
Zoom is a video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration tool that lets you meet with students in real time online. Through Zoom you can do many classroom activities: present using whiteboards, share screens and resources, interact by voice or text chats, enable group discussion, and administer polls.
Access | You will need to request a UBC Zoom account and install Zoom first. Then you can access Zoom from your computer or log in to the Zoom web portal. | |
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Cost | Free. | |
Bandwidth | High demand on internet connections. | |
Canvas Integration | Works within Canvas. | |
Privacy | Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process, provided you abide by guidance from UBC Legal, as noted below. | |
Similar UBC-Supported Tools | Y | Zoom is the primary centrally-supported tool for video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration. However, Microsoft Teams is also centrally supported for web-conferencing and collaboration. |
What can I use it for?
You can use Zoom for numerous types of real-time interactions:
- Running lectures
- Hosting office hours
- Facilitating group work
- Enabling student presentations
- Holding oral exams
- Invigilating exams
The lecture sessions can be recorded to make them available after the real-time event, as long as you keep and share them securely.
A note about Zoom
Only UBC Zoom accounts should be used for UBC purposes. UBC has conducted a privacy assessment of the UBC version of Zoom to confirm that it does meet the security and legal requirements for a teaching and learning tool. However, this assessment did not include the free version of Zoom. Therefore, faculty and staff should not use free Zoom accounts for UBC purposes or require students to create free Zoom accounts for UBC courses.
This restriction on free Zoom accounts should not affect teaching and learning, since students do not need accounts to attend Zoom sessions. But should you encounter a situation that highlights a possible need for student Zoom accounts, you can either a) ask your faculty or department if UBC Zoom student accounts can be created or b) allow your students to create free Zoom accounts using a nickname and a non-identifying email address.
In storing student Zoom aliases and Zoom lecture recordings, you must also take appropriate precautions to keep this content confidential and secure.
This tool guide was last reviewed in August 2022 with version 5.11.4 of Zoom.
What do I need to use Zoom?
The Zoom application
Although Zoom has a web portal for some features, you will have to install the Zoom application on your computer to run the sessions.
A UBC Zoom account
You will need to request a UBC Zoom account from UBC IT, as outlined below.
Audio/visual equipment
Web-conferencing uses a microphone and a webcam. We recommend using either an external microphone or headphones with a microphone attached, to ensure good audio quality.
Tips
- Using a UBC Zoom account allows you to host privacy-compliant sessions and gives you access to more features than a free Zoom account, like running longer sessions.
- Students do not need an account of their own to use Zoom and can be instructed to join sessions by clicking the session link.
- You can use Zoom’s built-in closed-captioning options or UBC’s closed-captioning tool for Zoom to add real-time closed captioning of your audio to any session.
How do I use Zoom?
You first need to request a UBC Zoom account, then install the Zoom application to run sessions. To use Zoom in Canvas, you will also need to turn it on in your Canvas course, to give everyone access to this shared space for real-time interactions.
Click any bar below for instructions and tips for using Zoom.
Request a UBC Zoom account and install Zoom
- Contact your helpdesk to request an account. If you will be using Zoom with 300 or more students, please also note the class size to enable support for more participants.
- UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
- Email the UBC IT Audio/Visual Helpdesk at av.helpdesk@ubc.ca with your UBC email and your faculty, school, or department.
- UBC Vancouver Faculty of Medicine:
- UBC Okanagan:
- Complete the general service request form, selecting "UBC - Okanagan" as the campus and writing "Zoom Account Request" in the description.
- UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
- Upon approval, you’ll receive an email. Click Activate Your Zoom Account in this email.
- You may be asked to enter your date of birth to confirm that you are at least 16 years old (meeting Zoom’s security measures for educational licenses).
- In the webpage that opens for activation, click Sign up with a Password.
- Fill in your first and last name, create a password (please use a different password than your CWL), and click Continue. You now have a UBC Zoom account.
- The Zoom application should automatically download for you to install. If it doesn't, go to ubc.zoom.us/download:
- Click Download under "Zoom Desktop Client".
- Open the Zoom installer that downloads, and follow the steps to install the application.
Tips
- Using a UBC Zoom account gives you access to more features than a free Zoom account, like running longer sessions.
- If you have an existing Zoom account, you will be prompted to approve moving it into UBC's account. Contact your helpdesk if you have concerns about doing so.
- Zoom is not integrated with your UBC CWL in any way, even when you use the institutional license. For security, your Zoom password should not match your CWL.
- Your UBC Zoom account email needs to match your default email address in Canvas to host sessions in Canvas with Zoom.
- Once you have your Zoom account, you can change your display name and add preferred pronouns for the account at any time by customizing your profile.
- To schedule sessions from your Outlook calendar, download the Outlook add-in from the downloads page when installing Zoom.
Schedule a real-time lecture with Zoom
- To schedule Zoom lectures that students will access through Canvas, log in to your Canvas course and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
- Click the Navigation tab.
- Find the Zoom menu item, click the options menu (the 3 vertical dots), and choose Enable.
- Click Save to save your setting changes.
- Click Zoom where it now appears in the Course Navigation.
- If you see an error, make sure you followed the steps for creating a UBC Zoom account. To use Zoom with Canvas, your UBC Zoom account email must also match the default email address for your Canvas account.
