How do I schedule a Zoom meeting in Canvas?

The Canvas-Zoom integration allows instructors to schedule and manage online class meetings with their students. Students can join a scheduled Zoom meeting directly from the Canvas-Zoom interface.

  • We recommend using either Firefox or Chrome for Zoom meetings in Canvas .
  • Users may have to download the Canvas-Zoom plugin if it is not installed on their computer.
  • We strongly urge instructors to schedule a "test" Zoom meeting, sometime in advance, to make sure all students have the Zoom plug-in installed on their computer, and that their microphone and speakers are working.
  • If the video quality is low, instructors may want to ask students not to use their webcams during the  meeting.
  • See notes on Canvas roles and Zoom meetings: Team Teaching with the Zoom Canvas Integration

Go to Canvas Zoom

Click on 'Zoom' in the Canvas course navigation and you will see the Canvas Zoom Dashboard. Click 'Schedule a New Meeting' to reach the 'Schedule a Meeting' form.

Complete the items in the form

  1. Topic – Give your meeting a short, descriptive name.
  2. Description (Optional) – Provide a more detailed description of your meeting.
  3. When – Select a date and start time for your meeting.
  4. Duration – Estimate how long you think the meeting is going to take.
  5. Time Zone - Should be pre-set.
  6. Recurring (Optional) – Check this box if you plan on setting up a recurring meeting. More options will appear for you to set up the recurrence pattern.
  7. Registration (Optional) – Check the Required box if you want attendees to register for the meeting in advance.
  8. Security - Decide on Passcode or Waiting Room (the default is Passcode). If you check 'Only authenticated users can join meetings', you can then choose to require Zoom sign-in or Tufts University Zoom sign-in.

Set additional settings for the meeting

  1. Video – Determine whether you want to start the meeting with video automatically connected for the host and participants.
  2. Audio – This section is locked, with “Telephone and Computer Audio” selected. This gives participants the option to join the meeting with audio connected either over the phone or their computer (using VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol).
  3. Enable join before host – This allows meeting participants to join the meeting before the host does. It also allows the meeting to keep going if the host accidentally leaves or gets dropped from it.
  4. Mute participants upon entry – Checking this box automatically mutes participants’ audio when they join the meeting. Participants will be able to un-mute themselves at any time.
  5. Allow host to save video order - Checking this box allows the host to set the order of the gallery view.
  6. Breakout Room pre-assign - Checking this box allows the host to create rooms and upload participants ahead of time.
  7. Use Personal Meeting ID – We recommend to leave this unchecked so a unique Meeting ID is generated rather than using your Personal ID. Unchecking is important if the instructor will be logging in on more than one computer for the same Zoom session.
  8. Enable focus mode when meeting starts - This feature gives the host and co-hosts view of all participants’ videos without other participants seeing each other.
  9. Record the meeting automatically - Select for recording then select 'In the cloud'.
    See: Recording a Zoom meeting
  10. Alternative Hosts (Optional) – Provide the email addresses of Tufts University participants who you will allow to serve as hosts in your place if you are unable to join.

Save the meeting

After clicking “Save” a confirmation page is displayed, which includes buttons to add the meeting to a Google, Outlook, or Yahoo calendar.

There is also a Join URL that can be copied and pasted into a communication to students or others

Add the meeting to a calendar

Click to add to Google or Outlook or Yahoo Calendar. 

To make the Outlook Calendar button work the instructor must first log in at https://tufts.zoom.us/ and then go to Settings/In Meeting (Advanced), then turn on "Use HTML format email for Outlook plugin"

Instructor view:

Student view:

The student can click "Join" to enter the meeting at the appropriate time

NOTE: Canvas-Zoom sends out an email notification to the class informing them of the date and time for the online meeting IF the course has already been published at the time of scheduling. Notifications do not go out if the course has not yet been published.

Instructors may also wish to create a Canvas Announcement with details of the online meeting. Canvas announcements are both posted on the Canvas site and an email notification is sent to each student.

See: How can I invite my students to a Zoom meeting from Canvas?

See: How to contact your students through Canvas