Introduction
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For students to be able to present effectively during a Blackboard Collaborate session they will need to be promoted from Participants to Presenters, the assessor(s) will take the role of Moderator or as Participants. The following guidance will outline how to effectively Moderate a Blackboard Collaborate session.
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General Guidance
Familiarise yourself with Blackboard Collaborate and review the Moderator Checklist. If the session will have External Examiners then Guest Links will need to be generated and shared prior to the session. Please do not share Guest Links with anyone other than those that require them as anyone with the link will be able to join the session.
Set expectations for participation
It is important to set expectations for your participants within a session, this is particularly important for assessments.
You may wish to inform your participants about:
- How you will communicate within the session;
- What role student(s) will have and when;
- When participants are expected to participate and how this will be managed, e.g. with simple 'hand raising' functionality;
- How partcipants are expected to participate, e.g. with use of visual cues, and verbally or within the text chat;
- Whether the session is being recorded.
Setting Up a Collaborate Session
Collaborate sessions are set up by adding an activity within Moodle. This video (17 minutes) shows how to set up a Blackboard Collaborate room within Moodle and use it for a live seminar or teaching event. Thanks to Ian Calder, UCL School of Management, for giving us permission to use this video. This video has captions and a transcript.
Alternatively, follow the instructions in the Blackboard Collaborate Resource Centre article Creating a Collaborate Session.
Technical requirements
At a minimum it is recommended that moderators have the following hardware and software available:
- An internet-connected desktop or laptop computer;
- An up-to-date web browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari; see Blackboard's list of supported browsers);
- A USB headset with combined headphones and microphone. Use of an internal laptop microphone can result in poor quality audio and should be avoided if possible;
- A webcam (optional). A laptop or inbuilt camera is sufficient.
Session Settings
To enable communication with and between participants in a session, you need to enable the communication features. This can be done in the Settings Panel, to access the Settings Panel click on the cog icon (highlighted with a rectangle).
The Settings Panel is accessible to Moderators, Presenters, and Participants, and acts as the location in which all session participants can control their audio and video and notification settings. In addition, Moderators can:
- Control session settings for all participants in this location;
- At the start of each session the Moderator(s) should enable 'Share audio' and 'Post chat messages' at a minimum;
- 'Share video' and 'Draw on whiteboard and files' can be toggled on and off throughout the session if needed, but should be controlled in order to reduce impact on bandwidth.
Managing Participant Roles
The student(s) who will be presenting will need to be promoted to Presenters during the session. By default students will join a BB Collaborate session as particpants. This can be done in the Attendees Panel.
The Attendees panel displays the Moderators, Presenters, and Participants who are currently in the session. The panel includes:
- The participant name and their session role, whether they have joined via Moodle or a guest link;
- A button with three lines to display their connection status;
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- A button with three dots to access additional actions for that user, e.g. to send a private chat message, change their role, or remove them from the session entirely. Note that these controls are only available to Moderators.
To make a student a Presenter. Click on the three dots next to the participant you want to promote. Select Make presenter from the menu that will appear. Once the student(s) have completed their presentation and any Q&A, their role can be returned to Participants.
The Participants panel also displays any feedback the individual has provided via the interaction menu.
Managing participants and the Interaction Menu
The Interaction Menu appears at the bottom of the main window. They enable you to share and mute your video and audio. You are also able to raise your hand, and view how many participants have raised their hands. If your audio or video are not active a line will appear through the icons. If they are active, the line will disappear and the icon will appear green.
To facilitate questions and answers during the session you may ask participants to raise their hands. A number badge on this button indicates the number of session participants who have raised their hands.
If a participant raises their hand you can invite them to speak. For them to speak Share Audio needs to be enabled in the Session Settings, this can only be done by a Moderator.
Lower Hand
You can cancel a hand raise, lower hand, in the Attendee Panel. Select the 3 dots next to the name of the participant whose had raise you wish to cancel. From the menu that appears select Lower Hand.