- Create a new session by clicking Schedule a New Meeting.
- Enter in the topic, date/time, and adjust any other settings. To increase the security of your session, you can do the following:
- Click the Waiting Room checkbox. The waiting room is like a virtual hallway outside your classroom, where each student waits alone to enter.
- Don’t enable joining before the host in “Meeting Options”, as this means students can enter the session before you arrive.
- Please leave the “Only authenticated users can join meetings” setting disabled. Enabling this will require your students to create a Zoom account, which creates additional steps for you.
- Click Save.
- Once you save, you can optionally add poll questions for your session by following the steps for creating polls ahead of lectures. Polls can also be added on-the-fly during the session.
- You and your students will see this session in the "Upcoming Meetings" tab in the Zoom area of the course. Note that the sessions your students see will only be ones you've scheduled through Canvas using the process above.
- To schedule Zoom lectures that students don't use Canvas to access, go to ubc.zoom.us/meeting and sign in to your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
- If you don't have an account, follow the steps for creating a UBC account above.
- Click Schedule a Meeting at the top.
- Enter in the topic, date/time, and adjust any other settings. To increase the security of your session, you can do the following:
- Click the Waiting Room checkbox. The waiting room is like a virtual hallway outside your classroom, where each student waits alone to enter.
- Don’t enable "Allow participants to join anytime" in "Options”, as this means students can enter the session before you arrive.
- Please leave the “Require authentication to join” setting unchecked. Enabling this will require your students to create a Zoom account, which creates additional steps for you.
- Click Save.
- On this page, you can optionally create poll questions for your session by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking Create. Polls can also be added on-the-fly during the session.
- Open the Zoom application on your computer, and sign in with your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
- Click the Meetings icon at the top.
- Select the session you just scheduled, and click Copy Invitation next to the session. Paste this into a message to send to students.
- Securely distribute the invitation to your class (e.g., in a Canvas announcement).
Tips
- Passcodes are mandatory and are automatically added for all new meetings scheduled with UBC Zoom accounts.
- Please don't use your Zoom Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host the session. Your PMI is a persistent session link associated with your account that anyone can pop in and out of at any time. It is best not to share this information broadly.
- Avoid sharing session links or passcodes through public communication channels, as this allows anyone with the information to attend.
- You can add alternative hosts to a Zoom session (e.g., teaching assistants, co-instructors) to start and run the session on your behalf.
- By default, Zoom sessions scheduled in Canvas do not display a dial-in number. If you need one, click the instructions for scheduling outside of Canvas in this accordion and follow steps 6-9. Note that fees may apply, depending on where students are calling in from.
- For students to see Zoom sessions in your Canvas course, you must either schedule sessions in Canvas or import them, if you schedule them outside of Canvas. To import sessions, go to the Zoom area of your Canvas course, click the 3 vertical dots next to the schedule button, and select "Import meeting". Enter the meeting IDs for sessions you want to import—these can be found on the Meetings page of the Zoom web portal.
- You can enable a chime to play when students enter the session and disable the chime once your session has started. To disable the chime in a session, click the “Participants” icon in the bottom toolbar, then click the 3 horizontal dots for more options. Select “Play sound when someone joins and leaves”.
- Consider leaving the "Allow participants to rename themselves" setting on. Keeping this option on empowers students to set their preferred name as well as include their pronouns, if they like.
Prepare for your lecture session
- Find a private, quiet, well-lit room to avoid interruptions or distractions.
- Wear plain and neutral-coloured clothing. Clothes with strong detailing such as plaid shirts can create distortions in the video and remove visual detail from your face.
- Use an external microphone (one that you plug into your computer) to help improve the audio quality of your presentation. Ideally, use headphones with a built-in microphone.
- Avoid pointing your camera directly at a light source or you will likely appear silhouetted. Instead, sit with the light shining on you directly or at an angle.
- Make sure there is nothing behind you that will be distracting or revealing for students to see, or use the Zoom blurred background feature, which blurs your background on supported devices.
- Test your audio and video beforehand. Also ask students to go to zoom.us/test ahead of time to test their connection, microphone, and camera.
- Get someone (e.g., a teaching assistant) who can help moderate during the lecture to monitor chat questions and handle technical troubleshooting with students. You can also learn the differences between host and co-host roles, if you're not sure who can do what actions in Zoom.
Tips
- Review the 3-minute lecture recording tips video and Zoom tips video, both provided by UBC Studios.
- Help your students feel prepared too. Share UBC's Zoom student guide with them and ensure they understand their options for participation.
- Share your online etiquette and expectations of students during lectures. This information should include setting basic communication protocol, e.g., how students should ask and respond to questions.
- Keep in mind that some students may have bandwidth limitations. You may need to rely less on high-bandwidth tools such as screen-sharing and provide lecture materials ahead of time instead of providing them for download during lectures.
Run a real-time lecture with Zoom
- To include real-time closed captioning of your audio, first ensure the option is enabled for your account:
- Go to ubc.zoom.us/profile/setting and sign in to your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
- Scroll to the "In Meeting (Advanced)" settings, and make sure the "Automated captions" toggle is on (blue).
