Question about using the Zoom integration with Canvas

[debbie_ellis]

My colleague, who supports Zoom in our administrative group who don't use Canvas, is asking why we should use the Zoom integration with Canvas. He thinks it would be just as effective to create the meeting in the Zoom app or on the Zoom website and then post that link in a Canvas announcement.

What are the advantages to using the Zoom integration in Canvas?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there,  @debbie_ellis ...

I changed your discussion topic from a "Question" to a "Discussion" because there may not be one "Correct" answer.

Now, to your actual question...  I am one of a handful of Canvas administrators for our Canvas environment. Our Technical College has the Zoom LTI integrated with Canvas, and it is working well.  Our process is that we have a small fillable form that people must fill out to request a Zoom license (we only have about 50-60 licenses that we've purchased as of now).  Once the form is filled out, we then log in to our Zoom admin site to create the user and assign that person a license.  The user then receives an e-mail invitiation asking them to complete their Zoom profile and registration.  I also send them a separate e-mail with some additional information about how to enable and use the Zoom LTI tool within their Canvas course.  Then, they take it from there.

One of the nice things about having the integration directly in Zoom for instructors and students is that an instructor can set up a Zoom meeting right within the Canvas interface...including configuring the date/time and other meeting preferences.  When it's time for the Zoom meeting, students can log in to their Canvas course, go to the Zoom button in the course, and enter the Zoom meeting.

This video does a pretty good job of describing the setup:

You can certainly still send out a link to the Zoom meeting if you want, but this way everything is right there for the students to access.

I hope this helps, Debbie.

[RJWE]

If students join the Zoom meeting by clicking on the link provided by the Canvas Zoom integration, then under what user ID can I expect them to appear in the participants list? By their Canvas name, Canvas login ID, or Canvas SIS ID? Is section information also passed on to the Zoom user ID?

Why is this important?
I'd like to make pre-scheduled breakout rooms in Zoom, for which I need to know in advance how the participants appear in the Zoom meeting participants list.

Thank you.
RL.

[hueyc]

Hi Chris, 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I am currently facing an issue with the Zoom integration in Canvas. I recently enabled the Zoom function in my subject and was able to schedule some trial meetings. The trail Zoom sessions ran well and after that I deleted all the trial sessions which were no longer required. I then proceeded to schedule actual sessions, but was unable to. I am able to click on the "Schedule a New Meeting" button and get into the scheduling page. However, when I tried to save the session,  I received the error message 'Something went wrong. Please refresh this page'.

No matter what I tried, I could not create any new meeting sessions in the subject. Either the Save button is greyed out or the error message pops up, preventing any new sessions to be saved. 

I then tried the same Zoom scheduling in a different subject and everything worked fine. It seems something is 'broken' in this particular subject that I used for the initial Zoom trials. I would appreciate any advice on this issue. Thank you.  

[jwadec]

Huey, 

Can you go to Account -> Settings and under Approved integrations, select the trash can icon next to Zoom and then try the integration again. That sometimes can reset things!

[hueyc]

Thanks for the suggestion but it did not work. The problem persists. 

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @hueyc  

Did you try refreshing the page? I had this happen yesterday, and a refresh worked for me.

[hueyc]

Refreshing the page did not work in my case. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there,  @hueyc ...

Were you able to get things worked out with your Zoom screen in this course?  I'm going to pass along this question to a couple of the other Coaches here in the community to see if they have any thoughts on this for you.  Hope to hear back from you soon!

[hueyc]

Hi Chris, 

Thank you for following up. I had logged this problem with our institution LMS support and I believe they have solved the issue. I recently checked the Canvas Zoom function and found that I could schedule meetings again. I'm not sure what the problem was but was suspecting it was something to do with too many alternative host locking the system out previously. The whole thing could have been reset from the admin level. 

To answer your question, I guess the issue has been resolved. Thank you.