Record your Zoom Meetings to Create eLearning Videos
We all know that using video-based course content is a great way to train your learners. But how can you create it from scratch? Here at LearnUpon, we record lots of team meetings, product sessions, and presentations that we share with the wider company via our training portal. It’s a great way to reformat your video content and make it easier to share knowledge across teams without the need to attend the live sessions.
This approach has helped us build up informative training content for new team members. How do we do it? We use Zoom, a great web conferencing tool, to facilitate and record these meetings.
How to record a Zoom meeting
To start a recording in Zoom follow these simple steps:
- Start the meeting as the host
- Click the Record button
Choose to ‘Record on this Computer’ or ‘Record to the Cloud’. Recording to your computer saves the recorded videos to the hard drive of the device you are currently using. Recording to the Cloud allows you to host your training video in the ‘My Recordings’ section of your Zoom account. Saving to the cloud is the better option to choose if multiple people are involved in the process, as it gives everyone access to the recordings. 
When you start recording a ‘recording’ message is displayed on-screen to you and the other attendees. You can stop or pause the recording at any time. You should note, however, that stopping the recording will split the video, producing multiple files. So if you want to keep things simple and have a single recording of a meeting, just hit pause.
To end a recording, click on the stop button above the ‘Pause/Stop Recording’ text or simply click the red ‘End Meeting’ button at the bottom of the screen. After the meeting has ended the video will be converted and stored in the destination you chose. 
Alternatively, you can set your meeting to automatically record when you set up the session in your Zoom account.
- Navigate to your Account settings and click on ‘Recording’
- Make sure the box for automatic recording is ticked
- Choose where the recordings will be placed
What is recorded?
To choose which screens are being shared and more importantly, being recorded click on the ‘Share’ option. In the dialog box that appears you will see all of the applications and screens that you have open. You can choose from there which one you want to share on screen for recording.
These need to be set up by clicking the upwards arrow to the right-hand side of the start/stop video option. From there you can click on Recording and select the option “Record video during screen sharing” and/or “Place video next to the shared screen in the recording”. Your sharing options include:
- Record the presenter(s)
- Record a presentation as the presenter(s) speak over it. A presentation can be a PowerPoint or a screen capture of the presenter using an application.
- Record a presentation or screen capture with a small thumbnail image of the presenter in one of the corners.
There are lots of other possibilities available to you, but these three are a great place to start.
Where is the recording?
As mentioned previously, cloud recordings are found in your Zoom account in the ‘My Recordings’ section. They take a little time to process so you may have to wait a few minutes for them to become available. If you chose the local, record to computer option your video will appear in the default location
- PC: C:\Users\User Name\Documents\Zoom
- Mac: /Users/User Name/Documents/Zoom
During the actual download process, you can choose another location such as your desktop.
Where to use your videos
Now that you’ve captured a recording of your latest Zoom meeting how will you use it? We suggest you edit out any excess footage at the start and the end of the recording. The video should start straight into the presentation or meeting itself. Here at LearnUpon, we record two different types of meetings, for two very different audiences – our colleagues and our customers. Recordings of internal presentations and meetings are uploaded to our LMS.
These become eLearning courses for new hire onboarding or for enabling team members to keep up to date on our latest features and releases. For example, our product team created a recording explaining how a LearnUpon admin can integrate their LMS with Zoom. This session took place just before we released our Zoom webinar integration and got everyone up to speed on exactly how it works. And then there are videos recorded for the public. We run and record webinars on various topics and the recordings now live on our YouTube and Vimeo accounts.Â
Conclusion
Recording live sessions is an easy way to create really engaging and informative training content. And tools like Zoom make it easy to record these sessions for resharing. Take time to identify the meeting and webinar sessions that are already happening in your organization that could be repurposed into training content by simply hitting record. Â
29 Comments
Kelly Magnan
2019-10-14 21:59:14
Thank you so much for posting this information. I found it extremely helpful!
ReplyEmma
2019-10-15 09:31:18
Happy to help, Kelly!
Replykasssie
2019-11-04 11:08:12
Thanks for your post! As for zoom meeting, I had recorded it with a third-party tool called DRmare Sound Recorder. But I will try the tip you show us also. Thanks a lot!
ReplyEmma
2019-11-05 16:46:37
You're welcome Kassie. Good luck!
ReplyDoug
2019-11-08 17:50:11
It is not clear to me whether conversations of all call-in participants are being recorded, or only the presenter. And if participants ARE recorded, are their any restrictions on how they call into the the meeting? These features have long been a standard feature in GoToMeeting (which I want to get away from), but I have had difficulty finding alternative meeting software with flexible full recording of all participant calls even if they are calling in from landline to the meeting. Doug
ReplyEmma
2019-11-13 12:05:33
Hi Doug, thanks for the question. I believe that if on a call with other participants, they are recorded too. However, if you're interested in Zoom, it's best to reach out to them as I'm sure they will be able to better answer your questions and point you in the right direction.