- Access your scheduled session:
- If you scheduled using Canvas, log in to your Canvas course, and click Zoom in the Course Navigation.
- If you scheduled using Zoom, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top.
- Click Start for the session. You will be prompted to join immediately or test your speaker and microphone first. When you are ready, join the session.
- To turn on Zoom's closed-captioning tool, click the Show Captions icon at the bottom of the screen.
- If you are using a waiting room, you can click the Participants icon, then select Admit all to admit students into the session.
- During the lecture, you can share your video and audio using the menu at the bottom of the screen. You’ll also find options there for other features:
- Security: Click the Security icon to lock the room so no new participants can join (highly recommended after you start the lecture), turn screen sharing on for participants, and more.
- Controlling participation: Click the Participants icon to manage participants, including removing them, renaming them, muting their microphones, and stopping their shared video.
- Chatting: Click the Chat icon to open the text chat panel. In the To: drop-down menu, choose whether to write to all session attendees or to individuals. Use the 3 dots in the panel to prevent or limit participants from chatting (e.g., during an invigilated exam).
- Screen sharing: Click the Share Screen icon to share your whole desktop or specific windows and applications. To play a video, click the Share sound and Optimize for video clip checkboxes.
- Polling: Click the Polls icon to create and launch questions for your students to answer live during the session.
- Breakout rooms: Click the Breakout Rooms icon to assign students to rooms for participating in smaller group discussions. This icon is visible to hosts and co-hosts of the session.
- To start recording, click the Record icon at the bottom of the screen. Choose whether you want to record the session on your computer or to the Zoom cloud (to store it online). To pause the recording, click the pause icon on the bottom of the screen. To stop the recording, click the stop icon.
- For cloud recordings, a pop-up will ask if you want to stop recording. Click Stop Recording.
- To end the session, click End at the bottom right of the screen. This button will give you options for ending the session.
- If you recorded the session, you can access the recording depending on where you chose to record it:
- For cloud recordings: You will receive an email notification when the cloud recording is ready, with a shareable link and password that you can send to students.
- For cloud recordings of Zoom sessions scheduled through Canvas: Log in to your Canvas course, and click Zoom in the Course Navigation. Click the Cloud Recordings tab to view recordings. Move the publish toggle to on (blue) for any recording to let students also see it.
- For local recordings: When you end the session, Zoom will convert the recording and then open the folder it is stored in on your computer.
- Download your Zoom cloud recordings, especially if you intend to edit the video or reuse the recording in the future. Steps for downloading are provided in the download section below.
Tips
- Disconnect from any Virtual Private Network (VPN), if your lecture does not require access to other systems over the VPN. Zoom sessions do not require nor benefit from using a VPN.
- If you use Zoom's built-in closed-captioning tool, the transcript will download automatically to your computer as a text file when you end the session, in a folder created for the session.
- You can alternatively use UBC’s closed-captioning tool for Zoom. This tool works similar to the built-in Zoom tool, but requires you to keep the tool open in a separate browser tab or window throughout your lecture.
- If you experience lag time when hosting, try turning off your video momentarily, if you can.
- If there is disruptive participant behaviour, you can stop all participant activity . Click the “Security” icon at the bottom of the screen, and select “Suspend Participant Activities”. This action will lock the session and stop all participants from using video, audio, and screen-sharing.
- Ask students to mute their microphones unless they are asking questions or responding. Muting reduces interruptions, echoes, and background noise. You or the co-host can also manually mute students by clicking “Participants”, then selecting “Mute All” at the bottom of the panel. This action mutes all current and new session participants, except for the host.
- Utilize your options for increasing interactivity:
- Invite collaboration with the annotating feature while screen-sharing.
- You can also collaborate using the classic whiteboard within the "Share Screen" options, or using the new Zoom Whiteboard feature accessible from the "Whiteboards" icon.
- Ask students to respond using reactions or chat, or use the polling feature to get opinions or check student understanding of the topic.
- Divide the class into smaller groups for discussions using breakout rooms.
- Highlight parts of your screen while sharing by using the spotlight tools (e.g., when presenting slides).
- Use the spotlight tool to turn your cursor into a laser pointer when presenting to direct attention to what you want to focus on.
- Use the vanishing pen to temporarily highlight information. Markings will vanish automatically after a few seconds.
- When presenting slides, you can use slide control to give other participants control of the slide progression (e.g., if co-instructors are presenting their portion of the slides). Student presenters can also give slide control to their peers.
- Learn the differences between host and co-host roles, if you're not sure who can do what actions in Zoom.
- Understand local recording in Zoom, if you plan to record your lectures to store on your device.
- If you don't plan to share recordings outside the course or in a different term of the same course, students do not need to sign consent forms before recording. However, if you plan to share recordings outside the course or in a different term of the same course, you do need to obtain consent first. Contact us at the LT Hub for more information.
- If you don’t want students to download Zoom recordings, disable the “Viewers can download” option. Log in to the Zoom web portal, and click “Recordings”. Click “Share” next to the recording you want to prevent downloads for, then click "Share Settings", and disable the “Viewers can download” feature.
Classroom lecture-capture options are preferable to recording in-person lectures with Zoom, if you can arrange to use them. Approximately 70% of general classrooms have built-in recording equipment, and UBC Audio/Visual (AV) has mobile recording kits available for others. Find out more on UBC AV’s page for recording and streaming options in UBC classrooms.
In instances when these options are not accessible to you, the steps below can be used to record your lecture with Zoom instead.
Record an in-person lecture with Zoom
You can use a Zoom session to record an in-person lecture using your webcam, audio, and presentation slides—whether or not any students will be attending the lecture online. This recording can then be shared with students via Canvas. Note that these steps will not record student interaction in the classroom, as doing so requires a more complex setup.
- Schedule a Zoom session in Canvas, following the steps for scheduling a real-time lecture in this guide.
- Before your class starts, connect your laptop to your classroom projector, set your display to mirror your screen, and open your slides.
- Once you've started your Zoom session, start recording by clicking the Record icon at the bottom of the screen. Choose to record the session to the Zoom cloud (to store it online).
- If you do not see the record option, you may need to click More first.
- At any time in the session, you can pause the recording by clicking the pause icon at the bottom of the screen. To stop the recording, click the stop icon.
- Share your presentation slides in the Zoom recording by clicking the Share Screen icon at the bottom of the screen and selecting your slides.
- The classroom projector will show only your slides, while your laptop will show your presenter's view, Zoom controls, and video thumbnail.
- At the end of your lecture, click End at the bottom right of the screen to stop recording. Zoom will then save your recorded lecture to the cloud. You will receive an email notification when the cloud recording is ready.
- To share your recorded lecture with students, log in to your Canvas course and click Zoom in the Course Navigation. Click the Cloud Recordings tab to view the available recordings. Move the publish toggle to on (blue) for any recording to make it visible to your students.
Tips
- Before your session, consider which elements of your lecture to record:
- For a simple capture setup that allows you to move around in the classroom, you can share your screen with Zoom and keep your webcam off, so you are only capturing your slides and audio.
- To include video of you presenting, you can use your laptop’s built-in webcam or an external webcam.
- For clear audio recording, you can connect a headset or wireless lapel microphone directly to your laptop. Either option will also give you the flexibility to move around, while maintaining sufficient audio.
- When answering questions from students in the "in-person" classroom, repeat the question before answering to capture it clearly in the recording. Your microphone is unlikely to record the students’ audio directly.
- If you are using an external webcam, position it in the room to capture you as you teach. To change your video source during a Zoom session, click the “upward arrow” next to the camera icon in the bottom bar of Zoom, and select your webcam from the list.
Download Zoom recordings
Zoom is not intended as a long-term storage solution, and it is not the best location to share recordings with others.
If you would like to keep Zoom recordings long-term or anticipate a need to share them with others, we recommend downloading the recordings from Zoom each term, using the instructions below. You can then store recordings on your computer, or upload them to share on Kaltura or Microsoft OneDrive.
- To download a Zoom recording through Canvas, log in to your Canvas course, and click Zoom in the Course Navigation.
- Click the Cloud Recordings tab.
- Click the title of the recording that you want to download.
- Click the Download link just below your recording.
- Go to ubc.zoom.us/recording and sign in to your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
- A list of your available recordings will appear under the Cloud Recordings tab.
- Click the 3 horizontal dots on the right side of the recording you wish to download, and select Download.
- If a pop-up window appears, click Download again to confirm.
- Depending on your browser, the file will either download automatically or you will be prompted to save it.
Tips
- Additional instructions are available to help you share your Zoom recordings via other UBC tools:
- To upload, edit, and share the recording in Canvas, you can use Kaltura, the media platform that is built into Canvas. Follow the steps for adding and editing media in Kaltura.
- To store a recording in Microsoft OneDrive, follow the steps for adding files to Microsoft OneDrive.
- If any videos you intend to share outside of the course contain student audio or video, you must either edit out the students from the recording or obtain student consent to share it. See the Kaltura guide for steps on trimming, clipping or splicing videos.
- At this time, Zoom cloud recordings need to be downloaded individually. It is currently not possible to download multiple recordings at once.
Understand breakout rooms in Zoom
Breakout rooms allow you to split your main session into separate, smaller sessions so students can interact in groups. You can assign the smaller rooms manually, let Zoom choose automatically, or let students self-assign into rooms you set up. You can also switch between the rooms at any time. Inside these rooms, all participants will be allowed to share audio, video, slides, whiteboards, and screens with just their smaller group.
Breakout room limitations
Before using breakout rooms in a lecture, it's important to know their limitations:
- Anyone with a UBC account can use up to 100 breakout rooms for up to 300 participants in any lecture. You can also request a Zoom large meeting add-on to use up to 100 breakout rooms for 301-1000 participants. Request the large meeting add-on for your account by contacting the helpdesk listed for you in the section above for requesting a UBC account.
- Sessions for 301+ students are best run on newer computers using hardwired internet (rather than a wi-fi connection), since they take up more bandwidth.
- You will need to use the Zoom desktop application when running your session, to see how students are assigned to the breakout rooms. Using a mobile application will not work.
- Only the session's host or co-host can assign students to the breakout rooms, so make sure you are the host or that the host or a co-host (e.g., a teaching assistant) knows how to do this.
Preassigned breakout room limitations
We recommend using breakout rooms on-the-fly, since Zoom gives you the option to automatically or manually create groups (or let students choose groups) as you are running the session. However, if you want to pre-assign students to breakout rooms (meaning you set up the groups ahead of time), please be aware of these additional limitations.
- You will need approval from your faculty or department to use pre-assigned breakout rooms, based on an academic need. Upon approval, your faculty or department should provide you with a process for gathering the student information required to pre-assign students to rooms. Contact us at the LT Hub to learn more about this requirement, if you have not received instructions.
- You can pre-assign a maximum of 50 breakout rooms for up to 200 participants.
- Every student in your course will need to have an activated Zoom account as pre-assigning students requires entering their emails. Check with your faculty or department on how to handle this with your students.
- Students will need to log in to their Zoom accounts and use the Zoom desktop application to join the lecture. Pre-assigned breakout rooms will not work for them in the mobile application.
- Only the person who schedules the Zoom session can pre-assign the students to rooms. If you have someone else (e.g., a teaching assistant) schedule your lecture sessions, make sure that person knows how to do this.
- The same pre-assigned breakout rooms will be applied to all session occurrences, if you use a recurring Zoom session for your lectures. To create different breakout room pre-assignments, you will need to create separate Zoom sessions for each lecture.
Use breakout rooms during a real-time lecture with Zoom
Breakout rooms allow you to split your main session into separate, smaller sessions so students can interact in groups. Below are steps for running breakout rooms on-the-fly in a session. You can read more about limitations of breakout rooms and details on using pre-assigned breakout rooms (where the groups are set up ahead of time) in the section above.
- In your active session, click the Breakout Rooms icon at the bottom of your screen to assign students to breakout rooms.
- If you do not see the breakout rooms option, you may need to click More first.
- Select the number of rooms you would like to create and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
- Assign automatically: Zoom will split your students up evenly into each of the rooms.
- Assign manually: You will choose which students are in each room.
- Let participants choose room: You will set up empty rooms, and students will select one to join.
- Click Create. Your breakout rooms will be created but not yet open to students.
- Adjust your room settings as needed, including manually assigning students and renaming, adding, or deleting rooms.
- Click Options (on Windows) or the gear icon (on Mac) to manage settings for breakout rooms, including allowing students to return to the main session and automatically closing the breakout rooms after a set time.
- When you are ready to start your breakout rooms, click Open All Rooms. All participants will be moved or prompted to move into their respective rooms.
Tips
- Breakout rooms are versatile private spaces that may be used in other ways, such as virtual office hours, one-on-one meetings, or exam invigilation.
- Anyone not assigned to a breakout room will remain in the main session when the rooms are started, including you as the host.
- Options available to the host and co-hosts during breakout rooms include:
- Joining any breakout room, returning to the main session, or switching to another room.
- Closing all breakout rooms, which will by default show a 60-second countdown to everyone before returning them to the main session.
- Broadcasting a message to all breakout rooms (e.g., share a question you'd like the groups to discuss).
- Sharing your screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms without sharing your video and audio (e.g., to share instructions for an activity).
- You and your co-hosts can gauge participation within breakout rooms by viewing activity status icons from the main session. If you enable activity statuses for your meetings, students will receive a pop-up message about this feature when they join a breakout room.
- Only the host will be alerted if any students have requested help in their breakout room, which they can do by clicking the "Ask for Help" option in the room.
- Zoom support provides more detailed information on enabling breakout rooms and managing breakout rooms.
Ask poll questions during a real-time lecture with Zoom
The polling feature allows you to create multiple-choice questions (you decide whether students select one or several of the options presented) and then gather responses from your class during live lectures. You can create one or more polls ahead of time or on-the-fly during a session. You can also export results after the session.
Create a poll
- Add a poll to your session ahead of time:
- Go to zoom.us/meeting and sign in to the Zoom web portal, if you haven't already.
- If you don't see any sessions, follow the steps above for scheduling a real-time lecture.
- Click the title of the session you wish to add a poll to.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click Create to make a poll.
- Select Poll.
- Set the poll options:
- Click the title to rename the poll (by default it will be named “Untitled Poll”).
- Type in the poll question, and select if you want the question to be "single choice" (students choose one answer) or "multiple choice" (students can choose more than one answer), then add the answer options.
- Choose whether you want students to answer anonymously by clicking the 3 dots at the bottom.
- If you would like to add another question to this poll, click Add a Question.
- When you are finished, click Save.
- You can add more polls by repeating steps 1-4 or you can manage existing polls under the Polls/Quizzes section at the bottom of the page in the Zoom web portal.
Launch a poll
- In your active Zoom session, click Polls at the bottom of the screen.
- Select the poll you would like to launch from the drop-down at the top (this drop-down will only appear if you have more than one poll).
- Click Launch.
- Students will be prompted to answer the poll questions and you will be able to see the results as they come in. Click End Poll to stop collecting responses.
- If you would like to share the results with students, click Share Results. When you are done, click Stop Sharing.
- Click the 3 dots at the bottom for options to re-launch the poll, save the results, or view the results from the Zoom web portal.
Tips
- Only the host who created the session can create polls in advance of that session. During the session, the alternative host has in-meeting options to add or edit polls, but this option must be enabled in settings from the Zoom web portal and selected when the host schedules the session.
- If you want to create a poll on-the-fly during a session, click "Polls" at the bottom of your screen then click "Create". Then configure your poll options and questions (see steps 2-4 under “Create a Poll”).
- You can use the Advanced Polls and Quizzing function to create matching, ranked choice, short answer, and long answer poll questions. You will first need to enable this feature in your Zoom web portal settings. Please note that the quizzing function has limited grading capabilities (e.g., doesn’t have automated grading) and is not recommended as an assessment grading tool.
- If you want to save and reuse a poll in another session, you can add it to your library of polls/quizzes, which serves as a repository. You can also create and edit polls directly from the polls/quizzes library.
- You can download a report of the poll results after the session. When viewing the report, note that you will either see the names students provided when they joined the session or, if the poll was anonymous, "anonymous" as the student name.
- You can create a maximum of 50 polls in Zoom for a single session, with each poll having a maximum of 10 questions.
We do not recommend using Zoom with the assessment-support tool LockDown Browser. The tools were not designed to be used in coordination, and combining them can trigger challenging technical issues for a significant number of students. You can use other UBC online assessment tips to help preserve academic integrity.
Schedule an invigilated exam with Zoom
Different settings should be used for a Zoom invigilation session than for a real-time lecture. These differences are specified below.
- Before doing the technical setup, decide who will be the host and co-hosts for the session. The host is the only person who can set up the session. The co-hosts are the other invigilators who, along with the host, can admit students from the waiting room and create, start, and monitor the breakout rooms.
- The host should modify a few default Zoom settings in their account before creating the invigilation session in Zoom. To do this, go to ubc.zoom.us/profile/setting and sign in.
- Click the Meeting tab at the top if it is not selected already and set the following:
- Enable the "Always show meeting control toolbar" toggle, so the host and co-hosts have quick access to the meeting controls.
- Disable the "Remote control" toggle, to prevent students from controlling each other’s shared screens.
- Under "In Meeting (Advanced)", disable the "Virtual background" toggle, so students cannot hide what is in their background.
- Next, the host should confirm their ability to schedule exams for the size of the course, by clicking Profile in the top, far left-hand menu of the Zoom web portal. If the number under “License” will not meet the needs of your course, contact av.helpdesk@ubc.ca to request additional support.
- Finally, the host should schedule the Zoom exam session, with exam-specific adjustments:
- Click Schedule a Meeting at the top right of the Zoom web portal.
- Enter in the topic, date, and add the following:
- The start time - Set this at least 30 minutes before the actual exam start time.
- The duration - Allow a buffer of 30-60 minutes, to give time for checking IDs and troubleshooting any technical difficulties.
- A waiting room - Enable a waiting room to better control and know who joins the session and when.
- Click Save. On the confirmation page, click Copy Invitation beside the invite link. This action will open a pop-up window with the session link and details. Click Copy Meeting Invitation.
- Paste the session information wherever you are securely posting instructions for students about taking the exam (e.g., in the exam instructions in Canvas).
Tips
- Let your students know to join the exam session at least 15 minutes early to make sure everything is working and to give time for you to check their IDs.
- Tell students to send you the name they will use when joining the session, if they are not comfortable using their real name in Zoom and prefer to use an alias.
- Get help planning assessment practices to encourage academic integrity, using the UBC Academic Integrity website and the UBC Online Teaching Program (Module 3.7).
We do not recommend using Zoom with the assessment-support tool LockDown Browser. The tools were not designed to be used in coordination, and combining them can trigger challenging technical issues for a significant number of students. You can use other UBC online assessment tips to help preserve academic integrity.
Run an invigilated exam with Zoom
If you have a sufficient number of teaching team members/invigilators to provide exam presence, you could consider setting up breakout rooms during an online session in Zoom. You and your team can continuously or periodically monitor the live stream of all students' webcams in each room and be available to answer questions. You can also ask to see students' individual screens and photo identification.
- You should start the session 30 minutes before the official exam start time. To start the session, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top, and click Start for the session.
- Invigilators should join the session at least 20 minutes early. You then need to give the invigilators co-host status by clicking the Participants icon, then hovering over each invigilator's name, clicking More, and selecting Make Co-Host.
- If you do not see the participants icon, you may need to click More first.
- You and your invigilating team should also join or have access to another space to communicate privately outside of Zoom (e.g., a channel in Microsoft Teams).
- You or your invigilating team should disable in-meeting chatting among students from the main session, by clicking the Chat icon at the bottom of the screen, then clicking the 3 horizontal dots in the chat window and selecting Host and co-hosts.
- You or your invigilating team can monitor students as they enter the session, by clicking the Participants icon. If you are using a waiting room, any invigilator can use this icon to admit students individually or admit everyone at once.
- Once most of your students have joined the session, you or your invigilating team can start the breakout rooms. Click the Breakout Rooms icon at the bottom of your screen to assign students to breakout rooms.
- Select the number of rooms you would like to create and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
- Assign automatically: Zoom will split your students up evenly into each of the rooms. Uncheck the box for including co-hosts—we don't recommend including co-hosts in this step, as Zoom does not evenly distribute co-hosts when automatically assigning rooms. After creating rooms, manually assign co-hosts to ensure each room has an invigilator.
