Hi everyone,
I’m trying to understand how Zoom Webinar Attendence Reports handle participants who leave a webinar early, particularly in a case where an participant exits before the webinar officially ends but still appears as “present” for the full session duration—plus an extra five minutes past the scheduled end time.
Scenario Details:
- The participant joined Webinar A using their browser (not the Zoom desktop app).
- They participated in the first handful of minutes (including a poll), but exited just as the first breakout session was about to begin.
- They exited Webinar A by closing their browser window rather than clicking the "Leave Webinar” button.
- The participant then joined a Webinar B in a new browser tab immediately after exiting Webinar A.
- Webinar B’s start/end times overlapped with the last 60 minutes of Webinar A.
- In the Attendence Report, the participant was recorded as present for the entirety of both session durations (plus an additional 5 minutes beyond the scheduled end time of Webinar A), despite having exited Webinar A before the Webinar B began.
- The report also included an additional 1-minute entry/exit for Webinar A by the same participant about 10 minutes into the first webinar, which I don’t understand.
Data from the Attendence Report:
-
Webinar A
- Join Time: 10:30 AM
- Leave Time: 12:05 PM (even though the session was scheduled to end at 12:00 PM)
- Participant exited within the first 30 minutes by closing browser tab, right before the breakout session began.
-
Webinar A, same participant (unexpected entry)
- Join Time: 10:40 AM
- Leave Time: 10:41 AM
- This additional record shows a 1-minute attendance entry by the same participant, which seems unusual.
-
Webinar B
- Join Time: 11:00 AM
- Leave Time: 12:00 PM
- Opened in a new browser tab
Questions:
- Is this something possibly caused when the participant closes their browser window instead of clicking the “Leave Webinar” button to exit? Is there a documented known issue related to this?
- Does the browser-based experience impact how attendance is tracked differently than the Zoom desktop app?
- Could this be related to how Zoom handles inactive attendees (e.g., not detecting a browser window closure as an official exit)?
- Why would the report show an attendee as present 5 minutes past the scheduled end time of Webinar A?
- What could explain the one-minute entry at 10:40 AM - 10:41 AM? Is this related to a reconnection, or is it a known issue in reporting?
- Is there a way to ensure Attendence Reports reflect actual participation time rather than defaulting to the session’s full duration?
- Does the Attendence Report provide any way to tell if an participant was present in a breakout session?
Any insights or explanations on how Zoom tracks attendance in these cases would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
