Zoom is a web conferencing tool that provides remote conferencing services. The Canvas-Zoom integration allows instructors to schedule online meetings from within Canvas and is available in all Canvas sites.
There are settings and features available for enabling in the Zoom app and web portal that are not available to be enabled on Canvas. If you know you will only be using Zoom for class meetings and recordings, you can change your Zoom settings in the Zoom web portal to the recommended settings below.
- Go to the Zoom web portal and click the Log In button to login with your SUNet ID.
- Click Settings and then Meeting.
- Find Join before host: Turn this option off.
- Find Mute participants upon entry: Depends. This is recommended for large live lectures, but not for small discussion groups.
- Find Only authenticated users can join meetings: Turn this on.
- Note: All participants must be logged into their Zoom profile or through the Zoom application. If you create meetings in Canvas, this setting is not picked up from your general settings and needs to be added to particular meetings in the web portal.
- Find Closed captioning* (under Advanced): this setting must be turned on if you have a student who requires a live transcriptionist to provide captioning for the meeting.
*Setting can only be changed in https://stanford.zoom.us/profile/setting, not in a particular meeting.
Once you've finalized changes to your Zoom meeting settings and are ready to create a meeting in Canvas, follow the steps below.
- Click Zoom from your course navigation.
- Your Zoom account should be automatically provisioned.
- If you see an error message, refresh the page and try again as the auto-provisioning may have a lag. If you continue to see an error, manually install the Zoom software and login for the first time by going to stanford.zoom.us and clicking Download in the header.
- In Canvas, click Schedule a New Meeting
- Fill out the meeting settings.
- Topic: the title of your meeting
- When: date and time of the meeting
- Duration: total amount of time the meeting will run for (you can enter a meeting early)
- Recurring meeting: meetings that will be used more than once in the course (e.g., weekly discussion meetings)
- Video Host/Participant: select whether you'd like your/your participants' video to be automatically turned on or off
- Meeting Options Recommendations:
- We recommend NOT selecting Enable join before host
- We recommend NOT selecting Use Personal Meeting ID
- If you'd like automatic recordings of the meeting, select Record the meeting automatically and save the recording in the cloud.
- Once processed, all Zoom cloud recordings are made available to students within the Canvas Zoom tool as well as imported into Panopto Course Videos.
- Click Save. You will now see the conference appear under 'Upcoming Meetings'
Student Notifications
By default, once your meeting is scheduled, students will receive an email notification (if the Canvas course is published). In addition, the meeting will appear on students' Canvas Calendar.
For more information, see the Using Zoom in Canvas guide.