Zoom capacity extended for teaching large online classes

With such successful student recruitment for the year ahead, some programmes and modules are preparing to teach live online to very large student cohorts. In response, UCL will be expanding its Zoom licence to support very large classes and events of up to 500 participants. 

Until now, the upper limits on the numbers who can attend classes on UCL recommended platforms would prove challenging for these large programmes - the upper limit for a Blackboard Collaborate session was 250 maximum, whilst the maximum for a Zoom session was 300.

Request a Zoom Large Meeting license

If you are planning to teach a large online class or host a meeting on Zoom for more than 300 people, you can now request a Zoom Large Meeting license. 

To request a Zoom Large Meeting license, simply email your request to Zoomsupport@ucl.ac.uk.  Please provide us with the following information at least 48 hours' in advance of the event:

• Date of your event
• How many participants you are expecting
• Whether it is a one-off or recurring event
• The end date for the last meeting if a recurring event

Moodle integration

Zoom will also be integrated with Moodle in the coming days, allowing you to create a Zoom meeting within the VLE. Students will then be able to join the Zoom meeting from Moodle and the Zoom meeting will appear automatically in their Moodle calendar to help them stay organised.  

To learn how to add a Zoom meeting to Moodle, see the 'Zoom on Moodle' wiki page. For general guidance on using Zoom, see the Zoom SharePoint site.  

You can also request a Zoom licence for greater than 500 participants by emailing zoomsupport@ucl.ac.uk. The turnaround time on this service is still to be confirmed, so please contact us as early as possible.

Using Blackboard Collaborate for large online classes

Blackboard Collaborate may also be used for more than 250 participants but the functionality for large classes (up to 500 participants, including moderators/presenters) on Blackboard is more limited than the standard version of the platform.

For more information on these limitations and instructions on how to log a request for a large Blackboard Collaborate session with the Digital Education Team, visit the Blackboard Collaborate Large Sessions page . Please note there is a five-day turnaround time to facilitate requests.

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