Instructors can create and manage all course meetings though Moodle by using the Zoom activity. 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 will include meeting links.
- Course participants will see all Zoom meetings in one place on the course Moodle page.
- Meeting recordings will be automatically uploaded to the course’s Panopto folder.
Before you start, you need the following:
- an Instructor of record or Other editing teacher role in a Bryn Mawr Moodle course
- an Active college Zoom account
Add the Zoom activity to your course
- Log into your course and toggle the Edit Mode switch.
- 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).
- Choose Zoom from the menu.
- Give the activity a name (e.g., “Class Zoom Meetings”) and click Save and return to course.
Warning: Do not add more than one Zoom Activity to a course. You can schedule all your meetings within the same activity.
Schedule course meetings
- Click on the Zoom activity to open an embedded Zoom window.
- Click Schedule a New Meeting.
- You will see an embedded 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 change 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.
- Set End Date to the day of your last meeting.
- Mute participants upon entry: This feature 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.
- 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.
- 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 co-hosts for BMC Zoom meetings).
- 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
For a class meeting, you (or any 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).
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.
Manage recorded course meetings
- End the meeting in Zoom.
- Open the Zoom activity in Moodle.
- Click on the tab Cloud Recordings.
- 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.
- After a short delay (usually under 24 hours), you can find your recordings in your Panopto course folder. If you have added the Panopto block to the course, you can also find the recordings there. Panopto will store videos for at least three years before archiving them.
Warning: Make sure that you have set up a meeting to be recorded before you start. Otherwise, it may not transfer to Panopto. To ensure a meeting is recorded:
- Click on the meeting title within the Zoom activity in Moodle.
- Go to the Meeting Options menu.
- Make sure you have selected Record the meeting automatically and In the Cloud.
Videos & Further Reading on Zoom
- Zoom: Scheduling Meetings
- Zoom: Using Focus Mode
- Zoom: Pre-assigning participants to breakout rooms
- Zoom: Using host and co-host controls in a meeting
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.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor
