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Zoom is a video conferencing platform that allows users to host online meetings, participate in group messaging, and share video and audio content. 

At Penn, Zoom is integrated with Canvas and Panopto (Class Recordings). You can set up your class meetings to record and save to Class Recordings automatically.

This page is intended for instructors. Students should review Zoom for Students.

Creating an Account

Following the directions below to access Zoom should automatically create your Zoom account. If you experience Zoom account creation or functionality problems, please contact your IT support group for more information.

Accessing Zoom

This tool is available to all Penn instructors under a University-wide license. Please note that the Perelman School of Medicine has a separate Zoom license. There are several ways to create your account and access Zoom, depending on whether you are accessing a meeting connected with a Canvas course.

Canvas course site

  1. Log in to Canvas.
  2. Click Courses and choose a specific course.
  3. Inside the course, enable Zoom (or PSOM Zoom for Perelman School of Medicine courses) in your course settings. 
    • Also enable Class Recordings if you want your recordings to save automatically.

You can also access Zoom meeting links from individual events on the course calendar.

Web browser

You can join meetings or schedule your own meeting via the Penn Zoom website in any up-to-date web browser. Log in with your PennKey and password.

Desktop and mobile apps

Download the Zoom app for your desktop or mobile device, and log in with your PennKey credentials to access meetings on your computer, phone, or tablet.

If you experience Zoom account creation or functionality problems, please contact your IT support group for more information.

Scheduling Meetings

Follow these steps to create Zoom meetings for class sessions through the Canvas integration to ensure that links and recordings will be available to your students.

  1. Click Zoom in your course navigation menu.
  2. Click Schedule a New Meeting.
  3. Enter the scheduling information. Use the recurring meeting option for class sessions or other activities that meet regularly.
    1. Meetings can be scheduled by course section or group using the Add Sections And Groups field if these have been created in Canvas.
      1. This feature currently has the following limitations:
        1. If you have enabled Class Recordings in your course, any recorded sessions assigned to sections or groups will still sync to Class Recordings and be visible to the entire course.
        2. Alternative hosts are not supported.
        3. A maximum of three sections can be assigned to a meeting.
  4. In order to save recordings in Class Recordings, check the box to Record the meeting automatically, then In the Cloud.
  5. Click Save.

Students can now click Zoom and then Join to participate in the live session at the appropriate time.

Alternative Hosts

Any user in your Canvas course with a Penn Zoom account and a role of teacher or TA will be automatically added as an Alternative Host and be able to start the Zoom meeting.

To add or remove additional Alternative Hosts:

  • For all course meetings: Click Zoom > 3 dots menu > Manage alternative hosts, and add or remove the user’s email address. 
  • For a specific course meeting or series: Log in to the Penn Zoom web interface and select the meeting or series you want to change. Click Advanced Options, and add or remove the user’s email in the Alternative Hosts field.
Editing or Deleting Meetings

It is easiest to edit meetings when logged into the Penn Zoom web interface. This allows you to edit or delete individual sessions within a recurring series, or edit or delete the entire series. 

Recordings

If you have enabled both Zoom and Class Recordings and checked the box to Record the meeting automatically in the Cloud, the recording will appear briefly under the Cloud Recordings tab after the session ends. After the video finishes processing, it will move automatically to the Class Recordings area of your Canvas course site. Longer recordings may take over an hour to complete this process.

While recording, please make sure that you are unmuted and sharing your screen as intended for Zoom to capture full audio and visuals.

Please visit Panopto for Instructors for details on removing or limiting a student’s access to a video.

Zoom recordings that are only saved to the cloud and not in Class Recordings are retained for 120 days, after which they will be deleted.

We encourage you to explore all of Zoom’s features by visiting the Zoom Support website.

Please note that online meetings can include up to 300 people, and a single meeting can run for up to 24 hours continuously.

Accessibility

Zoom provides a number of accessibility features for users, such as captioning and keyboard controls, which we encourage you to explore. 

Some features must be enabled by you as the host. In particular, participants find the live automatic transcription service useful, as it allows them to turn on subtitles and view or save the meeting transcript.

Security and privacy settings

Prevent uninvited guests or mischievous attendees from disrupting your Zoom meeting (“Zoombombing”) by enabling security settings before or during a meeting. For more information, see Penn’s guidance on Zoombombing.

Consider adding extra security to meetings by enabling the following settings:

  • Allow only authenticated users to join: Users must be logged in to their Penn Zoom account. 
  • Disable join before host: Students cannot join class before the instructor joins.
  • Add a waiting room: Host can control when a participant joins.
  • Require a meeting passcode: A participant can only join with a passcode provided by the host.

During a meeting, there are a variety of security features available to manage disruptive participants:

Recording: Privacy and compliance

Sensitive or confidential information should not be recorded, typed into the meeting description, or entered into any other text field within Zoom. The University has provided additional guidance for instructors on recording classes. 

To protect participants’ privacy when recording a meeting:

  • Always advise participants that the meeting is being recorded.
  • Adjust the recording layout to active speaker with shared screen, not gallery view. This records only the speaker’s video and screen, rather than the entire group.
  • Use spotlight video to lock the active speaker video feed to the meeting host(s).
  • Uncheck Display participants’ names in the recording in Advanced Settings. 
  • Consider providing alternative participation options for individuals who do not want their video or audio recorded.
  • Trim unwanted content at the beginning or end of a video using Panopto.
Attendance

It is possible to take attendance for a class session held on Zoom by manually syncing attendance to the Canvas Gradebook. 

This is a complex feature with many caveats. We highly suggest that instructors do a test run that doesn’t count for credit and collaborate with your Local Support Provider to ensure this feature works as expected.

Zoom AI Companion

Zoom’s AI Companion has features to support meeting participation and is available to certain Penn users. Before using Zoom AI features, instructors should consult ISC’s Zoom AI Companion Guidance to ensure compliance with the University’s AI Guidance. 

Zoom AI Companion is not currently approved for the following use cases:

  • HIPAA data/Protected Health Information, Social Security Numbers, credit card information, or other high-risk data will be shared in the meeting.
  • Non-student minors will be involved in the meeting.

Contact ISC for questions about AI Companion availability.

Additional Resources

Getting Help

Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.