Zoom for Instructors & TAs

The following article encompasses many aspects of Zoom; if you are only interested in learning more about the Canvas-Zoom Integration, please consult Canvas-Zoom Integration for Faculty & TAs.  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• About Zoom
• The Penn Zoom-Canvas Integration
  • Whether to Use the Penn-Zoom Canvas Integration for Recording Meetings
  • How to Edit or Delete a Penn Zoom-Canvas Recording in Panopto
• Recommended Steps to Take Before Your First Synchronous Zoom Session
• Additional Zoom Features
  • Zoom Whiteboard 
  • Zoom Advanced Polling
  • Zoom Team Chat
• Zoom User Guides & Additional Information
• Help & Support

About Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that allows users to perform synchronous (real-time) functions including host online meetings, participate in group messaging, and share video and audio content.

General Notes about Zoom at Penn

• Zoom accounts are now available to all Penn students and staff. Log in at upenn.zoom.us/signin to create your account.
• With Penn Zoom, online meetings can include up to 300 people.
• The Zoom app is the recommended way to connect to synchronous sessions. Users that connect to synchronous sessions via a browser (such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox) will not have access to the full suite of functionalities that are available for Zoom meeting attendees. It is also important to regularly update the Zoom app on your computer.
• Concerned about Zoom security? Please see ISC's Guidance on Securing your Penn Zoom Meeting. 
• Zoom meetings will automatically terminate after 40 minutes of inactivity. This is normal behavior, there is no way to override the behavior. If you have a Zoom meeting open, but no one has joined the meeting, the meeting will stay open for 24 hours.

The Penn Zoom-Canvas Integration

Penn Zoom includes integrations with Canvas and Panopto, Penn's media platform. These integrations make it easy for you to schedule Zoom meetings for your classes, invite students, and share recordings of Zoom meetings. The Penn Zoom-Canvas integration is recommended for online or hybrid courses with synchronous sessions (class meetings, office hours, presentations, etc.). 

To learn more, please consult Canvas-Zoom Integration for Faculty & TAs. 

Whether to Use the Penn-Zoom Canvas Integration for Recording Meetings

If you would like to share recordings in Canvas with your entire class:

• Share recorded class meetings through Class Recordings in Canvas so recordings are available to students seamlessly. 
• Zoom recordings initiated within Canvas are automatically stored in Panopto, and they will appear under Class Recordings in your Canvas site within 24 hours.
• Zoom recordings initiated within Canvas will automatically be uploaded to Class Recordings and will remain available for up to 3 years without being played. Please see the full archival policy below:
  • Panopto videos will be archived if they are (1) three years old or older, and (2) have not been played in the last 13 months.
  • Videos that have been in the archive for an additional 26 months with no activity will be permanently deleted. Videos will not be deleted before October 2025.

If you want to record a Zoom meeting but do not want to share a recording in Canvas with your entire class:

• If you initiate a Zoom meeting outside of Canvas and record it, this meeting will not automatically save to Class Recordings. 
• You can share your Zoom recording with specific people.  
• Zoom recordings that are initiated outside of Canvas and are older than 120 days will be deleted from Zoom Cloud.

If you record a Zoom meeting outside of Canvas that you want to share with students:

• You can download the recording from Zoom and upload it manually to Class Recordings if you would like to share it with students.

How to Edit or Delete a Penn Zoom-Canvas Recording in Panopto

If you want to edit or delete a recording you accidentally shared with students via the Penn Zoom-Canvas integration, please follow these steps:

1. Hide the Class Recordings button
2. Delete the video from Panopto or edit the video to trim unwanted content 
3. Unhide the Class Recordings button

Please note: Any recordings in Zoom's cloud will be deleted once it is older than 120 days. If you wish to keep this recording long-term, please be sure to download a copy to your computer. For help with downloading a Zoom recording, please see ISC's PennZoom Cloud Recording download instructions.

Recommended Steps to Take Before Your First Synchronous Zoom Session

• Go to http://upenn.zoom.us/signin and log in with your PennKey.
  • Choose the prompt to launch the meeting in the Zoom app. The Zoom App allows for full-suite functionalities, such as breakout rooms.
• Activate the Zoom integration in your Canvas site by adding the Zoom and Class Recordings feature to your class menu. In your Canvas site, click "settings" in the left hand menu and then "navigation" at the top of the screen to pick what appears in your navigation for the course.
• Schedule your class meetings through Canvas so they will be automatically available to your students.
• TAs and Co-Hosts are automatically added as Alternative hosts through Canvas, but you can add or remove Alternative Hosts as needed by scheduling the meeting in your course and then navigating to upenn.zoom.us and logging in. There you can find that meeting and manage specific settings.
• Remember: Recordings started in Canvas are automatically posted to Canvas.  When you schedule your Zoom sessions through Canvas, the recordings will be posted in your Class Recordings folder and available only to students enrolled in your class. 

Additional Zoom Features

Zoom User Guides & Additional Information

• Zoom for Faculty/Staff/TAs ( Central Penn Libraries): Comprehensive documentation on the Canvas-Zoom integration
• Zoom Resources for Users (ISC): General Zoom info
• Zoom Help Center (Zoom): Zoom's Support Tutorials
  
• Download the Zoom App
• Update to latest version of Zoom

Help & Support

If you are having difficulties with Zoom, please reach out to online-learning-help@sas.upenn.edu 

*Some content taken with permission from infocanvas.upenn.edu and https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us