Course-Level Zoom Integration

Created by Aamir Ayub
Apr 07, 2022
3 min read

TL;DR: 

Zoom integration is now available at the course level and if configured is available in the course navigation as the “Live” tab in the course navigation. Course teams can schedule and manage meetings and learners can see and attend those meetings from the Live area.


Release date: April 7th, 2022

Product owner: @Aamir Ayub

What is it? 

Zoom integration at course level has been delivered as part of this work. Course teams will be able to add LTI configurations for Zoom via the Pages & Resource area of Studio. Once configured, Zoom can be accessed in the Live tab as seen below.

Screenshot of Zoom LTI tool available in Live tab

Key talking points for customers:
Is there anything a user needs to do to enable the feature? 

  1. Course teams will need to enable Live app from the Live configuration card on Pages & Resources page in studio.

  2. Course teams will need to contact their project coordinator to get PII sharing enabled for their course.

  3. Once PII sharing is enabled, course teams can generate LTI credentials in the Zoom LTI Pro app using this procedure:

    1. Create or log in to zoom account.

    2. Install the Zoom LTI Pro app ( App Marketplace ) from the marketplace in your account.

      1. If you are using an institutional Zoom license, you may need to contact an administrator to have this application enabled for your license and use. They will be able to complete steps 3-6 and provide you the right LTI details.

    3. Navigate to configurations of the LTI Pro app via the “Configure” option.

    4. Click on “Create a new credential”.

    5. LTI URL, LTI Key, LTI Secret will be auto-generated for you. Add these credentials to the “Live” app configuration interface, along with the email ID associated with your zoom account.

    6. Add the string “instructor_email” to “Email or Employee Unique ID Attribute Name” configuration option. 

Who will notice the change, and where (LMS/Studio)?

Course teams will see “Live” configuration card on Pages & Resources page in studio. Learners enrolled in the course will see “Live” tab in course navigation if Zoom has been configured for that course. 

How does it connect to existing or future features?

We are planning to explore additional video-conferencing providers (ex: Big Blue Button) in the future.

Results: 

We plan to monitor adoption and use of this feature across the edX catalog. We anticipate most usage will be in smaller degree or credit program courses. Features like these require educator planning, course design, and thus often take time to be adopted more broadly. In the future, synchronous learning tools like Zoom may also enable 2U product lines (ex: Bootcamps) to migrate some form of their existing learning experiences onto the Open edX platform.

Link(s) to additional details: https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/createpage.action?spaceKey=OEPM&title=%5BSpec%5D%20Course%20level%20Zoom%20integration (Spec Memo)

Credits: Thanks to the Infinity team for discovery, development, and testing features in this milestone, @Jon F for UI/UX design and @Marco Morales (Deactivated) for guidance and support.