Important Information for Online One-on-One Classes: New 40 Minute Zoom Time Limit on Free Accounts

A Zoom Basic (free) license now only allows meetings up to 40 minutes, but a typical class session should last 90 minutes. Oh no! What can we do?

Here are some steps to follow so that you can continue using your free Zoom account and have 90-minute classes with your student.  After meeting time limit is up, you and your student may restart the meeting after waiting 1 minute by just clicking on the same meeting link.  

 Follow these steps to continue having 90-minute class sessions using Zoom video conferencing:

1. Student and Teacher join the Zoom meeting.  
2. Teacher has pre-set a break for the meeting at 40 minutes (or whatever time feels like a good stopping point before 40 minutes.) 
3. At the 40-minute mark, the Teacher tells the Student they are taking a 5-minute break, and asks the Student to return in 5 min. *Taking a short break in the middle of a session is good practice for learning, too!  Encourage your student to get up, move around during the break, and maybe even bring back something to show you through the camera and talk about as you begin the second half of your session.
4. The Teacher ends the meeting (or continues teaching until the meeting automatically ends). 
5. When it’s time to return to the meeting, the Teacher and Student join the same meeting they just ended in the same way that they joined the first time (you can both click on the same meeting link, same calendar invite, use the same Meeting ID, etc.) 
6. Both the Student and Teacher will be in the same meeting, only it will now have a new 40-minute time limit. Be sure to wrap-up your class and assign homework before the next 40 minutes are up! If your session ends before you were finished, you can either join the same meeting link again or send a follow-up message to your Student or Teacher with the closing information for the class and homework assignment.