Online Lessons With Zoom

Zoom offers audio and video conferencing software that can be used to connect tutors and students online. In addition, Zoom offers easy content and screen sharing, real-time co-annotation, and digital whiteboarding. 

Signing Up For Zoom

You can sign up for Zoom by going to zoom.us and clicking the "Sign Up, It's Free" button in the top right corner of the page. 

Zoom has paid plan options, but it's generally most efficient and economical to use Zoom's free option.  

If you have more than one tutor who will be using Zoom for online lessons it's recommended each tutor creates their own free Zoom account that can be used for their online lessons. The reason for this is that each free Zoom account gets a single permanent personal Zoom Meeting ID, which is one of the most efficient ways to optimize Zoom for online tutoring. 

What You Need From Zoom To Integrate With Teachworks

The only thing that you need from Zoom is the link to your Personal Meeting ID that can be found by logging in to your Zoom profile and going to Profile > Personal Meeting ID. 

Each Zoom user only has a single Personal Meeting ID, which is why each tutor who will be scheduling online lessons with Zoom should have their own Zoom profile. Having multiple Zoom profiles will simplify scheduling and ensure each tutor uses the correct location for their lessons. 

Adding Zoom Locations In Teachworks

Once you have the Personal Zoom Meeting ID link you can use the Location Links Add-On to create a Location in Teachworks that links to the Zoom Meeting anywhere the Location for a lesson is referenced.

To create Zoom Meeting Locations in Teachworks, follow these steps:

1. Enable the Location Links Add-On if you haven”t already done so. You can do that by logging into your admin account and going to Account & Settings > Integrations & Add-Ons > Location Links > Enable.
2. Once the add-on is enabled, go to Account & Settings > Locations > Add Location.
3. Enter a name for your Zoom Meeting. If you have created multiple Zoom profiles so you can add multiple locations in Teachworks, it might be a good idea to name each location after the corresponding Zoom Meeting ID, tutor, or other identifier.
4. Add the Zoom Meeting URL to the “Link” field in Teachworks. 
5. It may be a good idea to check the “Display Conflicts” box so the Conflict Checker will display conflicts if more than one lesson is scheduled for a location at any given time.
6. Click “Save.”
7. If you have multiple Zoom accounts and Personal Meeting IDs you can repeat the steps listed above to create separate locations for those Meetings in Teachworks. 

Scheduling Lessons That Link To Zoom Meetings

Scheduling accessible online lessons is easy once you've set up Locations that link to Zoom Meetings. When scheduling lessons, simply select one of the Zoom Meeting location in the "Location" field on the Schedule Lesson Form. 

Where Users Can Find The Link To Their Online Lesson

On the Calendar: Students, parents, and tutors can login to their Teachworks account and access their online lessons by going to their Calendar, clicking on the lesson, and clicking "View." The "Location" in the view lesson pop-up window will be hyperlinked to the Zoom Meeting. 

Lesson Reminders: If you've enabled automated lesson reminders, you can include the {LOCATION} merge tag in the student and family lesson reminder email templates, and lesson reminders will include a link to Zoom Meeting Locations. 

Employee reminders include their lessons for an entire day. You can add the {EVENTS} merge tag to the Employee Reminder Template and the location of each of the employee's lessons will be included in the email reminder. 

This article has more information about Customizing Notification Templates. 

A Note About Security In Zoom

Zoom has a number of security features that you can use to make online lessons more secure. You may want to consider enabling waiting rooms or muting users when they join meetings.