Zoom for Education: one AI-first platform for every classroom and campus
Zoom is changing how academic and administrative campus environments work, delivering a unified communications platform that enables new ways to teach, learn and connect. SMERK Technologies designs, deploys and supports it across the UAE.
- Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice 2024
- G2 Leader in AI, UCaaS, CCaaS, VoIP & Video 2025
- FastCompany Most Innovative 2025
What is Zoom for Education?
Zoom for Education is Zoom’s AI-first unified communications platform packaged for academic and administrative campus environments. It brings meetings, webinars, chat, whiteboarding, room systems, campus space management and video management into a single platform with AI Companion built in, so an institution can run teaching, learning and campus operations without maintaining several disconnected video tools.
The cost of video chaos
Most institutions did not choose a fragmented video estate. It accumulated. Departments bought their own tools, recordings ended up in different places, and IT inherited the job of securing all of it.
$50K–120K+
Typical annual video management spend across multiple platforms.
Multiple
Separate platforms to secure, maintain and license.
Complex
Migrations and integrations every time something changes.
Figures as presented by Zoom Communications, 2025. Actual spend varies by institution.
Before
Scattered platforms and shadow IT video tools
With Zoom
One unified, AI-first content hub
Before
Basic hosting that just stores recordings
With Zoom
Interactive learning experiences at scale
Before
Limited tracking, little insight
With Zoom
Rich learner insights and measurable results
Four things you get on one platform
Instead of buying a video tool, a room system, a booking system and a lecture capture platform separately, each of these sits inside the environment your staff already use every day.
Teaching and learning
Meetings, Webinars, Team Chat, Whiteboard and Huddles give teaching staff one place to run live classes, office hours and staff collaboration.
- Meetings and Webinars
- Team Chat and Huddles
- Whiteboard and Clips
Classrooms and Zoom Rooms
Purpose-built room hardware turns lecture theatres, seminar rooms and huddle spaces into two-way hybrid teaching environments.
- Hybrid classroom designs
- Zoom Rooms Appliances
- Scheduling displays
Video management
One secure library for everything the institution records, with hands-free lecture capture and publishing straight into the LMS.
- Hands-free lecture capture
- Class-specific channels
- LTI 1.3 LMS publishing
AI Companion
AI Companion is built into the platform to summarise lectures, generate smart chapters and support assessment workflows.
- Lecture and video summaries
- Smart chapters
- AI-generated surveys
Room designs matched to how the space is taught in
In a blended classroom every communication path matters: on-site teachers, on-site students and virtual students all need to hear, see and learn with each other. The hardware design decides whether that works.
Blended classroomDual-display stacked cart
A UC all-in-one bar with a touch controller on a dual-display cart. Built for blended classrooms where on-site teachers, on-site students and virtual students all need to communicate with each other, and for strong remote-presenter experiences.
Lecture theatreProAV hybrid classroom
A bi-directional Zoom Rooms experience with large front displays and an audience camera for the student view, plus a presenter tracking camera and dual confidence monitors so the teacher keeps eye contact with both audiences.
Small groupHuddle space
A Zoom Rooms Appliance bar integrating compute, microphone, speaker and camera in one device, designed to scale, deploy and manage easily. An external scheduling display lets users view or reserve this and other bookable rooms.
Add-on devicesCompanion whiteboard and document camera
A touch display with compute acts as a companion device for whiteboarding and content mark-up. A document camera shares books and physical objects into the session for practical and lab teaching.
Why a ProAV classroom needs four camera and display roles
- 1
Presenter tracking camera
Keeps the teacher framed as they move, so remote students always see them.
- 2
Remote students on a dedicated display
A second large display is given over to the virtual audience rather than sharing one screen.
- 3
Dual confidence monitors
Let the teacher hold eye contact with the virtual audience and the room at the same time.
- 4
Audience camera
Captures the on-site student view so remote participants see the whole room, not just the lectern.
