MSU 2021 Holding Virtual Sessions Using Zoom

Zoom is a conferencing tool that can be integrated within your Canvas courses, allowing you to easily schedule and attend meetings synchronously with your students, whether for class sessions, virtual office hours, etc.

How to Set Up Your MSU Zoom Account

If you see a warning message that says "The instructor's email is invalid", please go to montclair.zoom.us, then follow these instructions:

Click sign in.
Use your MSU Gmail account to sign in, NetID@montclair.edu and password.
Return to Canvas to use Zoom.

Installing the Zoom Meetings Client

For more detailed information, please check the dedicated subpage:

Downloading the Zoom Meetings Client/App

Securing Your Zoom Meetings

For more detailed information, please check the dedicated subpage:

Securing Your Zoom Meetings

How to Access Zoom Within Your Canvas Course

On the left-hand side of the Course Navigation Menu, click on the "Zoom" tab to access your courses' meetings.

When navigating to the Zoom tab, you will see a screen similar to the following, with options to

Switch between upcoming/previous meetings and cloud recording tabs [1]
View meetings [2]
Schedule a new meeting [3]
Get training on Zoom's features and/or check the Zoom user guide [4]
Access all your upcoming and previous Zoom meetings and recordings from any location [5]

Zoom LTI screen

How to Schedule a Meeting in Canvas

Note: If you have been using Zoom to create a room for use across all classes (ie: Office Hours, etc.); you will need to continue to share the link for that meeting via external sources such as Announcements; the Zoom integration in Canvas will only show students meetings created specifically for your current course.

From the Zoom tab in your Canvas course, click the blue Schedule a New Meeting button to begin creating a new meeting. This will allow you to set the meeting details, such as a title, optional description, the date/time of the meeting, the meeting's duration, and a number of other settings, discussed below. The meeting details page is slightly different in Canvas and from MSU's Zoom portal (montclair.zoom.us).

Tip: It's recommended you give your meetings unique titles, such as "BIOL100 Office Hours - 3/25/20" or "BIOL100 Class Session (Tuesday, 3/25)" so that you and your students can easily identify the correct meeting event.

The Meeting Creation Page

In order, the meeting creation page from the Zoom tab within Canvas lists the following fields and options:

Topic
Description (optional)
When
Duration
Time Zone
Recurring Meeting Option
Registration
Video Options
Audio Options
Meeting Options
- Require Meeting Password
- Enable join before host
- Mute participants upon entry
- Use Personal Meeting ID
- Enable waiting room
- Record the meeting automatically
Alternative Hosts

Portion 1 of the Zoom meeting creation page in Canvas (Topic to Registration)

Portion 2 of the Zoom meeting creation page in Canvas (Video Options to Alternative Hosts)

Recommended Meeting Settings

Some recommendations for setting up your meeting are as follows:

Registration: (OFF)
- Leave this option OFF unless you plan on inviting non-MSU guests to the meeting. MSU-affiliated users will have their information filled out for them.
Require Meeting Password: (ON)
- Leave this option ON to help secure the meeting to only individuals you invite, such as your students or an approved guest.
Video Options: (ON)
- Leave Host and Participant both turned ON; this allows you and your students to join with the webcam enabled. The camera can always be disabled during the meeting.
Audio Options: (BOTH)
- Use BOTH. Zoom allows users to both connect using their computer microphone and/or via telephone using a phone number; this is useful if students are able to see video but cannot hear audio or respond using their microphone.
Enable Join Before Host: (OFF)
- This allows students to enter the meeting space before the host has arrived, similar to entering a physical classroom before the professor arrives.
Mute Participants Upon Entry: (ON)
- Leave this option ON to mute the microphone of users upon entering the meeting; they can unmute themselves at any time.
Enable Waiting Room: (ON)
- This creates a virtual waiting room that attendees will wait in before being allowed into the conference. This may be useful for holding office hours to allow one student in at a time.
Only authenticated users can join: (OFF)
- At this time, there is no strong recommendation to use this option.

