Record a Lecture with Zoom

Table of Contents



Recording Lectures in Advance

We recommend that you use the Cloud Recording option, as this will allow you to easily make these recordings available to your students in Canvas.

You can use Zoom to pre-record a lecture in advance for your students.

You can set meetings to automatically be recorded using the Meeting Settings.

To set up for recording a lecture, click the orange "New Meeting" button from the Zoom desktop app

When you have joined the new meeting, click "Record" and then "Record to the Cloud", as shown below.

Please be aware that you must be either a host or co-host to begin cloud recording.

If you originated this meeting, you are already the host.

To stop or pause the recording, click "Pause/Stop Recording". Ending the meeting will also stop recording.

You can read in more detail about Cloud Recording here.

Cloud Recording Processing Time

Please note that your recordings will need to undergo a processing time before they are made available to you. This processing time allows Zoom to make the recording available for viewing, as well as generate the audio transcription.

When the recording has finished processing, you'll receive an email similar to the below:

Importing Your Lectures from Zoom to Canvas

Once your Zoom recording is processed, if you plan to share it using the Canvas Zoom integration via the "Publish" feature, you'll first need to import the cloud meeting into the Canvas Zoom integration.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Open the course in Canvas where you want the recording to be available
  2. Click the "Zoom" option in the sidebar
  3. Click the "All My Zoom Meetings/Recordings" link
  4. Click the "Cloud Recordings" tab to view your existing recordings
  5. Located your desired meeting and make note of or copy its ID
    1. This will be in the format nnn-nnn-nnn
  6. Click the "Zoom" option in the sidebar once again
  7. In the upper right, click the  button and click "Import Meeting"
  8. In the prompt that appears, paste or enter in the ID of the recording from step 5, then click "Import"
  9. You'll receive a small green notification of "Import Success"
  10. Click on "Cloud Recordings" to view the imported recording

You can then choose to click the "Publish" toggle if you'd like the recording to be made available to students in their "Zoom" tab in your course.


Audio Transcription and Captions

Zoom Automatic Audio Transcription

For recordings saved to the cloud, Zoom can automatically create audio transcript that can make your recordings more accessible.

To use the automatic transcription feature follow these steps:

  1. Visit utexas.zoom.us
  2. Click "Sign in" and enter in your UT EID and password
  3. In the left-hand sidebar, click "Settings"
  4. Click the "Recording" tab
  5. Scroll to the "Cloud Recording" section and, under the "Advanced cloud recording settings" section, check the box next to "Audio transcript"

With this feature enabled, your cloud recordings will include an automatically-generated audio transcript that will be available shortly after the recording has been processed by Zoom.

Because this transcript is created using automated transcription, it may not accurately reflect the entirety of your recording, especially in moments of unclear or low quality audio or moments where multiple participants are speaking at once. You can edit the transcript to remedy any issues or errors.

Captioning and Transcription Services

The University of Texas Libraries provides a Captioning and Transcription Service that you can take advantage of to make your recordings more accessible.

Please note that this is a costed service.


Publish a Cloud Recorded Meeting for your students to view

Once you record a Meeting in Zoom, it will be saved to the Cloud within Zoom.

Your Cloud Recordings are accessible from the Canvas integration. 

To publish a cloud recording for your students to view, follow the steps below:

  1. Please select the 'Cloud Recordings' tab.
  2. Find the recorded Meeting you want to Publish and enable it by turning on the 'Publish' toggle next to the listed recording.
  3. 'Publish' means students can find it in Canvas via the student's Zoom tab within Canvas.

Linking a Recording to Pages or Announcements

If you would like to post your recording into any preferred platform in Canvas such as Pages, Modules, or Announcements

*You can also use this as a workaround if your students cannot see your recording even if has been published or if you want to copy a recording to a different class


  1. Navigate to your Cloud Recordings and click on the recording you want to share
  2. Click Share under the video you want to share with students


  3.  Highlight the link and copy it, or click the copy button to include all of the text in the box


  4. Paste the link and information into any platform you prefer (example below)