- Assign manually: You will choose which students are in each room.
- Let participants choose room: You will set up empty rooms, and students will select one to join.
- Click Create. Your breakout rooms will be created but not yet open to students.
- Adjust your room settings as needed, including manually assigning students and renaming, adding, or deleting rooms.
- Click Options (on Windows) or the gear icon (on Mac) to manage settings for breakout rooms. Check the box for "Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms" (so students don’t need to do anything additional to start their exam).
- When you or your invigilating team are ready to start your breakout rooms, click Open All Rooms. All participants will be moved into their respective rooms.
- Once rooms are open and students and assigned invigilators are in them, you or your invigilating team can manually assign any latecomers from the Breakout Rooms menu by expanding the Unassigned list, clicking the Assign To option next to the student’s name, and selecting the room.
- Invigilators can click View, then Gallery in the upper right corner of the Zoom desktop application to see multiple video feeds at once. Any video feeds that don’t fit will be displayed on additional pages.
- Invigilators should take attendance and verify student IDs, if they haven't already.
- Make sure students know where to access the exam (if they are not in it already), how to ask for help during the exam, when the exam will end, and what to do if they finish the exam early. Then ask students to go ahead with the exam.
- Once the exam has started, you or another invigilator in the main session (not in a breakout room) can announce the exam instructions or the remaining time to all the breakout rooms by clicking the Breakout Rooms icon, then clicking Broadcast Message to All.
- The invigilators will monitor for questions and academic integrity.
- You and your invigilating team will need to coordinate with each other using Microsoft Teams (or another external communication point) to move themselves and their students in and out of breakout rooms (e.g., to follow up on a question with a student or to ask to see a student’s screen).
- When the exam end is nearing, you or another invigilator in the main session (not in a breakout room) can announce the time remaining to all the breakout rooms by using the Broadcast Message to All feature. Ask your invigilators in the breakout rooms to also make a verbal announcement to ensure all students receive the message.
- When the exam is finished, the host or another invigilator can click Close All Rooms to return students to the main session.
Tips
- Use your waiting room to control attendance and identity verification. A designated invigilator can admit each student individually, mark them down, and ask to see their ID. By default, students are listed in the waiting room in chronological order.
- Once you have created and assigned students to breakout rooms, you can add an extra breakout room as a space to privately address questions or check IDs. Any invigilator can click "Add a Room" from the breakout rooms menu and move themselves and students in and out of the room as needed.
- When verifying IDs, tell students to cover the first four digits of their student number to protect their privacy, especially if you are in a virtual space where other students can see.
- You can download a class list with photo identifications from the Faculty Service Centre, if your class is too big to recognize students on sight.
- Instruct students to keep their microphones off during the exam, unless asked a question directly. Background noises can be distracting for others in the room. You and your invigilators can also manually mute students by clicking “Participants”, then selecting “Mute All” at the bottom of the panel.
- You and your invigilators can request individual students turn on their video, if they forget, by clicking “More” beside their name in the participant list and selecting “Ask to start video”. The student will receive a pop-up notification with your request.
- Do a practice exam by scheduling a Zoom session to test this process with students prior to the exam, so everyone knows what to expect before the stakes are high.
- Have a contingency plan in place for any students who experience technical difficulties with joining the session, maintaining a stable Internet connection, or showing their video. Get tips on troubleshooting technical challenges from the UBC Online Teaching Program (Module 6.7).
- If you wish to use recording, know that only cloud recording is allowed and breakout rooms are not recommended for the invigilation, as recording within them comes with challenging constraints.
Host virtual office hours with Zoom
You can use Zoom to host virtual office hours as well as individual or group meetings with students.
- Go to ubc.zoom.us/meeting and sign in to your Zoom account, if you are not signed in already.
- Click Schedule a Meeting at the top.
- Enter in the topic (e.g., "Office Hours"), date/time, and adjust any other settings. In particular, you may want to click the checkbox for "Recurring meeting" so you can use the same session link for all your office hours during the term.
- Click the checkbox for "Waiting Room". The waiting room is like a virtual hallway outside your office, where each student waits alone to enter.
- Click Save.
- On the meeting information page, click Copy Invitation below the session invite link. This will open a pop-up window with the session link and details. Click Copy Meeting Invitation. Paste the session information wherever you are securely posting information for students (e.g., in Canvas).
- On the day of the session, open the Zoom application on your computer and sign in, if you haven’t already. Click the Meetings icon at the top.
- Click Start for the session. You will be prompted to join immediately or test your speaker and microphone first. When you are ready, join.
- Click the Participants icon on the bottom of the screen. In the right-hand panel that opens, you can monitor and manage who is in your waiting room.
- If you do not see the participants icon, you may need to click More first.
- If students are in the waiting room, you can message them by clicking Message next to "Waiting Room" and typing what you want to say in the chat that opens. For example, if multiple students are waiting, you could indicate an order of admittance you will follow.
- You can let students into the session by clicking Admit next to their name.
- When you are finished meeting with an individual student or a group of students, ask them to leave the session (on the bottom bar of their screen, they can click Leave and select Leave Meeting).