Viewing Meeting Details

Once the Zoom meeting is created, you will then see the meeting details as specified, as well as a link and invitation that can be shared out to non-MSU participants or participants that are not part of the current Canvas course. Also visible are options to add the meeting as an event to various calendar options, such as Google Calendar, Yahoo, Outlook, etc

Note: For the calendar events, if you edit details of the event in Zoom, the changes will NOT sync with an event that has already been added; you will need to delete the previous event from your calendar and then re-add the event via Zoom.

The top portion of the meeting details window, with the link to the meeting visible

Further down the page (underneath the meeting options) is the option to either edit or delete the meeting. The option to upload pre-created Polls is also found here at the bottom of the meeting details page.

The bottom portion of the meeting details page, with the Edit and Delete meeting buttons visible

Starting a Zoom Meeting

When it's time to start the meeting, you can begin by clicking into the Zoom tab, then clicking "Start" on the meeting.

The main screen of the Zoom page with a meeting

How Will Students Join the Meeting?

Students will join the meeting in the same way you can: by navigating to the Zoom tab within the course and clicking the "Join" button, shown below:

The Zoom screen in Canvas from the student perspective

The Zoom Meeting Controls Toolbar

When you start a Zoom meeting as a host, you will have a number of tools at your disposal. Shown below on the Meeting Toolbar from left to right are:

Zoom's meeting control toolbar

Audio and Video Controls
In-Meeting Security
Manage Participants
Polling
Share Screen (Important Note for Mac OS. 15 [Catalina] about sharing your screen)
- Note: On Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, you need to allow Zoom access to screen recording to share your screen. You can do this in your System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Screen Recording. Check the option for zoom.us.
Chat
Record
Closed Captions
Breakout Rooms
Reactions
More (will hold any of the above tools that are hidden if the Zoom window is too small)
End Meeting

Virtual Backgrounds and Video Enhancements

The Virtual Background feature allows you to display an image or video as your background during a Zoom Meeting. This feature works best with a physical green screen and uniform lighting to allow Zoom to detect the difference between you and your background. You can upload your own images or videos as a virtual background. You can also use Virtual Background in a Zoom Room.

Zoom also has built-in filter options to improve video and picture quality, as well as enhance your video experience. These settings allow for a better meeting and webinar experience by allowing hosts and participants to add some flair to their video.

You can also adjust your appearance by turning on the Touch Up My Appearance option under the Video Settings.

Breakout Rooms

For more detailed information, please check the dedicated subpages:

Breakout Rooms

Pre-assigned Students to Breakout Rooms in Zoom

Recording Zoom Meetings

For more detailed information, please check the dedicated subpage:

Saving Zoom Recordings to Panopto

Taking Attendance in a Zoom Meeting

Note: The attendance report is usually available about 30 minutes after a meeting is ended.

Log in to montclair.zoom.us
Click Reports and then choose Usage.
Check that the date range at the top includes the session for which you want to take attendance. Then click on the Participants link for the session.
Review the report. Check the Export with meeting data checkbox.
1. You will see the participant information including Name, User Email, Join Time, Leave Time, and Duration in this page.
2. Click Export with meeting data.
  You can choose to export the report without the meeting data, but it's recommended that you include it to avoid confusion if you download multiple reports.
3. Click Show unique users to see a collapsed list of each unique attendee and their total duration.
4. Click Export to download the report.
An Excel file will download to your computer. Open the Excel file.

How to Get More Support for Zoom

The best way to get support for any feature of Zoom is to view the Zoom Support Guides, which can be accessed at support.zoom.us. Zoom offers 24/7 support via their web portal, and the Zoom guides have step-by-step instructions and video instructions on nearly all features within Zoom. Additionally, Zoom has training webinars that can be signed up for and a support hotline that can be contacted for more immediate and personalized support.