Set up Live Sessions with the Facil Tool

Allison McComb Updated by Allison McComb

Set up Live Sessions with the Facil Tool

For courses that have the Facil Tool feature present, you can automatically set up the Live Sessions by using these instructions for “installing” and using the setup tool.

This tool will:
  • Create and configure Zoom meetings in the Zoom LTI “Live Sessions” page (and also creates calendar events).
  • Update the “Live Session Information” page (if present) with the correct dates and times.
  • Create the main Live Sessions announcement that is released at 9:15 on the first day of the course.
  • Create “day before” reminder announcements for 24 hours before each session.
  • Create “happening now” reminder announcements for 15 minutes before each session.
  • Update the calendar events to have correct links.

All of this will be done for you when you follow these steps: 

  1. Go to your course and click the "Facil" button near the top to open the tool as a sidebar on the right.
  1. In the sidebar, find the "Live Sessions" section and expand it (if collapsed).  
  1. Select the date and time for each live session, using the Eastern Time time zone.  Recommended dates and times will be preselected but you are free to change them.  
  2. Click the “Setup Live Sessions” button.  After 15-60 seconds it will list the steps it completed. 

Ultimately, the course setup is the facilitator's responsibility. Even when the tool indicates that it set up the Live Sessions, it is important to verify the setup by manually checking:

  • the "Live Sessions" page for properly configured Zoom meetings.
  • the "Live Session Information" page to ensure the dates and times are correct.
  • the course announcements to ensure the main Live Session announcement and all reminder announcements are correct.
  • the course calendar to ensure the calendar events are present and correct.
Troubleshooting the Facil Tool

Instructors email is invalid
PROBLEM:  You may see "Warning: The instructor's email(your_name@ecornell.com) is invalid(2216)." when you go to the "Live Sessions" page.

SOLUTION: Your Canvas account needs to have your cornell.edu account as the default email address.  In most cases this has been done for you automatically.  However, you need to do this manually if you see the above error.To resolve this issue by changing your default email address setting in Canvas, do the following steps:
- In Canvas, go to ‘Account,’ then ‘‘Settings’.
-Click the ‘+’ button next to your @ecornell.com address to input your @cornell.edu email.
- Go to your @cornell.edu inbox and follow the instructions for verification.
- Back in the "Settings" page, refresh the page and then select the ‘star’ next to your @cornell.edu address to make it the default email address.
Only “Refresh Calendar Entries” button showing
PROBLEM: In some of those situations, the tool will now display: “If you have not run the setup tool yet in this course but you did manually create some course calendar entries, then you might only see a refresh calendar button above and you may need to remove those course calendar entries before the tool can be used.”
SOLUTION: You will need to delete all calendar entries that you manually created before the tool can be used.
“Unable to connect to Zoom”
PROBLEM: Error message that states “Unable to connect to Zoom”.
SOLUTION: In addition to ensuring you have set your default email to your cornell.edu address (per the "Instructor email is invalid" problem listed above, you will also need to make sure that you have activated your Cornell Zoom account by logging into this website with your Net ID credentials. After you have done this, you will need to fully refresh the course and try again.

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