Zoom accounts are now available to all Penn faculty, students, and staff. Log in at upenn.zoom.us/signin to create your account.
Note: Certain organizations and centers have not been integrated into the central Penn Zoom account and may experience account-creation or functionality problems. Users should contact their IT support group for information about the Penn Zoom account and use of the Canvas integration.
On this Page
Before the Meeting(s)
Create A Penn Zoom Account
Before you can start using the Zoom integration in Canvas, you need to create a Penn Zoom account. Visit upenn.zoom.us/signin and log in with your PennKey and password.
Teaching assistants, co-teachers and students will also need to set up their Penn Zoom account by logging in through upenn.zoom.us/signin.
The Penn Zoom account includes integrations with Canvas and the Panopto video system. These integrations make it easy for you to schedule Zoom meetings for your classes, invite students, and share recordings.
Add Zoom and Panopto to Your Course
To make Zoom recordings available in Canvas, both Zoom and Panopto (i.e. Class Recordings) must be enabled. To enable Zoom and Panopto in a course:
- Click Settings on your course navigation menu.
- Click the Navigation tab, which is near the top of the page.
- Scroll down, click the Zoom and Class Recordings button(s), and drag them above the line that reads āDrag items here to hide them from students.ā Alternatively, you can click the three-vertical dots on the right of the Zoom and Class Recordings buttons > Enable.
- Scroll down again and click Save.
Schedule Zoom Meetings Through Canvas
Class activities should be scheduled directly through the Canvas interface. Use your Personal Meeting Room for one-on-one meetings or activities unrelated to teaching. It is not recommended to use your Zoom Personal Meeting Room for class activities.
View the instructions below for different meeting options and settings available using Zoom.
To schedule a meeting and/or modify settings in Zoom, start by clicking on Zoom in your course navigation menu.
Check Time Zone Settings
To check the Time Zone setting for Zoom, click the pencil icon to adjust as needed to match your location.
Import Previously Scheduled Meetings
If you had already scheduled meetings through Zoom, you can add them to your Canvas site using the Import feature.
To import previously scheduled meetings:
- Click the three vertical dots next to the Schedule a Meeting button
- Select Import Meeting
- Enter the Meeting ID for a meeting previously scheduled in your Zoom account, which will add the meeting to your Canvas site

Schedule New Meetings
- To schedule a meeting and/or modify settings in Zoom, start by clicking on Zoom in your course navigation menu.
- Click Schedule a New Meeting.

Enter the scheduling information for your meeting. Use the Recurring meeting option for class sessions or other recurring activities that meet on a regular basis.
Useful Zoom Settings to Note
The Zoom settings below are often helpful to instructors:
- automatically record to cloud ***important if you want recordings to be available to students
- mute on entry
- join before instructor (host)
- pre-assign users to break-out rooms
- place users in waiting room before entering meeting
Note: Zoom also has many built-in accessibility features your users can opt to use, such as automatic captioning. These feature settings are controlled by the guests of the meeting, but as the host it may be useful to know what options exist if students have questions.
Include TAs and Co-Teachers as Alternative Hosts
When you schedule Zoom meetings through the Canvas integration, co-teachers and teaching assistants are automatically added as Alternative Hosts. This means that any teacher or TA can start and host the meeting.
The Alternative Hosts are displayed when viewing the meeting details.
Please note:
- Alternative Hosts only appear once they have accessed Zoom through Canvas. TAs and co-teachers should log in to the Canvas site and click Zoom in the navigation menu, which will activate the Alternative Host role in the Zoom meeting.
- It is not possible to add or delete Alternative Hosts through the Canvas integration.
- To add or remove Alternative Hosts, you need to log in to the Penn Zoom web interface and select the meeting or series for which you want to change Alternative Hosts.

Invite Students
- When students click Zoom from the course navigation menu, they will see a list of all the scheduled meetings for a particular class.
- Students should click Join to join a meeting at class time.
- Alternatively, students can click the Invitation to view and copy the meeting invitation information. This option may be helpful if students need to join the meeting from a mobile device, by phone, or don’t have access to Canvas.

Edit Meetings (Including Recurring)
You can edit the settings for meetings. Itās easiest to edit meetings when logged in to the Zoom web interface through upenn.zoom.us/signin. This will allow you to edit either individual sessions within a recurring series or the entire series.

Delete Meetings
Delete meetings for specific dates as needed. For example, you may want to cancel a Zoom meetings scheduled on holidays.
Scroll through the list of Upcoming Meetings and find the session you want to cancel, then click Delete.

Select Delete just this occurrence to delete a single session, or select Delete all of the occurrences to delete the entire series.
After The Meeting
Find your Recording
If youāve chosen to use Zoom through your Canvas course, Zoom will send the recording to the recycle bin shortly after uploading it to Panopto (Class Recordings). Youāll no longer see it under Cloud Recordings, and your students should access the recording through the Class Recordings tab.
Sharing Recordings with Students
- When recording meetings through Zoom, select Record to the Cloud.
- By default, when you use cloud recording for any meeting scheduled through Canvas, the recordings will automatically be posted to the Class Recordings folder in your Canvas and available only to people enrolled in the Canvas site.
- Long recordings will take some time to process. It may take over an hour for recordings to be available in the Class Recordings folder.
Removing Student Access to a Recording
To remove student access to a video, there are two options:
- Change the available date to a time in the past (making it no longer available).
- Follow SAS Computingās directions to create a Panopto sub folder only accessible to you.
- To make the sub-folder accessible only to the course instructors(s), when you get to Step 4, instead choose the option for āspecific peopleā under Who has access and add any instructor(s) and TA emails. Next, move the recordings there using the directions in the link above in Part 2, beginning with Step 2.
These options can be complicated, so please reach out to your LSP if you need assistance.
Attendance Reports
The Zoom integration with Canvas can provide a detailed report of attendance.
From the Zoom page, select the Previous Meetings tab, then click Reports.
The attendance report will include details for each student who joined the meeting. The Attentiveness Score feature has been discontinued by Zoom; you will not see any values entered in that area.

Long-term Storage for Recordings
Zoom recordings that are not uploaded to Canvas via the LTI are retained for 120 days, after which time they will be deleted.
Panopto/Class Recordings is the preferred option for lectures or class session recordings needing long-term storage. For more details and instructions on downloading recordings to store elsewhere (e.g., Class Recordings/Panopto), visit the PennZoom Cloud Recording Management page.
If you have any questions about how best to manage your Zoom recordings, contact the instructional support team in your school.
Get Help
For additional help or information, please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to Canvas Support.
Last Updated: 21 Nov 2023