How do I set up online office hours in Zoom?
You can set up online office hours in Zoom by scheduling a recurring meeting with a waiting room to keep conversations private between you and the student(s) meeting with you.
Where it will be easiest to set up the meeting depends on whether you are setting up office hours for students in just one UVACollab site, or you plan to make the same office hours available to students in multiple UVACollab sites.
Schedule office hours for a single class.
Follow the steps in How do I schedule online meetings? to schedule a recurring meeting in your site. Select the Enable waiting room option.
Schedule office hours for multiple classes.
To set up office hours for students in multiple UVACollab course sites, it may be easier for you and your students to schedule the meeting within Zoom directly, and provide the link to join the meeting in each of your sites. This will help ensure that you and the students are able to meet in the right place.
Log into Zoom.
Access the UVA Zoom Login page (opens new window) and log into Zoom.
Schedule the meeting.
Follow the steps to schedule a recurring meeting in Zoom (opens new window). While scheduling the meeting, select the Enable waiting room option.
Provide the Join URL to your students.
Copy the Join URL.
After saving your meeting, you will be taken to a meeting summary page that includes a Join URL. Either:
- Select and copy the Join URL,
- Or use the Copy the invitation link to open and copy the complete meeting invitation.
Tip: Copying just the URL will allow you to place it on the Overview page of your site without including too much other information.
Post the Join link in your sites.
Post the link to your Online Office Hours meeting in each of your UVACollab sites. For example, you could:
- Add the link in the Site Information Display on the Overview page of your site. See How do I introduce myself to students using Overview? for steps to add information in the Overview.
- Post an announcement in the Announcements tool with the Zoom meeting invite. See How do I add an announcement? for steps to do this.
Note: For additional information about adding links in your site, see: How do I create a link to a website in the Rich-Text Editor?
Example: Settings for Online Office Hours.
Below is an example configuration for an Online Office Hours meeting where the instructor will be available to meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3-5 pm.
Date, time, and recurrence settings
- When: 03/23/2020 3:00 PM - This is the first date/time when the instructor will be available for office hours.
- Duration: 2 hr 0 min - The instructor will be available in the meeting room for 2 hours.
- Time Zone: GMT-04:00 Eastern Time (US and Canada)
- Recurring meeting
- Recurrence: Weekly
- Repeat every: 1 week
- Occurs on: Mon, Wed - The checkboxes to the left of Mon and Wed are selected.
- End date: By 05/02/2020
Additional options
- Video: default (off) for both Host and Participant
- Audio: Both
- Meeting Options: Enable waiting room
Tip: Leave all the other Meeting Options unchecked (disabled). This will ensure that students will have to wait for you to be present to join the waiting room, and the meeting is not being recorded to maintain privacy.
