Zoom: Schedule course meetings with the Moodle Zoom activity

Zoom allows instructors to directly create and manage meetings from their Moodle course pages. We recommend using this feature—rather than the Zoom website or app—for the following reasons:

  • It will automatically invite all course participants to meetings you create.
  • It will create calendar events for all meetings, which include the start or join links (depending on the user).
  • Course participants will see all Zoom meetings in one place on the course Moodle page. (They will also see these meetings when they log into Zoom, whether online or in the app.)
  • Meeting recordings will be automatically uploaded to the course’s Panopto folder.

Before you start, you need the following:

Add the Zoom activity to your course

  1. Log into your course and click Turn Editing On (if not on already).
  2. Click + Add an activity or resource in the section where you want to place the Zoom activity (we recommend placing it in the top section).
  3. Choose Zoom from the menu.Activities box showing the Zoom icon
  4. Give the activity a name (e.g., “Class Zoom Meetings”) and click Save and return to course.

Note: Do not add more than one Zoom Activity to a course. You can schedule all your meetings within the same activity.

Schedule course meetings

  1. Click on the Zoom activity to open an embedded Zoom window. 
  2. Click Schedule a New Meeting in the top right
  3. You will see a simplified version of Zoom’s page for scheduling meetings. From here, provide the following meeting details (you can keep the default values for those not mentioned):
    • Topic: By default, Zoom uses the full course name. You may want to shorten this or distinguish between different types of meetings (e.g., lectures or office hours ). Make sure to include the course number, however. This ensures students won't confuse your Zoom meetings for those from another class.
    • Date and Time: For a one-time meeting, use When to set the date and start time and Duration to specify how long it lasts. For a recurring series of scheduled meetings, do the following:
      • Use When to set the date and start time for the first instance and Duration to set how long each meeting lasts.
      • Check the Recurring meeting box.
      • Use the Recurrence and Repeat settings to adjust how often the meeting repeats. For example, choose Weekly for a class that occurs at the same time on multiple days of the week. Then check the appropriate days in the Occurs On...menu. If a meeting reoccurs on an unfixed schedule, choose No fixed time.
      • Set End Date to the day of your last meeting.
    • Mute participants upon entry: This features sets users' mics to mute when they first enter a meeting. Users can then manually unmute themselves.
    • Enable focus mode when meeting starts: Focus mode limits participants' available actions and what they see from others (hosts and co-hosts retain all normal functionality). By checking this box, you will have the ability to turn on focus mode during a meeting. It will not be automatically turned on, however. Zoom has more information on using focus mode.
    • Breakout room pre-assign: Check this if you want to create breakout rooms and assign students to them before the meeting starts. Click on Create Rooms if you want to perform these actions within the Zoom Moodle activity. Click on Import from CSV if you would like to perform these actions in a spreadsheet first, then upload them to the Zoom Moodle activity. Read here if you want more information on pre-assigning participants to breakout rooms.
    • Record the meeting automatically: Check this box and choose the In the Cloud option to automatically record a meeting and have it uploaded to Panopto. 
    • Designate Alternative hosts: add co-hosts by using their brynmawr.edu email addresses (Haverford and Swarthmore individuals cannot be alternative hosts for BMC Zoom meetings). Zoom has more information on using host and co-host controls in a meeting.
  4. Click Save to finish setting up the meeting.

Note: You will need to log into Bryn Mawr's Zoom web portal to enable advanced settings for your meeting such as Advanced Polling and Quizzing.

Manage course meetings

All of your meetings (including personal meetings and those for other classes) will show up in the Zoom activity within Moodle. You can check the box Show my course meetings only to limit your view to the meetings for the Moodle class whose page you're on.

  1. Once you open the activity, you (or anyone you designated as a co-host) can do the following actions:
    • Start the meeting.
    • Edit the time, date, recurrence or other meeting settings.
    • Delete the meeting (if a recurring meeting, Zoom will clarify whether you wish to delete only one or all instances).

Manage recorded course meetings

If you have set up a meeting to be recorded, you can then be manage these recordings both from the Zoom activity within Moodle and Panopto.

Before you start, make sure that you have set up a meeting to be recorded. Click on the meeting title within the Zoom activity in Moodle. In the Meeting Options menu, make sure you have selected Record the meeting automatically and In the Cloud.

  1. End a meeting in Zoom. 
  2. Open the Zoom activity in Moodle.
  3. Click on the tab Cloud Recordings.
  4. You will see a list of all the class meetings you have recorded. This will eventually include the session you just ended, although it will take time for the recording to process and be added to the list. The Zoom activity in Moodle holds recordings for a limited time (30-60 days) due to storage limitations.
  5. After a short delay (usually under 24 hours), the recording will be available in your Panopto course folder. It will also be in the Panopto block within Moodle (if you have enabled it for this course). Panopto will store the video for at least three years before archiving it.

Questions?

If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!

Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.eduService catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor