Understand Group and Section-Based Permissions for Zoom in Canvas

Group and section-based permissions give instructors the ability to manage access to meetings and subsequent recordings for certain groups and sections within Canvas courses. When setting up a new meeting, instructors can designate these permissions. Group and section-based permissions cannot be specified for already existing meetings and recordings.

Note: In testing, we’ve noticed there is some latency when first creating new groups. It may take upwards of an hour before new sections or groups appear in your Zoom for Canvas integration.

Using Group-Based Permissions

When an instructor logs in, a Group column will appear in the tables under the Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, and Cloud Recordings tabs within Zoom for Canvas. When an instructor schedules a new meeting, on the meeting details page, there will be two group selectors displayed. Each selector will contain a list of all the groups within the course.

Using the Add Groups Selector

Selecting a group with the Add Groups selector gives that group access to a calendar event and/or sends a message about that meeting to the group. Use this option if the group needs access to both the meeting itself and the meeting recording.

Using the Add Viewers Selector

Selecting a group with the Add Viewers selector sends that group a message about the recording when the course has enabled the Publish All setting. Use this option if the group only needs access to view the recording.

Note: Since the recording passcode is not shared in the message, it will need to be sent to the students separately, or you may refer to Zoom’s documentation for Embedding cloud recording passcode in shareable link (should be enabled at the account or group level).

Using Section-Based Permissions

When an instructor logs in, a new section column will be added under the Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, and Cloud Recordings tabs. Additionally, a section selector will also be displayed on the meeting details page when the instructor schedules a new meeting. The selector button will list all the sections that the instructor subscribed to, and up to three sections can be selected at one time via the Add Sections button. Similarly, up to five sections can be selected at one time for viewing the recording via the Add Viewers button.

Once the meeting has been created and started, any associated recording will be assigned utilizing the meeting’s corresponding section id. Only users within the corresponding sections will be able to view the recordings.

When a student logs into the course, only the meetings within the section will be viewable by the student. Similarly, recordings will be filtered by the sections that were selected via Add Viewers feature and listed in the Cloud Recordings tab.

Note: Students will see a Section column instead and if they have the ability to schedule meetings, and the drop-down fields will only contain sections.

Using Both Types of Permissions

The group integration is compatible with the section integration. When both of these features are enabled at the same time, a Section or Group column will be added to the tables on the Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, and Cloud Recordings tabs. Additionally, on the meeting details page, the drop-down fields will have options to select sections or groups.