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Live sessions and attendance

Many courses meet live on Zoom, usually once a week at the same time. We keep a record of who attended each session, because some certificates and CE credits depend on it.

When a course meets on Zoom, you get a personal link to its meetings. It is the same link for every session of the course, and it is how Zoom knows it is you. Please do not share it: it works on one device at a time, and anyone using it would be recorded as you.

We email it to you as soon as it is made, in an email called "Your link to the live sessions of" the course, with the dates of the sessions. You also find it:

  • On the course's card in My courses: Join on Zoom, with the date of the next session.
  • In the reminder emails we send before each session.
  • In the course's live lessons, if the course has material online.

Joining a session

Open your link a few minutes before the start. If you have Zoom's app, the link opens it; otherwise Zoom offers to join from your browser. You do not need a Zoom account. If the course team has set up a waiting room, you are let in when the session starts.

If you get disconnected

Your link is not used up when you open it. It works for every session of the course, as often as you need, so if you drop out you simply open the same link again.

  • Leaving with Zoom's Leave button frees your link at once: you can open it again straight away, on the same device or another one.
  • If your browser, the tab or the Zoom app closed suddenly (a crash, a dead battery, a lost connection), Zoom may go on thinking you are still in the meeting for a few minutes. During that time it may say you are already in the meeting, or not let you in. Wait two or three minutes and open your link again; once Zoom notices you left, it lets you in.
  • Your link works on one device at a time. To move from your computer to your phone, leave on the computer first. This is what stops anyone else using your place.
  • You lose only the minutes you were out. Your time adds up over every time you joined, so a short gap does not cost you the session as long as your total is at least 80% of it.

Where to find your link again: the email "Your link to the live sessions of" the course, the course's card in My courses (Join on Zoom), any reminder email, or the course's live lessons. If you are not signed in, sign in with the email address you registered with and the course is in My courses.

Still cannot get in after a few minutes? Write to us at admin@orinyc.org. If you then joined another way, such as by phone, tell us afterwards with This is not right (see below) and we will count the time you were there.

How attendance is counted

After each session we read Zoom's attendance report, usually about an hour after it ends. A session counts as Attended when you were in it for at least 80% of its time, adding up every time you joined, so a dropped connection and a quick rejoin do not count against you. Time in the waiting room does not count.

  • Attended: you were there for at least 80% of the session.
  • Partly attended: you were there, for less than that.
  • Not recorded as attending: Zoom's report does not show you.
  • Excused: the course team has excused you from the session.
  • Before you registered: the session took place before you registered, so it does not count either way.

Sessions held in person, or anywhere other than the course's Zoom meeting, are marked by the course team.

Seeing your attendance

On the course's card in My courses, Live sessions shows the next session and how many you have attended so far. Choose Attendance to see every session with its mark.

If a mark is wrong

Zoom recognises you by your personal link. If you joined another way, Zoom's report may not show you: for example, if you joined by phone, from someone else's link or the link in a forwarded email, from a different Zoom account, or under a different name.

On the attendance page, choose This is not right beside the session and tell us what happened: how you joined, from which device, and under what name if you remember. The more you tell us, the quicker we can find you in Zoom's report. We look into every report and email you the outcome, and the page shows it too. If we find you, the session is marked as attended.

You can report a session once it is over, one report at a time for each session.

Questions

I lost the link. Open My courses: the course's card always has it. Reminder emails carry it too.

My browser closed in the middle of a session and the link will not let me back in. Zoom still thinks you are in the meeting. Wait two or three minutes and open the same link again. Next time, if you can, leave with Zoom's Leave button: that frees the link at once.

Can someone else join with my link? Please do not let them: the link lets one device in at a time, and whoever uses it is recorded as you. A colleague who wants to attend can register for the course.

I joined from my phone's Zoom app and my computer at the same time. Your personal link lets in one device at a time, so joining on the second moves you there. That is fine: all your time in the session is added up.

Who sees my attendance? You, the course's instructor, and the staff who run the course. If something still looks wrong after we have answered, write to us at admin@orinyc.org.