- If you need to, you can move students back to the waiting room. Open the participant panel by clicking the Participants icon, hover over the student's name, click More, and select Put in Waiting Room.
- Continue admitting students from the waiting room until your office hours end. By default, students are listed in the waiting room in chronological order.
- To end the session, click End at the bottom right of the screen and select End Meeting for All.
Tips
- If you use this recommended waiting room approach for office hours, make sure your students know to expect a potential wait when they show up, or allow them to sign up for time slots to minimize wait time.
- To make the most out of virtual office hours, you can create a discussion beforehand for students to post topics they want addressed. You'll have more time to prepare answers and a way to respond to the whole class, if a question is shared.
- Consider requiring students to attend virtual office hours at least once at the beginning of term. Students can be reluctant to meet one-on-one and that feeling may be heightened with uncertainty around using new technology.
Zoom FAQ
Find UBC-specific answers to frequently asked questions by clicking any bar below.
You will need a UBC Zoom account to schedule sessions with Zoom that can run beyond the 40-minute time limit of a free Zoom account. Students will not need an account to attend sessions. They can click the session link you send to join.
Once you have a Zoom account, you can change your display name and preferred pronouns for the account at any time by customizing your profile.
If you want to use different names for different sessions (e.g., one name for lectures, another name for meetings), you can change your default display name just for the session:
- Once you're in the session, click the Participants icon in the bottom bar.
- In the panel that opens, hover over your name, click the 3 dots, and select Rename.
- Enter the name you'd like displayed, which can include your preferred pronouns if you like, and click Change to save your changes.
Yes, teaching assistants can schedule and host Zoom lectures, provided they have a UBC Zoom account. However, you'll want to make sure your teaching assistants add you as an alternative host, otherwise you won't be able to start the lecture yourself. Additionally, any Zoom sessions scheduled by a teaching assistant can only be edited by that teaching assistant.
Although calling in is possible, it is not recommended. Depending on their phone plan and where they are located, students may incur long-distance or international charges.
Tell students to join sessions by clicking the link you send (which will work on either their computer or phone).
You must either a) schedule your Zoom sessions in Canvas or b) import them, if you schedule them outside of Canvas, in order for students to see them.
To import sessions you scheduled outside of Canvas:
- Log in to your Canvas course and click Zoom in the Course navigation.
- Click the All My Zoom Meetings/Recordings link to the left of the schedule button, and copy the meeting ID of the session you want to import.
- Click the Course Meetings/Recordings link at the top.
- Click the 3 vertical dots next to the schedule button, select Import meeting, and paste in the meeting ID. Once you click Import, this session will be added to the course and visible to your students.
As of July 5, 2020, UBC's institutional Zoom account transitioned from U.S.-based hosting to Canadian-based hosting. This change means that no data about you or your students is stored on servers outside of Canada, provided everyone logs in with a UBC Zoom account or joins anonymously (not logged in with a non-UBC Zoom account).
You do not need consent forms if you will only share recordings within the same term of the same course. Recordings for use within your course can be stored online using the Zoom cloud recording option, on your local computer, or wherever you upload them to share with students. In storing and sharing these recordings, you must take appropriate precautions to keep this content confidential and secure.
If you will share recordings outside the course or in a different term of the same course, you need to obtain consent first or edit out all student participation. Contact us for more information on how to do this.
Students may choose to have their cameras off for numerous reasons, including bandwidth issues and privacy concerns (such as other people in the background). You should only require students to have their cameras on in the following circumstances, to respect their privacy:
- When video is necessary for evaluation, for example, if a student must deliver a formal presentation or performance and it is necessary for you to see them in order to grade effectively.
- When video is necessary for academic integrity, for example, if you need to confirm the identity of a student and invigilate online exams.
As use of Zoom has grown, we know that many tools have adapted to work more tightly with Zoom. However, adding new integrations to Zoom requires careful consideration of UBC privacy and risk management guidelines. Due to challenges with how these integrations control permissions and data access, many Zoom integrations cannot be used at UBC. But if you have a specific integration in mind for Zoom, please contact UBC Audio/Visual to discuss your needs further.
Where can I get more support with Zoom?
Technical support
If you have trouble with Zoom:
- Contact your faculty’s Instructional Support Unit or appropriate helpdesk as your first point of contact:
- UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
604 822 7956 or av.helpdesk@ubc.ca. - UBC Vancouver Faculty of Medicine:
1 877 266 0666 or medit.servicedesk@ubc.ca. - UBC Okanagan:
250 807 9000 or visit the UBCO IT Helpdesk.
- UBC Vancouver outside the Faculty of Medicine:
- Contact us for further assistance:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
Pedagogical support
- Zoom is the primary tool at UBC for running online lectures. The UBC Online Teaching Program can help you decide when to have synchronous sessions (Module 1.4), plan effective practices for synchronous online lectures (Module 5.2), and engage students through active learning techniques (Module 4.4) in a synchronous Zoom session.
Student support
- Share UBC’s Zoom student guide with your students.
Learn more
- Find more information on getting started, privacy, and support for Zoom, visit the UBC IT Zoom overview.
- Check for any upcoming UBC Zoom workshops on the CTLT events site.
- For more how-to instructions, explore Zoom’s help centre documentation.