ReplyLaQuetta
2020-01-04 22:30:32
As a self-proclaimed "tech-dinosaur" I appreciate this simple-to-follow approach. I will give it the old school college try ;)
ReplyEmma
2020-01-07 09:03:50
Happy to hear you found this post helpful, LaQuetta. Good luck with your recordings!
ReplyDorothy
2020-03-19 17:42:57
Can I record the presentation then schedule it to be viewed at another time?
ReplyEmma
2020-04-01 11:56:41
Hi Dorothy, yes, you can. If you'd like you can record your presentation, and then you can schedule a webinar and simply play that video during the webinar. Hope that helps.
ReplyCaitlin
2020-04-02 02:44:40
Thanks for sharing. To host webinar and play the video, which program do you suggest? Would you just add the video to a PowerPoint slide and play it from there or something else?
ReplyBrett
2020-03-26 22:30:10
I lost you at this part, I am trying to figure out the different recording options: "To choose which screens are being shared and more importantly, being recorded click on the ‘Share’ option. In the dialog box that appears you will see all of the applications and screens that you have open. You can choose from there which one you want to share on screen for recording." I have no "Share" Option to click on. Just "Share Screen," which, obviously, allows me to share other programs/desktop. Where is that dialog box?
ReplyEmma
2020-04-01 14:10:28
Hi Brett, apologies for the confusion! Yes, the button is called “Share Screen". Once clicked, the box will pop up asking you which one of your open applications and screens you'd like to share, aka the dialog box. Hope that clears it up!
ReplyTina
2020-04-06 19:28:31
I would like to record a presentation using zoom to share at a later date with others. Is the zoom cloud feature the method needed in order to "share it?" I don't appear to have the cloud recording as an option. Can you help?
ReplyEmma
2020-04-10 13:31:14
Hi Tina, I'd suggest reaching out to Zoom and seeing what your options are. They should be able to point you in the right direction. Thanks!
ReplyKaren Welch
2020-04-10 22:47:02
How can you enhance your audio on a recording? Do you need to purchase a separate microphone for that purpose?
ReplyEmma
2020-04-16 16:28:58
Hi Karen, you have a few options when it comes to improving the audio of your recordings. Generally if you want good quality audio, a microphone is your best bet. You can get relatively inexpensive ones too! Small tweaks such as getting closer to the microphone, recording in a quiet room, and eliminating ambient noise helps a lot. You can also take advantage of audio editing tools. We have a post all about Audacity, a relatively simple to use editing tool. Hope that helps.
ReplyJohn Enriquez
2020-07-27 02:34:47
Wow this is awesome. I want to commend you for giving this tip. Before I am using another software to record Zoom meeting which is Acethinker Screen Grabber Pro. For this time, I will definitely try your suggestion. Thank you!
ReplyAmber Tsiang
2020-08-26 03:51:22
Hi there, thanks for your nice sharing! As you suggest, I tried the local recorder. But it turned out that it can only record Zoom screen? Or something was wrong during my recording settings? And I also found that it has not been fully developed and does not work as great as many third-party screen recorders. I have Joyoshare Screen Recorder now. It can record Zoom in HD smoothly. Share it here as an alternative. I think I might check the local recorder for a second time.
ReplyHemang
2020-09-01 12:47:27
Hi, It's indeed a great technique available at Zoom. However, I find to have a grey colured band(or patch) appearing on the left side of the speaker (Host) window in the recording. Whats the solution of it?
ReplyKatelynn
2020-09-07 22:14:22
Is there a way to record just the presenter and the shared screen? This way participants and their images are not being recorded.
ReplyEmma
2020-10-22 15:44:49
Hi Kateyln, if you run the session as a webinar the host will only be recorded. Alternatively, I'd reach out to Zoom as they might be able to offer you some insight!
Replysemira
2020-10-12 13:40:53
Hi thank you very much for your simple guide I am trying to do this "Record a presentation or screen capture with a small thumbnail image of the presenter in one of the corners." I have done all you suggest, but have black box on top right hand side instead of my image that was videoed. The ppt are showing fine as is my voice, but not my picture in the video box. I am not sure if that makes sense? Please can you advise?
ReplyEmma
2020-10-22 15:42:06
Hi Semira, I suggest you reach out to Zoom about this query as they will likely offer the best solution for you!
ReplyJames
2020-12-03 13:28:56
I have someone's video feed pinned and then someone shares their screen. The shared screen goes almost full sized and the video feed is shrunken and off to the side. I'm looking for a way to continue to only see the video feed, not the shared screen. Is there a way?
ReplyEmma
2020-12-15 12:41:14
Hi James, I'd suggest reaching out to Zoom's support team and asking for help with this. They should be able to point you in the right direction!
ReplyHutch
2020-12-10 11:54:46
Thanks for the great article!
Replyfedz
2020-12-17 13:50:05
If you selected by mistake for the elements of the webinar to be recorded separate as oppose to being one recording, can you still access the full complete session? If so how?
Reply