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Introduction
The guidance in this section relates to live presentations or Vivas delivered via Blackboard Collaborate. or Microsoft Teams. If your assessment requires students to create and submit a video or audio recording then please refer to the guidance on video assignments. For Vivas it is a UCL requirement that these are recorded.
Set expectations for participation
It is important to set expectations for your participants within a session, this is particularly important for assessments.
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- 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.
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Blackboard Collaborate: General Guidance
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.
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.
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.
Recording the Session
BB Collaborate sessions can be recorded. The recording will appear in the Moodle course once it has been processed.
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To stop a recording, open the Session Menu and select Stop Recording. A pop-up box will appear briefly on the right-hand side to say that recording has stopped and the video camera icon will disappear.
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).
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- 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.
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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.
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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.
ISD has produced this video which explains a number of tools available for remote working. This includes Microsoft Office365 tools such as email, calendar, OneDrive and Teams and use of the virtual private network (VPN) and Desktop@UCL Anywhere for accessing central systems and software. This video has captions.
Teams
For student presentations or Vivas, you may wish to create a Microsoft Teams team for the purposes of assessment. View the Microsoft Office365 guidance: Get your team up and running.
Further information is available in the Go-to guide for team owners.
Meetings
Unlike Blackboard Collaborate, all participants in a Microsoft Teams meeting have the same privileges.
Set-up and joining a meeting
Microsoft Teams meetings can be scheduled from within Microsoft Teams or from Outlook:
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It is recommended that those not speaking mute their audio.
Recording a meeting
The host can record the Meeting/viva with the approval of other participants. When a recording starts, this is flagged up to all participants and by continuing in the meeting they are giving tacit approval. The recordings are stored securely (see below) and are GDPR compliant.
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For more information see the Office 365 guidance: Record a meeting in Teams.
Captions
It is possible to enable live captions during a Microsoft Teams meeting. However, they are only available to those using the Desktop App version of Microsoft Teams and captions are only available in English US at present.
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To turn off the live captions, click on the three dots and select Turn off Live Captions.
More information
For more information on how to use MS Teams see the LinkedIn learning course Microsoft Teams Essential Training.
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