Learning occurs within a community of inquiry through the interaction of cognitive, social, and teaching presence. Our objective was to understand how video conferencing generates student engagement and instructor presence in an online course. In November 2018, 69 students in an online class completed an anonymous survey via Qualtrics. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Of those who participated in a Zoom video conference session (n=46), 91% thought participating in a Zoom session helped them to prepare for the midterm. Compared to those who did not participate in Zoom, those who did reported a significantly higher feeling of teaching presence and a sense of a community of inquiry in the online course. While video conferencing may take extra time for the instructor to actively participate, instructor time could be saved from reading and grading discussion boards if Zoom is occasionally used in place of discussion boards. Our results indicate the need for further studies in how video conferencing may be fully incorporated in online course design to also increase social and cognitive presence.