What institutions run in Zoom Rooms
- Hybrid classroom
- Remote tutoring
- Professional development
- Virtual field trips
- Guest speakers
- District collaborations
- Career interviews and fairs
- Virtual school
Every recording in one place
Institutions already create video in Meetings, Webinars, Events, Clips and Rooms. The gap is that there is rarely one place to publish it. Zoom Video Management closes that gap: one secure platform for all video, complete control and visibility, and measurable learning results.
Hands-free lecture capture
Lectures record and publish automatically through Zoom Rooms into class-specific channels. Staff can also record with Zoom Clips or upload third-party video into the same library.
Inclusive for every learner
Built-in closed captions, transcriptions and translations, and variable playback speeds support flexible, inclusive learning and accessibility requirements.
AI-powered learning tools
AI Companion is integrated for improved learning outcomes, with smart chapters, video and lecture summaries, and AI-generated surveys and quizzes.
Video inside the LMS you already run
Recorded lectures and video libraries appear inside your existing learning management system, so students do not have to learn a second platform to find their content.
- Canvas
- Moodle
- Brightspace
- Blackboard
- Schoology
- Sakai
Beyond the classroom
The same platform handles the physical campus: which rooms are free, how people find them, and who is on site.
Workspace Reservation
Faculty and students reserve classrooms and flexible workspaces ahead of time or on arrival, through a browser or the Zoom app. Includes a data-rich dashboard, customisable questionnaires and AI-personalised desk suggestions.
Wayfinding
Routes are configured intelligently so users can find their workspace, guided from the campus entrance to the classroom on mobile devices and kiosks.
Visitor Management
Invite guests to campus with simple workflows, get notified on arrival, initiate badge printing, and reserve visitors a Zoom-enabled space.
How a workspace reservation actually runs
Step 1
View openings
Step 2
Reserve space
Step 3
Find your workspace
Step 4
Check in
Step 5
Do great work
Step 6
Check out
Secure access for students without a Zoom account
SSO for the classroom
Zoom’s external authentication feature lets students authenticate without holding a Zoom account. Only authenticated students are admitted to the session, which adds protection for every class.
- One-click access from school applications
- Only authenticated students admitted
- Meeting history logged for attendance tracking
Account-level controls
Single sign-on, branding and managed domains are included from the Standard tier upward, with customer-managed key available on Enterprise Plus.
- SSO across all education tiers
- Branding and managed domains
- Customer-managed key on Enterprise Plus
Zoom Workplace for Education at a glance
Education licensing comes in four tiers. The right one usually comes down to headcount, whether you need translations, and whether Zoom Phone and Rooms are in scope.
Workplace for EDU Standard New
Entry-level, focused on Meetings
Minimum 20+, named or site-wide
- 300 meeting participants
- 1 GB cloud storage
- Unlimited whiteboards
- Automated captions (no translations)
- SSO, branding and managed domains
Enterprise Essentials
Collaboration-centric for hybrid work and learning
Minimum 100+ K-12, 250+ higher education
- 500 meeting participants
- 10 GB cloud storage
- Captions and translations
- 500 webinar attendees
- Workspace Reservation and Visitor Management
- Zoom Rooms and Conference Room Connector (1:25)
Enterprise Plus
Adds Zoom Phone, Whiteboard Plus and Webinar Plus
Minimum 100+ K-12, 250+ higher education
- 1,000 meeting participants
- Unlimited cloud storage
- Whiteboard Plus
- Zoom Phone and common area phones
- 1,000 Webinar Plus attendees
- Customer-managed key
- Zoom Rooms and Conference Room Connector (1:1)
Enterprise Premier
Everything in Enterprise Plus, plus calling and Mesh
Minimum 100+ K-12, 250+ higher education
- Unlimited regional Zoom Phone calling
- Zoom Mesh
- All Enterprise Plus entitlements
Note on entitlements. Tier contents reflect Zoom’s education plan structure as of February 2026 and are subject to change. Optional student add-ons are available for active part-time and full-time post-secondary students when purchasing a site licence, and are not available to unenrolled, visiting or alumni students. We confirm current entitlements, minimums and pricing for your institution during scoping.
