Question regarding Zoom - Accounts and Access

Question

Hi Canvas Community,

Hope all is well.

I've got questions regarding Zoom integration. I hope you can help out.

1. Can we launch a Zoom meeting from outside Canvas? What will be the impact on Canvas?

2. If a user with a Basic Zoom account schedules a Zoom meeting within Canvas, but another user with Pro Zoom account launches the meeting from within Canvas, is it still capped to 40mins?

3. Will students get notified if Zoom session has started?

Thanks so much! 🙂

Chris_Hofer · Accepted Answer

Hello @Dean_Bijis ...

I'll try and answer these questions to the best of my memory ... as I was a former Canvas admin at a Technical College in Wisconsin, and we had the Zoom Pro LTI integrated with Canvas.

1. Can we launch a Zoom meeting from outside Canvas? What will be the impact on Canvas?

Yes.  The process at our school was that instructors requested a Zoom license from us (for a Pro account).  We then sent them a Zoom invitation, and they created a Zoom account using their staff e-mail address.  (They needed to use their staff e-mail so that they could use the Zoom Pro LTI in Canvas.)  Even though the majority of Zoom meetings were scheduled inside Canvas courses via the LTI, instructors could still go to https://zoom.us, sign in to the site, and schedule meetings that way.  However, since you are scheduling Zoom meetings on their website, it doesn't really know which course it's assigned to.  On the other hand, when you schedule a Zoom meeting inside of your Canvas course, you can see the meetings for the particular course right away.  I believe there was a link at the top of the Zoom interface in Canvas where you could click on to see all other meetings...and that would show meetings from other courses as well as meetings that you had scheduled via the Zoom website...if I recall correctly.

2. If a user with a Basic Zoom account schedules a Zoom meeting within Canvas, but another user with Pro Zoom account launches the meeting from within Canvas, is it still capped to 40mins?

That's a great question...and something I never tried.  My guess is that the meeting may still only be 40 minutes because the person who originally scheduled the meeting only had a "Basic" account.  I could be totally wrong on this, though.

3. Will students get notified if Zoom session has started?

I don't recall ever getting notifications from Zoom (or hearing that others had received notifications) when a Zoom meeting had started.  I know there are many, many Zoom configuration settings that can be set by your school's Zoom administrator, and there are also user settings that individuals can set, but I don't remember if being notified that a Zoom session had started was one of those.  🤔

I hope this will help to answer some or all of your questions.  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this...thanks!