Running Online Meetings

A meeting is a live video session for one or more of your classes. You can start one right now, link one to a scheduled class session, or let QraOnline create them for you every week.

Connect a video service first — see Setting Up Online Meetings.

▶Creating and joining a meetingSample video

Placeholder. Watch a meeting being created, joined as the host teacher, and then cancelled.

Starting a meeting right now

Every meeting you create becomes Live immediately and stays live for the duration you set. There's no separate "start" button to press.

1. In the left sidebar, click Meetings.
2. Click Create.
3. Fill in the form (see below).
4. Click Save.

The join link is ready straight away, and the people you attached get notified.

Blocked before you begin?

If you see "Meetings are not configured or are disabled for your center", no video service is connected yet. Click Go to settings and follow Setting Up Online Meetings.

Scheduling one instead

There's no separate "schedule for later" form. Instead you have two options:

• Link it to a class session — use Attach to a schedule occurrence on the create form, below. Good for a one-off replacement session.
• Let it happen automatically every week — tick Requires online meeting on the class schedule itself. See Automatic meetings from a class schedule.

For a regular weekly class, always use the second option. Set it once and forget it.

The create-meeting form

General

Field	What to enter	Required?
Title	A name for the session. Leave it blank and QraOnline names it after the teacher and the date and time.	No
Teacher	Who hosts the meeting. They get the host link, with host controls.	Yes
Duration (minutes)	How long the meeting stays live before it ends by itself. Leave blank for your center's default of 3 hours. Anything from 1 minute up to 24 hours.	No
Classes	Which classes are invited. This fills in automatically with the chosen teacher's classes — add or remove as needed. Students of these classes are the ones who get the invitation.	No
Show in calendar	On by default. Puts the meeting on the calendar so people can find it there.	No

Screenshot neededmeetings-create-form.png

What to capture: The Create meeting form with a title typed, a teacher selected, a duration set, and one or more classes chosen in the Classes field.

Add an arrow/highlight on: An arrow pointing at the Classes field — this is what decides who gets invited.

Save as static/img/docs/meetings-create-form.png

An empty Classes field invites nobody

A meeting with no classes attached still works, but no student is notified and no student sees it in their portal. If you want students to show up, attach their class.

Attaching it to a class session

Turn on Attach to a schedule occurrence to link this meeting to one of the teacher's existing weekly sessions, then pick the session from the Schedule occurrence dropdown. Only sessions around today are listed.

This is either/or with Show in calendar — turning one on turns the other off. The meeting appears with the class session instead of as its own calendar item.

If the dropdown is empty, that teacher has no upcoming sessions on the calendar. Add one in Calendar & Schedules.

Using a link from another service

You don't have to use QraOnline Free Meetings or Zoom. If your center runs its classes on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Skype, or anything else, you can paste that link in instead.

1. Start the meeting in that service as you normally would.
2. Copy its join link.
3. Turn on Use an external meeting link.
4. Paste the link into the External link field.

Screenshot neededmeetings-external-link-toggle.png

What to capture: The create-meeting form with the 'Use an external meeting link' toggle switched on and a Google Meet or Teams URL pasted into the External link field below it.

Add an arrow/highlight on: An arrow pointing at the toggle.

Save as static/img/docs/meetings-external-link-toggle.png

Everything else behaves the same — it shows on the calendar, students and teachers see it in their portals, and reminders still go out. QraOnline simply sends everyone to your link instead of creating one.

Because the meeting lives in another service, the Advanced options disappear — those are Zoom's host controls, and QraOnline can't apply them to someone else's link.

Works with no provider connected

This option is always available, even if you've never set up a meeting provider. It's the quickest way to run a one-off session hosted somewhere else.

Cancelling won't close the real meeting

Cancelling in QraOnline removes it from your calendar, but the meeting still exists in Google Meet or Teams. Close it there too if it shouldn't stay open.

