Start or Join next to the Zoom meeting you wish to start or join, to enter the scheduled Zoom meeting.
    This is a screenshot of the Meetings tab within the Zoom app.

Creating a Zoom Meeting

To create a Zoom meeting for your Canvas course:

  1. Select the Canvas course where you want to use Zoom.
  2. Click Zoom from the course navigation menu to launch the app.
  3. Click the Schedule a New Meeting button.
  4. Enter in the details of the meeting, including a topic, date, and duration, among other details.
  5. Click the Save button to schedule the meeting. The meeting will appear under the Upcoming Meetings tab in the Zoom app within Canvas or within the Calendar tool within Canvas.

Settings

Most settings in the Zoom meeting settings are self-explanatory but some settings to consider include: 

  • Registration: The registration option helps restrict your meeting to only participants who are pre-registered or accepted by the host. This can help prevent unwanted attendees from joining, but there are other simpler options that we recommend utilizing before relying on the registration feature for security.
  • Security:
    • Waiting Room: The waiting room is the most effective way to reduce unwanted participants from joining your meeting. The host will receive a visual notification when a participant enters the waiting room and has the option to admit all (best for the beginning of class) or manually admit or remove individuals. When an individual is removed from the waiting room, they will not be able to attempt to rejoin.
    • Only authenticated users can join meetings: Checking this box will require meeting participants to log in to Zoom with their Zoom credentials to participate in the meeting. Participants will need to select "Sign in with SSO" and type in "Ithaca" for the domain when joining with their Ithaca College Zoom account.
  • Audio: By default, the option is set to both Telephone and Computer Audio so that participants can call in if they don't have reliable Wi-Fi. We recommend leaving this setting on "Both" for this reason.
  • Meeting Options:
    • Enable join before host: This option allows for participants to join the meeting and start talking to/seeing other participants before the host joins. Otherwise, participants will see a screen that says "Waiting for host to begin meeting" until the host starts. We recommend leaving this setting unchecked. 
    • Mute participants upon entry: Enabling this option helps limit noise, especially for large meetings where participants may be chatting and getting settled in for the meeting.
    • User Personal Meeting ID: The best way to prevent unwanted participants in your meetings is to stick with the randomly generated meeting ID, but there is the option to use your personal meeting ID if you desire. This can be customized on your profile settings at ithaca.zoom.us.
    • Recording the meeting automatically: This option allows for the meetings to begin recording as soon as the meeting begins. The recording can be stopped and restarted at any point. It is important to note that if the "Enable join before host" option is checked in addition to this automatic recording option, any time that a participant click on the link (even as a test or in the middle of the night) a recording will begin. To avoid these unwanted recordings, it helps to either disable the join before host option or to Enable the waiting room, which only the host can allow participants into the meeting.
  • Alternative hosts: This field will auto-populate with the other instructors of the course, and you can assign additional hosts or remove hosts as desired. 

Cloud Recordings

If you recorded your meeting, you can view the stored meeting and share it with your participants who attended or anyone who was unable to attend. Zoom recordings are currently stored for 120 days before being deleted. To archive your videos in a more permanent place, watch this video.

  1. Select the Canvas course where you want to use Zoom.
  2. Click Zoom from the course navigation menu to launch the app.
  3. Click the Cloud Records tab. All of your recordings will be listed here in the order of the date they were recorded. 
  4. Click on a meeting title to access the recordings. There will be a video that includes audio or just the audio recording of the meeting.
  5. Click the share button to obtain a shareable link.

For additional settings, visit ithaca.zoom.us/profile. You can then configure whether viewers must be Ithaca College accounts, if there is a password to access the recording, and if the video is downloadable. You can also view the analytics of who has viewed the video.

Canvas Zoom Settings

Import and Disassociate Meetings

  1. Select the Canvas course where you want to use Zoom.
  2. Click Zoom from the course navigation menu to launch the app.
  3. To import and disassociate Zoom meetings, click the  ellipsis adjacent to the Schedule a Meeting button.
  4. Click either Import Meetings or Disassociate Meetings. You will be prompted to enter the meeting ID.

Manage Alternative Hosts

  1. Select the Canvas course where you want to use Zoom.
  2. Click Zoom from the course navigation menu to launch the app.
  3. To manage alternative hosts, click the  ellipsis adjacent to the Schedule a Meeting button.
  4. Click Manage Alternative Hosts to manage the default alternative hosts for your Zoom meetings created within Canvas.
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