Table of Contents

Verify Your Hardware

Confirm that you have your microphone and webcam properly installed and setup.

Check your System Requirements for compatibility with Zoom.

Installing Zoom

Check if you already have the Zoom application installed on your computer:

Windows: Navigate to Start > Scroll Start Menu to Zoom folder > Click "Start Zoom".
Macintosh: Launch Finder > navigate to your Applications Folder > Zoom application will be listed.

If you have a University-owned laptop, you might need administrator permission on your computer to install Zoom applications, plugins, and extensions. Please contact your departmental or local IT support group for assistance.

Download Zoom directly from any of the following links:

Sign into the Zoom Desktop Client

Click Sign In if you want to log in and start or schedule your own meeting.
1. 'Join a Meeting' will be used by participants (students).
Choose: Sign In with SSO
Enter your company domain: utexas
Click continue
A browser window will open, then Enter your UT EID and Password.
You are now logged into the Zoom client! This is the Home tab.
From here you can join, schedule, and start Zoom meetings.

Install the Zoom App for Mobile (iOS or Android)

Zoom is also available for your mobile device, you can download it here:
1. Zoom Download in the Apple Store
2. Google Download in the Google Play Store

Authorizing Zoom in Canvas

Zoom provides an integration with Canvas that makes it very easy to set up class sessions, whether they be lectures, discussion sections, or any other meeting. These sessions are then automatically placed on participants' calendars within Canvas.

To begin using Zoom through Canvas, you'll first have to authorize it. This will only need to be done the first time you use Zoom.

To authorize Zoom to be used in Canvas:

Open any one of your courses in Canvas
From the sidebar, select "Zoom"
When prompted, click "Authorize"
Once authorized, you will see the following Zoom integration page that lists all your Zoom Meetings

Unless the "Show my course meetings only" checkbox is checked, this view will list all of your Zoom meetings, not just the meetings for this course.

Scheduling Your Class Session in Canvas

To schedule your Zoom lecture in Canvas:

Open your course in Canvas
From the sidebar, click "Zoom"
Click the blue "Schedule a New Meeting" button
Fill out the settings for your meeting as desired. You can provide a topic, description, decide the time and duration, and more.
1. We recommend setting the topic to the course number, e.g., "E 303D Discussion"
2. Your meeting time and duration should be set to that of your regular class session. In the example at right, the class meets for one hour at 12pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
3. By selecting "Recurring meeting", you can automatically schedule the event to repeat each week. Use the "Weekly" option and select the days on which your class occurs.
4. "Registration" should be left unchecked. This option is not necessary and will significantly complicate joining your meeting.
5. "Passcode" is unchecked by default. This option is not necessary and may complicate the process of joining for your students.
6. We recommend checking the "Mute participants upon entry" option.
  1. This will prevent background noise from students or other participants from being immediately broadcast when they enter the meeting.
7. "Enable waiting room" will be set on by default, to restrict unauthorized or unwanted access by parties external to UT.
  1. This is, in part, a security measure meant to decrease potential disruption of Zoom meetings.
8. "Require authentication to join" limits who can join your meetings. This is set to only allow UT Zoom users by default.
  1. If you'd like outside participants to be able to join your meetings, please see our documentation on Allowing Outside Participants.
9. You can record your class session using the "Record the meeting automatically" option shown in the screenshots below. When recording, use the "In the cloud" option. This will automatically save your Zoom meetings as recordings that you can view in the "Cloud Recordings" tab, which can be easily shared with your students.
  1. Once recording has stopped, it will be processed by Zoom and automatically added to your Cloud Recordings. These may take some time to process, after which you will receive an email notification stating that they are ready.
  2. Please note: You will need to click the "Publish" toggle on these recordings to make them available to your students.
  3. Students can access these recordings from the Canvas sidebar for the course under the "Zoom" heading
10. Alternative hosts: Enter the email address (theusersEID@eid.utexas.edu) of another Zoom user who is Licensed - to allow this user to start the meeting in your absence. Read more about Alternative Hosts.
When configured to your liking, click "Save" to save your meeting. It will automatically be added to your Canvas calendar, as well as to your students' calendars.

Regarding Recording Consent

If you are recording a Zoom meeting of any kind, all participants will receive a notice, shown below, that they are being recorded as part of the meeting. They must consent to the recording or they will be removed from the meeting. They will receive this consent notice regardless of if a meeting is set to be recording automatically or if recording is started during the course of the meeting.

Please familiarize your students with this procedure if you plan to record class sessions.

Managing Student Participation

Host and co-hosts of the meeting can manage the ways in which students are allowed to participate in a meeting. As seen in the screenshot below, a host/co-host can change a settings regarding what participants are allowed to during the meeting.

To highlight some of these options:

Mute Participants on Entry
- When checked, new participants will enter the call muted, with no audio broadcasting. This is the recommended setting for large classes and lectures.
Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves
- When checked, participants will be able to unmute themselves at will. You can uncheck this option if you do not want any students to be able to broadcast audio. They can still be muted or unmuted by a host/co-host at any time. For large class sizes, it may be beneficial to disable uncheck this option, to prevent students from interrupting the lecture verbally.

Adding Your TA as Co-Host

You can add your TA(s) as co-host of your Zoom meetings. This will allow them to monitor and moderate the meeting's chat, as well as allow them to mute or unmute individuals as necessary. In short, they will have all of the abilities you would as host of the meeting.

You can find instructions on adding another user as a co-host here.

How Students Access Class Sessions

Joining a Zoom Meeting via Canvas

Canvas will automatically place any meetings scheduled with the Zoom integration on the Canvas calendars of your students. Students can then join these class sessions via the calendar whenever they are ready before each class session by clicking the event on their calendar, then clicking the "Click here to join Zoom Meeting" link

Notifying Your Students of Class Sessions

Via Canvas Announcement

To announce your Zoom class sessions to your students, you can utilize Canvas Announcements. When you post an Announcement, students will receive a notification and will be able to view its contents from their Canvas courses. To copy your Zoom meeting information for a meeting you have created in Canvas:

Open your course in Canvas
Click "Zoom" from the sidebar
In the "Upcoming Meetings" tab, click the "Topic" link of the desired meeting
1. If this is a recurring meeting, you can click the "Topic" of any occurrence
In the meeting details view, click the "Copy the invitation" link
Click "Copy Meeting Invitation"
Paste the copied invitation into your Canvas Announcement.
1. For information and instructions on creating a Canvas Announcement, please see the Canvas documentation on Announcements.

Students should be able to use the same link to access any scheduled meeting in the series.

Via Canvas Notifications

If your students have set their Canvas Notifications to alert them of Calendar events, they will receive a notification according to their chosen settings.

LAITS - Liberal Arts ITS

Host a Seminar or Discussion Group with Zoom