Part 6: Effective Course Communication
Web Conferencing in D2L (Blackboard Collaborate)
Instructors and TAs can set up and manage web conferences directly from their D2L course. These web conferences can be used for a number of purposes, such as live discussions, presentations, guest speakers/lecturers, office hours, virtual review sessions and so on.
Learn@UW web conferencing uses Blackboard Collaborate software. Blackboard Collaborate is a browser-based web conferencing tool that allows people to communicate, collaborate, and participate in virtual meetings.
Why D2L Web Conferencing?
The advantage of making a web conference available from your D2L course is that people you invite from your Classlist can access the web conference directly from the course. Collaborate will recognize those who join the web conference from your course and assign them the appropriate name and permissions. You can also save recordings (“archives”) of web conferences right in your course and people in the Classlist can access those archives later if you allow them to do so.
Before You Get Started
Setting up web conferences in a Learn@UW course includes:
- Creating a web conference and modifying its properties including name, date/time, and other settings
- Adding and inviting attendees
Creating a Web Conference and Modifying its Properties
Step 1:
Go to your course homepage and click the Web Conferencing link in the navigation bar (this is under the Communication menu in the default course navigation bar). The Web Conferences screen opens.
Step 2:
Click the New Conference button. The New Conference screen opens.
Step 3:
Enter the following web conference details:
A) In the Name field, type the title of the conference.
B) Leave the Service Provider and Account Name values at the default settings.
C) In the Description field, enter a description of the conference, if desired.
D) Select one of the Web Conference Visibility options:
Restricted Conference: Only the people you invite will be able to attend the conference and view any archived recordings of it.
Public Conference: Anyone in the course Classlist will be able to attend the conference and view any archived recordings of it, along with any other attendees you specify.
E) In the Availability fields, specify the date/time range during which the web conference should be open for invitees to attend. NOTE: Be aware that once a web conference begins, you cannot edit its start date and end date. Also, you can not set the start date/time in the past.
D) Click the Advanced Properties > Show Room Restrictions link and select the Advanced Properties as needed:
Attendees raise their hand on entry: Initiates a “hand raise” and noise alert when someone enters the web conference.
All attendees join as Moderators: Assigns everyone who attends the role of Moderator. You can add attendees to the web conference as either Participants or Moderators.
Participants have unrestricted access to resources: Allows all attendees, both moderators and non-moderators, to have access to all of the tools in the Collaborate web conference software, such as drawing, audio recording, etc.
Moderators can view all private chats: Allows all Moderators in the web conference to see any private chats that occur among attendees.
Early Web Conference Entry (in minutes): The amount of minutes before the web conference starts that attendees can join the conference. This includes Moderators. All attendees, including both Moderators and Participants, can join only active web conferences (that is, the current date and time falls between the web conference’s Start Date and End Date).
Archive Mode: Archives are recordings of your web conferences. You can choose Manual (a Moderator must initiate the recording upon the start of the web conference), Automatic (recording begins automatically upon the start of the web conference), or Disabled (recording never happens for this web conference).
Step 4:
In the Email Notification area, you can check the Send email notification to all attendees who are configured to receive email option to send an email notification to all attendees if desired.
Adding and Inviting Attendees
You can now add people to your web conference. There are two types of web conference attendees:
- Internal Attendees: People in the Learn@UW course’s Classlist. People in the course’s Classlist cannot attend the web conference unless you add them as attendees. Once added, these people can access the web conference from the Learn@UW course OR via the email message they’ll receive containing a link to the conference.
- External Attendees: People not in the course Classlist. Once added, external attendees can access the web conference only via the email message they’ll receive containing a link to the conference.
To add internal attendees (people in the Classlist):
Step 1:
Click the Add Attendees button.
Step 2:
In the OrganizationalUnit drop-down list, the current organizational unit is selected (the current course). It’s recommended that you do not change this selection.
Step 3
To add someone to the web conference, click on their name in the Users tab until the user box turns green. You can select as many attendees as you’d like. The interface for selecting attendees offers the option to add courses and groups/sections rather than individuals if that is preferred.
To add external attendees:
Step 1:
Click the Add External Attendee link at the bottom of the Add Attendee window. A field appears where you can enter email addresses of people not in the classlist to invite to the conference.
Step 2:
Enter email addresses of attendees. Multiple email addresses must be separated by semicolons (for example: sallyj@gmail.com; tomc@gmail.com).
Step 3:
When finished adding external attendees, click the Add button next to the field of external attendees’ email addresses.
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Click the Add button at the bottom of the Add Attendee window. The list of attendees now appears under the Attendees section of the screen. To change the role of any attendee (for instance, from Participant to Moderator), click the Edit Role icon next to his/her name, select the appropriate role from the Role drop-down list, then click the Apply button.
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Save your web conference by clicking the Save button at the bottom of the screen. Or, if you’d like to go directly to the new conference you’ve created, click the Save and Join button.
