Remote Teaching: Zoom and Panopto FAQs

Table of Contents:

• I have questions about setting up my course Zoom meeting

• I have questions about managing a course Zoom meeting

• I have questions about requesting technical help for my course Zoom

• I have questions about editing my course Zoom recordings and sharing them with my students

• I have questions about pre-recording course content

• I have questions about student accessibility needs

• Some Resources

Q: Do you want questions added to this FAQ?

A: Please fill out this form to tell us about them: https://forms.gle/jSt99E7TvL5g95ey6. 

I have questions about setting up my course Zoom meeting:

Q: Why don’t I see the Zoom tab in Canvas? 

A: If you reactivated an old Canvas course, you may need to go into the settings to enable the Zoom page and the Media Library in Canvas. Most students will go to the Media Library (Panopto) to watch course recordings, if you are choosing to record your course Zoom meetings. If you are teaching a new course, or a course that has never used Canvas before, the Zoom tab and the Media Library will already be active in Canvas. 

Q: How do I set up my Zoom meeting in Canvas?

A: If you schedule your course Zoom meeting as a recurring meeting in Canvas, it will be easy for you and your students to access over the course of the semester. Before you get started, please review how to set everything up and learn about some settings we recommend for the best results. 

Q: I already scheduled my Zoom meeting — how do I get it to show up in Canvas? 

A: You can import your meeting directly into the Canvas Zoom tab instead of scheduling a new one. You may want to make sure that you have scheduled your meeting according to the recommended settings. If you are not using Canvas but are using Panopto to share videos with your students, you can map Zoom meeting IDs to folders in Panopto. 

Q: How do I add my TA to the Zoom? 

A: You can edit your Zoom meeting to add your TA as an alternative host, at the bottom of the meeting settings. This will enable them to help you manage the Zoom meeting or start the meeting, if you cannot join on time. You’ll need to make sure your TA has logged into their Brown Zoom account before you can add them as an alternative host.

Q: How do I edit my Zoom meeting settings? 

A: Go to brown.zoom.us in your web browser and click on the “Meetings” tab in the left-side menu. Click on the meeting you would like to adjust and hover over it to see the option to edit. Remember to click on “save” at the bottom of the page! You can also edit your meeting in Canvas by clicking on the meeting to show its details and clicking “edit” at the bottom of the page.

Q: I can’t find my Zoom meeting! Where did it go? 

A: If you scheduled your course Zoom as a recurring meeting, it will be listed before the meetings you have scheduled with a fixed time, so you may have to scroll down to the bottom of your Meetings page on brown.zoom.us to find it. 

I have questions about managing a course Zoom meeting:

Q: Why can’t my students hear me and/or this video I’m showing during class? 

A: Check the microphone icon in your Zoom meeting controls to confirm that you are not muted and that you have the correct microphone selected by clicking on the arrow next to the microphone icon to expand the settings. If you are having connection problems, you can “switch to phone audio” and call into the meeting from your phone. If you are showing a video or sharing an audio recording, make sure that you select “share computer sound” when you start your screen share (or click on your sharing options to select “share computer sound” while already sharing). 

Q: I don’t see the option to record — why is that? 

A: If you see the option to record, but you are unable to start the recording, Zoom isn’t recognizing you as a Host or Co-Host for the meeting, which means that you are not properly logged in with your Brown account. To fix the issue, you can leave the meeting, log out of the app and log in again with SSO. If you’re short on time, and there is another host in the meeting, you can ask them to promote you to Host or Co-Host, so you can manage the recording.

Q: What’s the difference between stopping and pausing the recording?

A: If you wish to pause the recording for any reason, you may do so by pressing pause () and then pressing play (▶) when you are ready to resume the recording. Once you are at the end of the class or meeting and wish to end the recording, press the stop button (). Ending the meeting will also stop the recording. Please keep in mind that the recording will resume if you “leave the meeting” without “ending” it. Do not stop the recording unless you are sure that the part you would like to record has concluded. Pressing stop and pressing play again will start a new recording and generate a separate recording file in Zoom or in the Media Library (Panopto). The recording will not begin processing until you have ended the meeting.

Q: How can I see all my students in the same Zoom window? 

A: If you click on “view” in the top right corner of the Zoom app, you can switch between speaker view and gallery view. If you expand the size of your Zoom window on your screen, you will be able to view more participants. If they cannot all fit on one screen, you can click on the arrows to the left and the right of the Zoom window to switch from one page of participants to another.

