Zoom & Canvas Q&A & Troubleshooting Guide

Owned by Haley Johnson (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 17, 2020
8 min read

Special thanks to ELI for putting this guide together for us. ELI instructors worked incredibly hard to get all of their classes converted into an online format and they’ve learned a lot through that process.

Activate Zoom in your Canvas Course

  • In Canvas, open the course (or all courses you will use Zoom in) you'd like to set up your zoom meeting in.

  • Click the "Settings" tab, then click Navigation.

  • Scroll down to the bottom and find Zoom in the list.

  • Select the three dots to the right of Zoom and select "Enable." This will move Zoom to the top of the page.

  • Scroll back to the bottom and click "Save"

  • Zoom will now show up in your Navigation bar on the left.

  • https://utah.instructure.com/courses/608526/pages/hosting-a-live-event-using-zoom

Advantages & Disadvantages of Zoom within Canvas vs. Web browser

  • Is there a benefit to using Zoom within Canvas or just do Zoom with the web browser?

    • One less step. Assuming Canvas is up, students just click on start meeting (don't need code or invitation URL)

    • So far from what I’ve seen, as long as students have the invite or code, I found the flexibility of launching from the Zoom website and all of the settings is something that works better for me. I need to experiment more. I just don’t see a compelling reason to switch to Zoom within canvas, because giving students the ID number is pretty simple.

    • The other benefit of using Zoom in the browser is that you can invite other people to come in who are not in Canvas, like a guest speaker.

    • I've been using it outside of canvas as well but wanted to test it out this way. I thought it inside of Canvas might be slightly easier for students who aren't as good with technology. But using a link or id is so easy, I guess it isn't a big deal.

    • Another pro of Zoom- it seems to require less working memory to record so it probably works better with older computers or if you want multiple other programs running in the background to change your screen share view quickly (like a ppt to excel sheet to a YouTube video)

  • Once you get Zoom set up in Canvas, are students able to use it to set up meetings to practice, for example, speaking assignments or tasks with each other?

    • In theory, yes, they could host their own meetings whenever they wish to.

Recording Zoom Meetings or Lectures

  •  Zoom classes can be optional and recorded to be seen later on Canvas by those who might not have had internet access at the time of the live meeting.

  •  Don’t rely on the internal microphone of your WebCam. Consider getting a headset or other external microphone to improve quality. Suggest students use a microphone or some type of headset instead of relying on their internal mic of their camera on the phone (computer audio and video are ok). Any improvement in quality will improve the experience.

  •  Sometimes you can’t set Zoom up in canvas: go in and click waiting room to set it up. The waiting room was not default when I set up a zoom meeting through Canvas...

Accessing Zoom Recordings

  • When Zoom doesn’t email links of meeting recordings or if they are delayed, you can access your recordings by going to the 'recordings' page on the menu of your Zoom account and copying the link of the one you need. They still seem to be getting processed fairly quickly, just no longer sent out.

  • Links for Zoom recordings automatically delete after 30 days.

PowerPoints on Zoom or Kaltura’s video App for Canvas

  • Sometimes Powerpoints can’t be shared on Zoom with large groups without it freezing. I've semi-successfully avoided this problem with online Powerpoints or accessing them from Canvas files while I'm sharing and not from my desktop or computer file. When I'm just recording a lecture on Zoom with no other participants, I don't have that freeze-up problem. It’s only when students are participating.

    • Another idea with PowerPoint is to convert it to PDF format and then scroll through the pages that way. Perhaps it won’t freeze up as much

    • Also, make sure the Zoom record button is really pushed...I did my entire PPT lesson before realizing it didn't start

  • Does anyone use Kaltura for PPTs or do you prefer Zoom?

    • It’s more just whatever format you find to be easiest to navigate in order to create your video. I like Kaltura for PPTs because I find it easier to embed the videos on Canvas. also, I keep the cameras on for PPT because depending on the level of the students, body language (facial expressions and hand gestures) and being able to read lips helps increase understanding, and with Kaltura the students can choose what screen they are looking at (the ppt, my face, or both). The downside is that if downloading the video to share outside of Canvas then only your screen capture and audio is shared.