Advanced options

Expand Show advanced provider options for per-meeting host settings. These only exist if your center uses Zoom: Waiting room, Join before host, Mute upon entry, and Meeting authentication. With QraOnline Free Meetings you'll see a note that there are no extra options.

Who gets invited

When you save the meeting:

• Students in every attached class get a notification with the meeting name and the join link. It arrives within a few moments.
• The hosting teacher gets a notification too, with their host link — unless they created the meeting themselves, in which case they already know.
• Admins aren't notified. You can always find meetings in the Meetings list.

To change which channels these go out on, or switch them off, see Notification Settings.

How people join

Person	How they join	What they get
The hosting teacher	Join meeting in their portal, or the link in their notification.	The host link, with host controls.
Students	Join meeting in the student portal, or the link they were sent.	The normal participant link.
Admins	Join meeting from the Meetings list, or from the calendar.	The participant link, unless they're also the host.

The button only appears while the meeting is Live. It opens the video call in a new tab.

Free meeting rooms are open

With QraOnline Free Meetings, anyone holding the link can walk in. Tell your teachers and students to sign in with their real email account before joining — that gives them moderator controls and makes the session much harder for a stranger to disrupt. QraOnline shows this reminder on live meetings too.

Meeting statuses

Status	What it means	What you do
Live	The meeting is inside its time window. The join button works.	Join it.
Ended	Its duration ran out, or it was closed.	Nothing. Create a new one if you need to meet again.
Cancelled	It was deleted.	Nothing.

Ending or deleting a meeting

A meeting ends on its own when its Duration runs out. That's why the duration field matters — set it roughly to how long the class actually runs.

To cancel one early:

1. Go to Meetings.
2. Open the actions menu on the meeting's row and choose Delete.
3. Confirm.

The meeting is marked Cancelled and disappears from the list, and the hosting teacher is notified that it was cancelled.

If your center uses Zoom, the real Zoom meeting is cancelled too. With QraOnline Free Meetings, the room link technically still works for anyone who kept it — see the warning above.

ملاحظة

Admins need permission to delete meetings. Teachers can only delete meetings they created themselves.

Automatic meetings from a class schedule

This is the best way to run a regular online class. You don't create anything by hand.

1. Go to Calendar and add or edit a class schedule.
2. Set Delivery type to Online or Hybrid.
3. Tick Requires online meeting.
4. Save.

From then on, QraOnline creates the meeting shortly before each weekly session starts and sends the join link out, exactly as if you'd made it yourself. The length comes from the session's start and end times.

You'll never get two meetings for the same session, even if something is saved twice.

Full details of the schedule form are in Calendar & Schedules.

The reminder before a meeting

QraOnline can remind the hosting teacher shortly before their meeting begins. You choose how many minutes ahead. It only works for meetings linked to a class session, because that's what tells QraOnline when the meeting starts.

Students get their own reminder from the class schedule instead — see Calendar & Schedules.

To change the timing or switch the reminder off, go to My workspace → Notifications and open the Meetings group. See Notification Settings.

Nudge a teacher yourself

In the Meetings list, the row actions include a Send WhatsApp reminder option for any meeting that hasn't ended. It sends the teacher a message straight away, without waiting for the automatic reminder. You need WhatsApp connected first — see Connecting WhatsApp.

Common questions

Do I have to pick a teacher? Yes. Every meeting needs a host, even one you create as an admin.

A student says they never got the link. Check the meeting's Classes field. If that student's class isn't attached, they were never invited. Also confirm the meeting notification is switched on in Notification Settings.

Can two teachers host at the same time? With QraOnline Free Meetings, yes — every meeting gets its own room. With Zoom, all meetings run through one Zoom account, so your Zoom plan decides whether overlapping meetings are allowed.

Can I extend a meeting that's about to end? Not while it's running. Create a new meeting and share the new link, or set a longer duration next time.

Zoom meetings won't create. One of your three Zoom values is wrong. See Setting Up Online Meetings.

Where do students see their meetings? In their own portal — see Learning Workflow.