Question about participants in basic plan

[kblailock2]

Hello! 

I am a tutor and just created a zoom account with the basic plan. I will have 5 students over the course of 5 hours, but only one student at a time. Will I have to upgrade my account or will this be fine with the basic account? I know there is a 40 minute time limit when there are multiple participants, but again there will be only 1 participant at a time but 5 participants over the course of an hour. There will also be no overlap, once the previous student leaves I then admit the next student from the waiting room

Please help 

[wfh_withcoffee]

Hi @kblailock2, so long as there is no overlap in students/attendance as you noted, your basic license will be sufficient. Good luck teaching class! 

[Bort]

Hi @kblailock2, 

While you will have only 1 other participant at any given time, Zoom counts each time someone joins as a participant. Thus, when your 2nd student joins the session, you would hit the 3 or more participants threshold and begin the 40 minute limit. What you can do is schedule each student a different meeting, and just end the previous student's session before starting the next. Alternatively, you could just one 1 meeting for each, just ending the session completely between each student to reset the participant counter. 

Hope that helps and please make sure to mark the solution as accepted if this information is what you needed.

[wfh_withcoffee]

To add some clarification from @Bort's response:

• While you will have only 1 other participant at any given time, Zoom counts each time someone joins as a participant. 
  
  • This is partially true the context of the question – for the purposes of reporting (available with a Pro license) Zoom will count each time someone joins as a participant. So if someone joins the meeting, leaves, and joins again, a report would show two entries for that participant. 
• Thus, when your 2nd student joins the session, you would hit the 3 or more participants threshold and begin the 40 minute limit.
  • This is true, if you + 2x students are joined at the same time, the 40-minute group meeting timer would begin. 
  • However, if: You + Student A are joined to the meeting (2x attendees) > then, Student A leaves (1x attendee) > then, Student B joins (2x attendees), you would still be in a 1-on-1 meeting and therefore not trigger the 40-minute group-meeting timer. 
    

To tie this together, you want to ensure that only one student is in your meeting at any one time to prevent the 40-minute group meeting timer from starting, though it will be fine if the students entry is properly staggered. 

The Waiting Room is counted for attendance. So if you are in a 1-on-1 Meeting and a student (or two) join the Waiting Room, they are counted as a participant and would trigger the 40-minute group meeting timer. To avoid this, you can Lock your meeting, then unlock it once your student leaves. (see: In Meeting Security Options)

Scheduling multiple meetings, one for each student, is tedious and leaves room for communications errors.

To be safe, and to make it as easy as possible for all, I would consider @Bort 's 2nd recommendation:

• Schedule one meeting for all students...
• End your meeting each time after meeting with each student...
• Restart the same meeting to restart the (free) Meeting clock