  •  Zoom is easier to share access to outside of Canvas.  At least that has been my experience. I believe that a few teachers do use Zoom for all their videos.

Student Issues In Canvas

  • I have one student trying to take an exam on Canvas. There are audio recordings that I recorded and uploaded which work for me in preview and work for all the other students, but this one student is getting this screen.., I've already told her to try it in a different browser. Any other advice on solutions for this?

    • Try again later .... I think this is what happens when there are too many people on Canvas, so it stops the links. I get it too off and on. I don’t know how it will affect the timing of the quiz. You might need to resend her another invitation to the quiz so she can do it again.

    • In regards to that “Application Error” message, has she also tried it on a different device to see what happens? You can try different browsers at different times to check.

    •  There can be times when a student attempts to take a test, but their device fails and the test is submitted with an incomplete score, or a partial score. Students won’t be allowed to retake it if you haven’t selected multiple attempts, so what you would need to do is import that assessment into the same class and then assign it to a particular student. That’s a very truncated explanation, but if it happens, you can contact Rus. This is the type of video tutorial that could be useful for everyone.

Student Misses Tests or Test Glitches

  •  Please Note that the Administrative view and options on the right of the screen in the video below will vary from yours, but it should still be useful

  •  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMoljzCNTNc&feature=youtu.be

  •  You can also click the 3 vertical dots to the right of the name of the assignment/test when on the assignment/quiz page and select "copy to" then select your course, and it will send a copy to your imported assignments from right there. (Sometimes it takes a moment to show up though so wait and maybe hit refresh.) This also works easily for sharing materials between courses without having to search through all the content.

  •  A very helpful way to copy assignments, announcements and even edited Homepages between sections. However, make sure that you check the destination section or class after you copy an assignment there. It sometimes takes time to send it, and occasionally it won't get sent or you accidentally send it to the wrong place. Also, sometimes an assignment will be sent to an "Imported Assignments" group, so you need to move it to homework or quizzes/tests so that it's in the right location. Also, make sure that you don't end up duplicating it in the destination section so that students don't take two different versions of the same assignment (that happened to me).

Student Issues with Uploading Assignments

Canvas Test/Assignment Grading, Dates, & Points

  • I have noticed a Canvas glitch. The fill-in-the-blank sections often flag answers as wrong when they are correct. I realize that fill in the blank exercises have to be so precise with no extra spaces that would have otherwise been correct because students miss questions. I had to go back and correct number of them.

    • They need to be double checked. Manually go through the test and make sure the correct option is only listed once.

    • Even when a correct option is listed once, Canvas sometimes marks it as incorrect, so sometimes I go through both "correct " and "incorrect" answers just to be sure.

  • When creating a homework assignment in "quizzes," and we have the option of showing a date for when to show students correct answers, if we don't put a date in there, will it not show answers at all?  If I don't put a date in there, is that a big deal? Would students still get my feedback and their grades?

    • If you don’t put any dates for when to see the answers then they will get the feedback after they hit submit. Those dates are there if, for test control, you only want the feedback available after all should have submitted their graded quiz/test.

  • For multiple dropdowns in a test, if there are 3 in a sentence, and each answer is worth 1/2 a point, then in the points, do I put 1.5 and it figures that out...or do I put in (.5) so that it calculates each blank at 1/2 point each?

    • For the entire set of questions you put the total point amounts in the top right and then it’ll automatically calculate. So 1.5 for 3 at .5 points each or 4 for 8 blanks at .5 pts each.

  • Fill in the blank answers can be somewhat problematic. In other words, if a student has an extra space before after the answer, it can count it wrong. Can you simply just add extra options with a space to compensate for that?

    • Yes, you can add as many as you can think of that you’d accept, and then expect exceptions.... when reviewing the tests you can manually add points in that upper right corner of the question.

  • I was looking at inserting a rubric into an assignment. It looks like more trouble than it is worth, is it?

    • It takes time but makes grading so much faster to just click the numbers and have it automatically count. I’d say it is worth it depending on how many students/times you can reuse the rubric.  Once you have built the rubric, name it and you can attach it to other assignments.

  • Can we create a reusable rubric for assignments?

    • Yes, the initial rubric creation takes some time, but overall it saves LOTS of time.

Broken Content Links for Students in Canvas