Zoom and Canvas - some students see Cloud Recordings, some don't

[cll124]

Hi

I run and record Zoom sessions every day (not my personal room number – I chose not to use my personal room number so I could keep that room for private meetings with individuals).  I scheduled these recurring sessions via the Zoom web portal – M-F, 11:00am - 12:00pm, not via the Zoom integration in Canvas, because it’s very important I have just one room. That room number is used for orientation sessions (which I also run) at the beginning of term with all new students, and it’s easier for them to just keep going to the same room for my sessions continuing through the term.  This room is also where I host presenters, sometimes for just one group of students, sometimes for all groups.

Each weekday, a different group of students joins me in that room – this is by design. I do not want a different Zoom room for each group to join because on Fridays all groups meet in that room with me. I do not want to set up 5 different zoom room numbers for Monday’s group, Tuesday’s group etc. because the numbers of groups I work with is growing and I'll end up with elebenty different room numbers and get lost.

A longstanding issue that I have with this setup though is that because it’s not my personal Zoom number and I’m not scheduling via Zoom integration in Canvas, my meetings don’t show up in Zoom integration in Canvas for students.  They do not see anything under the Upcoming Meetings Tab, nor under the Cloud Recordings tab.  Not sure if they see previous meetings – I’ve not asked.

When I am in Canvas, click on Zoom meetings, Cloud Recordings tab, I don’t see any upcoming meetings or cloud recordings until I select “All my meetings/recordings”. Then I click on Cloud Recordings tab and can see all the recordings.  There is no Student View option for Zoom meetings, so I can’t see what students would see.

The interesting thing is that one of my students DOES see the Cloud recordings tab and list of recordings the same as I do. Two see the Cloud Recordings tab but no list of recordings, and one can’t see tab or recordings.  That’s just four students who’ve reported this to me. I’m surprised the one student can see the list of recordings at all, and I’d like to know more about why this might be happening.

Also

(From https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Admin-Blog/Please-use-the-right-tool-for-the-job/ba-p/2753...) The other issue with some systems such as Zoom when using the Canvas integration; the cloud recordings are made available to your students as soon as they are processed. 

I don’t want cloud recordings to be made available as soon as they are processed, because I usually trim the front and back ends before I share the link in a module. I’d rather not have to do this all manually, so I’d like some expert advice.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@cll124 ...

Your analysis of how Zoom integrates with Canvas appears to be correct.  In my own testing of our Zoom/Canvas integration, I can schedule a meeting via the Zoom LTI inside of Canvas, and that meeting will show up in my "Meetings" menu within my http://zoom.us profile (portal).  However, the same is not true when scheduling a meeting via the Zoom website.  That meeting does not show up in the "Upcoming Meetings" tab of the Zoom LTI integration.  But, you are also correct that it DOES show up if you click on the "All My Zoom Meetings/Recordings" link within the LTI integration.  I don't consider myself an expert on exactly how 3rd party LTI tools like Zoom "talk" to each other, but I don't think that scheduling a meeting via the Zoom website translates to having it show up in the "Upcoming Meetings" tab of Zoom within Canvas.  This is just a guess...but when you are scheduling a meeting via the Zoom website, how would you tell Zoom which course to put that Zoom meeting into?  You can't...at least not from any of the screens that are available in my view.  But, since you connect your Zoom account to Canvas, you can schedule Zoom meetings in your Canvas course, and those will show up in your account on the Zoom website.  (It's almost like Zoom doesn't really care what course your meeting is in...just that it creates the Zoom room for it...if that makes sense?  After all, Canvas is a LMS, and Zoom is used for video conferencing.)

As far as the availability of your cloud recordings are concerned...that's something you're going to need to speak with folks at the University of Saskatchewan about...for example someone in your school's Online Learning / Distance Learning department.  There are some global Zoom settings that can be configured for your school's Canvas environment...such as the following:

These settings are global settings...which means if it is enabled/disabled for one person, it is enabled/disabled for everyone at your school.  So, you'd want to keep that in mind...as some folks may like a setting that you might not like...and vice versa.

The top option is to automatically add that cloud recording.  The bottom option, if set to "Published", means that instructors would be able to choose if they wanted to "publish" (release) a recording so that students could view it.

Again, since these are global settings, you'd want to speak with the folks who have integrated Zoom into your University's Canvas environment.  These particular settings are accessed by the Zoom admin signing in to this page: LTI Pro - Zoom App Marketplace.

Hope this helps clarify some things for you.  Hopefully you'll be able to have some conversations in the near future with folks at your University about some of these settings.  Take care...be well.

[cll124]

Hi Chofer,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I do not even see the option for publishing video in Settings, so I suspect that they haven't even made it visible to clients.  Now that you mention it, I do recall reading something about "when you are scheduling a meeting via the Zoom website, how would you tell Zoom which course to put that Zoom meeting into" before and that makes sense.

At this time, I trim the recording then post the shared link in a Zoom folder that all students can see and access.  It's the first time I've done that this term, so I'm interested in seeing viewing stats. If no one is looking, maybe I don't record or share.

Thanks!