I’m currently evaluating Zoom as a platform for teaching sessions. I looked over APIs, but couldn’t find an exact answer, so many thanks in advance if someone can help.
Scenario: Teacher / Student. Meeting is created dynamically - 1:1, and session is either embedded in web or via Zoom app - doesn’t matter really.
I would like to avoid having both as registered Zoom users, as these are random people who get connected via my platform. I do want student to join only after teacher (host). And the most important - I need to get meeting information after the session, that will tell me a) who joined when b) session time and whatever else is available. Otherwise, I can run into a finger pointing situation, “the other side didn’t join”
Is this possible, or the host must be a registered user? And if the host is registered, does he/she needs to have a license if I’m paying for sessions as platform payment/minute use.
This setup is very possible, many folks have built similar experiences, like Upschool.
Zoom Meetings are created for a host user; while the student (participants) can be anonymous participants, you will need a user for the teacher to create the meeting, govern the settings, and then get data after.
To provide Zoom Meetings licenses to your users, you’ll want to join our ISV Partner Program. This partnership gives special technical access to join hosts into a Zoom meeting based on the identity you set. You would provide a link (via API) to a teacher to start the meeting, and a standard join link to students. This partnership agreement is typically priced for established products who are providing licenses to their users.
Another option would be to have teachers use their own Zoom accounts. In this option, teachers would authorize your app using OAuth to create Meetings for their Zoom accounts. You could then also get data about these meeting IDs to help folks see participation and other details. Your app would need to be reviewed by our App Review team, and could be either published or unlisted on the App Marketplace.
All the data you’re looking for is available either on your own account or based on the meetings your app creates. You can see past participation through reports, past meeting endpoints, and webhook events:
You could also consider using our Video SDK, which would allow you to manage user login for new users. (This would be for virtual sessions on your web app, not the Zoom app). @rehema.zoom wrote a blog on this:
I would like to avoid having Host paying license fees. My understanding was that I can be billed by minute based on a session - the video will be inside my browser or custom app.
Sounds indeed like Video SDK; In this case Host can be registered by me, not being on paid license, and I’ll pay for the time?
Yes @benyamin.shedrinsky, that’s right! You’ll want to build user login & session creation yourself. If you’re looking for a guide to the backend, @ekaansh.zoom and @rehema.zoom just shared a full-stack sample of a telehealth app that functions exactly like your 1:1 education use case. The Video SDK lets you build your video interface to your own liking, but if you want to start with some presets, I’d use the UI Toolkit:
With the Video SDK, your first 10,000 minutes per month are free, then usage after that is billed at $0.0035/minute (pricing here), with discounts for prepaid credits. Let us know if you have any questions as you get building!
