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. You can schedule non-Canvas course-related Zoom meetings in your account at riceuniversity.zoom.us

Faculty should have access to a pro/licensed Zoom account. If you are new faculty, you can activate your account by signing into your account using the SSO option at https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/. You will need to do this before you can use your account. Please feel free to contact helpdesk@rice.edu if you have any questions.

This page includes:

Scheduling a Zoom Meeting
Student Notifications
Inviting People Outside of Your Canvas Course
Starting and Joining a Zoom Meeting from Canvas

Scheduling a Zoom Meeting

Click Zoom from your course navigation menu. The first time you click on this link, you will have to "authorize" the Zoom app.

3. In Canvas, click Schedule a New Meeting

4. Fill out the meeting settings

1. Topic: the title of your meeting, e.g., your course name or "Office Hours"
2. When: date and time of the meeting
3. Duration: total amount of time the meeting will run for (you can enter a meeting early)
4. Recurring meeting: meetings that will be used more than once in the course (e.g., weekly discussion meetings)
  - Example for a class that meets every MWF:
    - Recurrence = Weekly
    - Repeat every 1 week
    - Occurs Mon, Wed, Fri
    - End date = last meeting date
5. Video Host/Participant: select whether you'd like your/your participants' videos to be automatically turned on or off. We recommend participant video to be off for class meetings so students can turn on the camera when they are ready.
6. Meeting Options - Recommendations:
  - Enable join before host: This allows participants to join the meeting before you do.
  - Mute participants upon entry: We generally recommend enabling this option for courses. Students can unmute themselves during the class.
  - Enable waiting room
    - For a class lecture, don't enable this
    - For office hours, enable this
  - If you'd like recordings of the meeting, select "Record the meeting automatically" and save the recording in the cloud.
    - NOTE: Remember to select End Meeting before leaving the classroom if you are teaching at a podium or if you are hosting the meeting remote. Otherwise you might end up with, eg, 15-hour sessions that are trying to process on Zoom's servers.
Click Save. You will now see the meeting appear under 'Upcoming Meetings'
Notify your students about the Zoom meeting. Canvas Announcements is a good place to do this.

Student Notifications

Once your meeting is scheduled, the meeting will appear on the course's Canvas Calendar.

Canvas calendar with Zoom meeting

Inviting People Outside of Your Canvas Course

Accessing Zoom through this Canvas integration only works if you have Rice NetID, BUT you can still invite people outside of your Canvas to join these Zoom meetings. This is useful for guest speakers or student that don't have a Rice NetID. If you want non-Rice people to join, then you'll have to share the meeting ID and password or the link with them.

From Zoom in Canvas, if the other person is already familiar with Zoom, you can just send them the meeting ID that is listed next to your meeting. If not, click on the "Topic" for the Zoom meeting you want to invite people to.
Click on "Copy the invitation."
Click on the "Copy Meeting Invitation" button.
Then open your email program and paste the invitation into your email. Edit the text as you'd like before sending.

Starting and Joining a Zoom Meeting from Canvas

Instructors

Close any applications that you don't need, especially if they are resource-intensive or if they generate notifications (eg, emails and messaging apps) if you will be sharing your screen.
From the Canvas Zoom link, click on the Upcoming Meetings" tab.
Find the meeting, and click the "Start" button next to the correct one.
If you don't already have Zoom installed, you will be guided to download and install it.
Alternatively, the person who created the meeting (usually the professor) can start the meeting from the Zoom desktop app.

Professor start meeting

Students

You will need to direct students to join your meeting by clicking the Zoom link from your Canvas course.
Then click on the "Upcoming Meetings" tab.
Then click on the "Join" button next to the correct meeting.
If the student doesn't have Zoom installed, they will be guided to download and install it. This only needs to be done once.

Need something more?

More information on Using Tech for Student Engagement can be located on the Canvas Training Center and Learning Environments website.

If you need immediate assistance, please feel free to reach out to Learning Environments:

713-348-4357 | teaching@rice.edu | Learning Environments website