Help! Accessing Zoom as a Student in Canvas

[lethbri2]

We've recently adopted Zoom and it falls under my umbrella to get it integrated into Canvas. I've integrated Canvas using the LTI Pro option from the Zoom Marketplace. I thought everything was setup properly but after attending a short admin Zoom webinar, I'm unclear if I'm missing an important step.

By request, I setup instructors with a Pro zoom account. Once they have the setup complete, I help them put Zoom on their course menu and provide a short student guide that they can share with their students. With our previous web conferencing tool, students didn't need to create or have an account created to use it. 

So long story short: Does anyone know if students need basic Zoom accounts setup for them to participate in a meeting that their instructor sets up? If so, is there an easy way to go about this? 

I've contacted Zoom support and have asked for a meeting to go over the details but sometimes their support isn't very zoom'y.... 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi  @lethbri2 ...

After double-checking with  @kenneth_rogers ‌, it is our understanding that students are "attendees" in a Zoom meeting, so they shouldn't have to create a separate Zoom account in order to participate.  It's all sort-of single sign-on right from inside of Canvas.  Hope this helps.

[lethbri2]

Thanks, Chris.

That saves me a lot of trouble (and worry). I was able to find in the Zoom guides that:

LTI Pro gives students the following functionality:

• View upcoming meetings
• Join meetings
• View previous meetings and recordings

It doesn't specifically state that you need to create accounts though, so that makes sense. When I inquired in the admin training session, the presenter made it sound like you needed to but that seems to defeat the purpose of integrating it into the LMS! 

[kenneth_rogers]

Hi,  @lethbri2 !

We actually license Zoom so that all of our students can use Zoom if they'd like. However, they have to leave Canvas to create their accounts and can only create/manage sessions outside the LMS. Like  @Chris_Hofer ‌ said, students that don't have accounts should just be "attendees"...or at least that has been our experience for the past year!