Q: What is the waiting room? 

A: If you enable the waiting room for your Zoom meeting, the Host or Co-host will have to admit anyone who joins the meeting (or eventually turn the waiting room off). This is a good security measure to have more control over who enters the meeting and can allow for private conversations during office hours, as you can decide to only let one person in at a time. 

Q: Can I set up small group discussions in Zoom? 

A: Yes, you can use breakout rooms to set up smaller group discussions during your Zoom meeting. The content in the breakout rooms will not be recorded unless local recordings are run in each breakout room. We do not generally recommend recording breakout rooms because it could act as a barrier to student participation and brings up privacy concerns, as local recordings can easily be shared outside Brown. 

Q: How do I use breakout rooms?

A: You can create pre-assigned breakout rooms, but we recommend automatically generating them in the meeting. You can determine the number of participants in each room, and if you and the participants have recently updated their Zoom, you can allow them to move from room to room. We recommend using the main meeting room as a “default” breakout room for anyone who is having technical issues that prevent them from joining a breakout room. You should also use the main room to continue offering live captions, if you have someone live captioning your class or event. 

I have questions about requesting technical help for my course Zoom:

Q: I need help using Zoom. Where can I get help? 

A: You can access additional technical help (ex: something isn't working right) at the Zoom Help Center website or by contacting the IT Service Center at https://it.brown.edu/get-help or Media Services. If you want to discuss strategies using Zoom in different teaching scenarios or how it might be used to accomplish your learning objectives with an instructional designer, contact Digital Learning & Design by emailing dld@brown.edu. You can also request a Zoom Buddy to help you manage your class: https://forms.gle/peZaK6WbZbzdM7JR6. 

Q: What is a Zoom Buddy? 

A: A Zoom Buddy will be assigned as an alternative host for your class meeting, and they can help you manage the meeting by helping with the waiting room, breakout rooms, any technical issues, and ensuring that the Cloud recording is running, if you want your class recorded. You can request a Zoom Buddy for your first session or for the entire semester through the following form: https://forms.gle/peZaK6WbZbzdM7JR6. 

I have questions about editing my course Zoom recordings and sharing them with my students:

Q: What’s the difference between a Cloud recording and a local recording? 

A: A Cloud recording goes to the Cloud and is hosted remotely, while a local recording resides directly on your computer. You can access and download your Cloud recordings from your web browser by going to brown.zoom.us, logging in with your Brown account, and finding your recording in the Recordings tab. If you’ve scheduled your meeting in Canvas, you can find your Cloud recording in the Canvas Media Library (Panopto).

Q: How can I trim my course Zoom recording?

A: If you scheduled your meeting in Canvas or mapped it to a Panopto folder, you can trim your Zoom recording in the Canvas Media Library (Panopto) by following these instructions. After you edit Panopto videos, they will not be viewable until they have processed. You can also trim the playback range of the recording in Zoom, but these changes will not carry over to the Media Library.

Q: I accidentally stopped the Zoom recording, so now I have two separate ones for one lecture — how do I combine them? 

A: You will have to splice the clips together in the Canvas Media Library. Please note that if you make any edits or cuts on the individual clips, the edits will be reflected in the full session. 

Q: How do I rename a recording in the Media Library (Panopto)?

A: Hover over the video you want to rename and click on the settings. Click on “edit” next to the recording name at the top of the video settings overview. Type in what you would like to call it and click “save” below the name to save your changes.

Q: Where can students access course recordings?

A: Cloud recordings of meetings scheduled in the Zoom page on Canvas will be delivered to the corresponding Canvas Media Library (Panopto), where students can view the recordings. Recordings will be briefly available in the Cloud Recordings tab of the Zoom page in Canvas, but they will automatically be deleted once the content has transferred over to the Media Library. You can also map recordings to specific folders within the Media Library. 

Q: Why isn’t my Zoom Cloud recording showing up in the Media Library?

A: Sometimes it can take a little while for a Zoom recording to process, especially for a long meeting, so you may have to wait before viewing it in the Media Library (Panopto). Audio transcript processing can delay the transfer, so you may want to turn that off in your Zoom account recording settings (and submit for automatic machine captions in the Media Library). If it has been a few hours and the recording hasn’t shown up in the Media Library yet, you may want to check the Zoom to Canvas mapping and correct your settings if needed. You will have to manually download the Zoom recording and upload it to the Media Library, if the mapping was disrupted. 

