Zoom

Office Hours in Zoom

You can use Zoom to hold virtual office meetings with students. You can set up virtual office hours in Zoom either for a single class or for multiple classes.

Setting Up Zoom Office Hours for a Single Class
Setting Up Zoom Office Hours for Multiple Classes

Setting Up Zoom Office Hours for a Single Class

You can use Zoom to hold virtual office meetings with students. To set up virtual office hours in Zoom, you need to schedule a recurring meeting with the waiting room turned on.

In your course menu, click Zoom.
In the Zoom page that appears, at the top right, click Schedule a New Meeting.
In the Topic header, name your Zoom meeting “Office Hours” and include the days and times of your office hours.
Add more details about the office hour times in the Description section.
Check the box next to Recurring meeting.
From the “Recurrence” drop-down menu, select No Fixed Time. This allows you and the students to access the office hours at any time, but you will have specified your availability above in the title and description. The advantage of using No Fixed Time is that this method creates just one permanent meeting link in Zoom, rather than a new meeting link for each office hour day and time.

Make sure that registration is NOT selected.
Next to Security, you may choose to use the suggested passcode for your meeting or create a new one.
Check the box next to Waiting room. This places students in a virtual waiting room until you are ready to admit them. This allows you to have privacy with students you are meeting with in Zoom.
Do not check the box next to authenticated users - UBC students do not have authenticated UBC Zoom accounts.
Next to Meeting Options, uncheck the Enable join before host checkbox. Students who join the meeting before you will see a notice to wait.
To allow a TA or other instructor to host the meeting, add emails next to Alternative Hosts - note that these alternative hosts must have UBC licensed Zoom accounts which utilize their ubc.ca email addresses.
Click Save.

Once your meeting has been saved, you may:

Copy the Invite Attendees Join URL and share it with your students via an Announcement or email
Click the Copy the invitation link to copy and send the meeting information listed to your students via an Announcement or email
Tell students to access the meeting by clicking Zoom from the Canvas menu and navigating to "Office Hours"

Setting Up Zoom Office Hours for Multiple Classes

To set up virtual office hours for multiple classes in Zoom, you must create the same meeting in each Canvas course with your Personal Meeting ID. This will allow students from multiple classes to join into one Zoom office hours meeting, all at the same link.

In your course menu, click Zoom.
In the Zoom page that appears, at the top right, click Schedule a New Meeting.
In the Topic header, name your Zoom meeting “Office Hours” and include the days and times of your office hours.
Add more details about the office hour times in the Description section.
Check the box next to Recurring meeting.
From the “Recurrence” drop-down menu, select No Fixed Time. This allows you and the students to access the office hours at any time, but you will have specified your availability above in the title and description. The advantage of using No Fixed Time is that this method creates just one permanent meeting link in Zoom, rather than a new meeting link for each office hour day and time.

Make sure that registration is NOT selected.
Next to Security, you may choose to use the suggested passcode for your meeting or create a new one.
Check the box next to Waiting room. This places students in a virtual waiting room until you are ready to admit them. This allows you to have privacy with students you are meeting with in Zoom.
Do not check the box next to authenticated users - UBC students do not have authenticated UBC Zoom accounts.
Next to Meeting Options, uncheck the Enable join before host checkbox. Students who join the meeting before you will see a notice to wait.
Check the box next to Use Personal Meeting ID. Note: this is the step that differentiates a meeting for one class and a meeting for multiple classes.
To allow a TA or other instructor tp host the meeting, add emails next to Alternative Hosts - note that these alternative hosts must have UBC licensed Zoom accounts which utilize their ubc.ca email addresses.
Click Save.
Repeat all of these steps in your other Canvas courses for which you would like to share the same office hours.

Once your meeting has been saved, you may:

Copy the Invite Attendees Join URL and share it with your students via an Announcement or email
Click the Copy the invitation link to copy and send the meeting information listed to your students via an Announcement or email
Tell students to access the meeting by clicking Zoom from the Canvas menu and navigating to "Office Hours"

To learn more about this topic, contact ctl.helpdesk@ubc.ca

UBC Okanagan Centre for Teaching and Learning Zoom Directory

Updated October 2021