How we deliver Zoom for Education in the UAE
Licences alone do not change how a class is taught. The room design, the network, the LMS integration and staff confidence decide whether the investment gets used.
Assess and design
We survey your rooms, network and existing platforms, then map which Zoom Rooms design fits each space and which licence tier fits your headcount.
Deploy and integrate
Room hardware installation and commissioning, SSO and directory setup, and LTI 1.3 integration into your existing LMS.
Train and adopt
Hands-on enablement for teaching staff, IT teams and AV operators so the rooms actually get used the way they were designed.
Support and optimise
Ongoing support, AMC options and periodic reviews as your estate grows and Zoom releases new education capability.
Related: Smart classroom solutions, video conferencing solutions in Dubai and certified trainings.
Zoom for Education questions, answered
What is Zoom for Education?
Zoom for Education is Zoom’s AI-first unified communications platform packaged for academic and administrative campus environments. It brings meetings, webinars, chat, whiteboarding, room systems, campus space management and video management into one platform, with AI Companion built in, so institutions can teach, learn and connect without running several disconnected video tools.
How is Zoom for Education different from a standard Zoom licence?
The education plans are structured around institutional needs rather than business teams. They carry education-specific minimum seat counts, site-wide licence coverage, optional student add-ons for post-secondary students, and campus capabilities such as Workspace Reservation, Wayfinding and Visitor Management. Zoom Workplace for EDU is sold in Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Premier tiers.
Does Zoom integrate with our LMS?
Yes. Zoom Video Management supports LTI 1.3 integration, so recorded lectures and video libraries appear inside the LMS your staff and students already use. Supported platforms include Canvas, Moodle, Brightspace, Blackboard, Schoology and Sakai, among others.
Can lectures be recorded and published automatically?
Yes. Hands-free lecture capture automatically records and publishes lectures through Zoom Rooms into class-specific channels, with full LMS integration. Staff can also record with Zoom Clips or upload third-party video into the same library.
How does Zoom support accessibility and inclusive learning?
Zoom includes built-in closed captions, transcriptions and translations, and variable playback speeds, which supports flexible and inclusive learning as well as accessibility obligations. Translation availability depends on the licence tier: automated captions are included from Standard, while translations come with Enterprise Essentials and above.
How do students join securely without a Zoom account?
Zoom’s external authentication feature lets students authenticate without holding a Zoom account. Only authenticated students are admitted to the session, students get one-click access from their school applications, and meeting history is logged in the Zoom dashboard, which helps with attendance tracking.
What is a Zoom Huddle?
A Zoom Huddle is a video-enabled virtual coworking space designed to bring the fluid interaction of in-person work to distributed and hybrid teams across the working day. Participants appear as video tiles, a Huddle can stay active for up to 30 consecutive hours, and smaller Conversations can be split off inside a Huddle for private discussion. A user can be in only one Huddle at a time, and cannot be in a Huddle and a Meeting simultaneously.
Which Zoom Rooms design suits our classrooms?
It depends on the room. A dual-display stacked cart with a UC all-in-one bar suits blended classrooms. A ProAV hybrid classroom with presenter tracking and confidence monitors suits lecture theatres. A Zoom Rooms Appliance bar suits huddle and seminar spaces. SMERK Technologies surveys each space and recommends the design that matches how the room is actually taught in.
Are student licences available in the UAE?
Optional student add-ons are available with Zoom Workplace for Education Standard and Enterprise plans when purchasing a site licence, for active part-time and full-time post-secondary students. They are not available to unenrolled, visiting or alumni students, and they do not count toward other entitlements under an Enterprise plan. We confirm current availability and terms for your institution during scoping.
Who deploys and supports Zoom for Education in the UAE?
SMERK Technologies designs, deploys, integrates and supports Zoom for Education environments across the UAE, covering room hardware, SSO and directory configuration, LMS integration, staff enablement and ongoing support. Talk to our team to scope your campus.
Let’s scope your campus
Tell us how many rooms, how many users and which LMS you run. We will map the room designs and the licence tier that fit, and give you a clear deployment plan.
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