Q: How do I direct discussion section Zoom recordings to separate folders in the Media Library?

A: You can map specific Zoom meeting IDs to separate folders by changing your Panopto user settings. Please note that you will have to generate a separate Zoom link for each discussion section, as you can only map each meeting to one folder. 

Q: How do I trim the course Zoom recording before my students see it?

A: You can set up “approval by a publisher” in the Media Library (Panopto), so recordings will only become available to students after you have approved them, which means you will be able to trim the session before they see it. You will have to remember to approve the session, or students will not be able to access the content. 

Q: How do I ensure that students cannot access class Zoom recordings before I have edited them in the Media Library (Panopto)?

A: If you have cloud sharing enabled, Zoom cloud recordings are available in the Canvas Zoom tab during the short interval before they finish transferring to the Media Library (Panopto). To prevent students from viewing cloud recordings in the Zoom tab on Canvas, you need to turn off cloud sharing in your settings at brown.zoom.us. Turning off the setting will not interfere with the transfer to the Media Library (Panopto). Keep in mind that changing the setting does not apply to past recordings – only to future ones.

If you have turned off cloud sharing and want to share a recording that is not associated with your class or any Zoom to Panopto mapping, you will have to adjust the cloud sharing for that individual recording or download the recording and upload it to another platform (ex. Google Drive) for sharing with non-Brown users. 

Q: Why can’t my students see my lectures?

A: If you can see your lectures in the Media Library (Panopto), but your students cannot see them, please confirm that you have approved your recordings for viewing (if you are following the “approval by a publisher workflow”), or check the video’s availability at the bottom of the Overview section in the settings of the individual recording you would like students to view. If your video is set to become available at a later date, you can adjust it to make it available immediately. If the video has been approved and is set to be available immediately, you want to check the sharing settings for the video or folder to see whether the Viewer group has accidentally been removed. If this is the case, please add the Viewer group or contact media_services@brown.edu, and they will restore the access.

Q: Why can’t I open the Media Library anymore?

A: It may be that you or someone else with “Creator” access to the Media Library has accidentally deleted your user or user group from the sharing settings. Contact media_services@brown.edu with your name and course information to have them restore your access. 

Q: How do I caption my recordings in Canvas? 

A: You can enable machine captions for your Media Library, so all videos uploaded in the future will be automatically captioned (you will also have to update the settings for any subfolders you create). You will have to individually submit pre-existing videos for machine captions. Machine captions are not appropriate for classes with a student who has requested support through Student Accessibility Services (SAS). Contact captioning@brown.edu, and we will update the settings to request human captions for all your videos. 

Q: Why am I getting emails about recordings being permanently deleted? I don’t remember deleting anything. Should I be worried?

A: These email notices probably refer to recordings that have transferred to the Media Library (and have been automatically deleted from Zoom). Zoom Cloud recordings that are scheduled in Canvas or mapped to other folders in Panopto are automatically deleted from the Zoom Cloud Recordings tab once their content finishes transferring, and they are only retained in Zoom up to 30 days for recovery. Active Zoom Cloud recordings that are not transferred and deleted will be available for 1 year. Any content that was moved over to the Canvas Media Library (Panopto) will be retained for 5 years.

Q: I get so many automated emails from Zoom. How do I make them stop? 

A: You can go to the Settings tab at brown.zoom.us and edit your Email Notification settings if you would like to stop receiving certain automated emails. 

I have questions about pre-recording course content:

Q: How do I pre-record a lecture? 

A: Sometimes it can be easiest to work with technology you already know how to use, so it could make sense for you to record in Zoom and upload your recording to the Media Library (Panopto) in Canvas. Otherwise, Panopto Personal Recorder is a great option too, and you can set your recording to automatically upload to Canvas. You can download Panopto Personal Recorder onto your computer, or use it directly in your web browser (web version especially recommended for Mac users on macOS Catalina and newer). 

Q: Panopto Personal Recorder keeps failing — what are my other options? 

A: Panopto Personal Recorder does not work well on macOS Catalina (unless you are using an external webcam), so if you are running that operating system, you may want to try using Panopto Recorder in your web browser or choosing to record your video in Zoom. 

Q: I don’t want my pre-recorded content to be in the same folder as my Zoom recordings — how do I make them go to a different folder in the Media Library (Panopto)?

A: You can edit your settings to map your Zoom recordings to a different folder within the Media Library, or you can create a sub-folder within the Media Library for your pre-recorded content. 

Q: How do I rename a recording in the Media Library (Panopto)?

A: Hover over the video you want to rename and click on the settings. Click on “edit” next to the recording name at the top of the video settings overview. Type in what you would like to call it and click “save” below the name to save your changes.

Q: How do I edit my recording?

A: You can edit your recording in the Canvas Media Library (Panopto) by following these instructions. After you edit Panopto videos, they will not be viewable until they have processed. If you are using the approval workflow, please be sure to approve after you edit, so students will be able to view the videos once they have processed. 

Q: How do I caption my recordings in Canvas? 

A: You can enable machine captions for your Media Library (Panopto), so all videos uploaded in the future will be automatically captioned (you will also have to update the settings for any subfolders you create). You will have to individually submit pre-existing videos for machine captions. Machine captions are not appropriate for classes with a student who has requested support through Student Accessibility Services (SAS). Contact captioning@brown.edu, and we will update the settings to request human captions for all your videos. 

Q: How do I make my pre-recorded content available to students?

A: To make content available to students, you can upload it to the Canvas Media Library (Panopto). You can change the availability settings for the folder and/or individual videos to best suit your needs, and you can choose to approve videos before they become viewable by students. You will have to remember to approve the session, or students will not be able to access the content. If the video has been approved or is set to be available immediately, but your students are still having trouble accessing it, you should check the sharing settings for the video or folder to see whether the Viewer group has accidentally been removed. If this is the case, please add the Viewer group or contact media_services@brown.edu, and they will restore the access.

Q: Where did my pre-recorded content go? I don’t see it in the Media Library (Panopto).

A: You can try uploading your video again and check that you are uploading it to the correct folder. If you go to your Media Library in Canvas, you can upload there directly and ensure that your content does not go to the Media Library from a prior semester or another course you teach. If others have told you they can see the video, it may be that you or someone else with “Creator” access to the Media Library has accidentally deleted your user or user group from the sharing settings. Contact media_services@brown.edu with your name and course information to have them restore your access. 

Q: What’s the difference between Panopto and the Media Library? 

A: The Media Library in Canvas is a specific reference to your course folder in Panopto, whereas on brown.hosted.panopto.com you can see all of the Panopto videos and folders associated with your user, including content from other semesters or other courses that have included you as a collaborator. 

Q: I’m showing movies in my course — how do I use the Online Movies playlist?

A: If you have requested online movies for your course through OCRA, you will access them in your Canvas Media Library (Panopto) through a playlist. Follow these instructions to move between different titles in the playlist. You can add links to specific movies in the course playlist to your syllabus or Canvas page by copying the link in the browser bar when you are playing the movie you would like to link. You cannot embed individual movies at this time, only the links to the movies. 

I have questions about student accessibility needs:

Q: A student needs live captioning for accessibility — how do I request it?

A: Student Accessibility Services (SAS) takes care of making the request, and Media Services will reach out to you to make sure that you understand the process and that you and the student are all set with technical help. They will also arrange to have your course recordings captioned in the Media Library (Panopto). 

Q: What kind of captioning is appropriate if a student has requested support through Student Accessibility Services (SAS) or demonstrated a need? 

A: If a student has requested support through SAS, we will provide human captions for all course related materials. Please let media_services@brown.edu know if you will use additional course video content that needs captions. 

Some Resources:

Training videos:

TA training video

Trimming a recording video

Faculty: Scheduling a Zoom Meeting in Canvas

Panopto Personal Recorder for Mac

Panopto Personal Recorder for PC

Help Documents: 

• Scheduling a Zoom meeting in Canvas
• Using the Waiting Room
• Screen sharing a Powerpoint
• Using Polling in Zoom
• Preassigned Breakout Rooms (not recommended — automatically generated is simpler)
• Mapping a Zoom recording
• Trimming in the Media Library
• Setting Availability in the Media Library
• Enabling machine captions in the Media Library 
• Adding Notes in Panopto (for class discussion)
• Zoom Room set up
• Updating Zoom
• Navigating the Online Movies playlist

General Resources:

• Brown Knowledgebase (Home)
• Brown Knowledgebase (Zoom collection)
• Brown Knowledgebase (Panopto collection)
• Zoom Support Site
• Panopto Help Site