Sakai: Meetings

Meetings (Web Conferencing, BigBlueButton tool)

Meetings (BigBlueButton) is an open source webinar tool available in Sakai that allows you to communicate with your students remotely. You can display presentations, use a white board, use audio and/or a webcam, chat with your students, and share your desktop. Meetings is a synchronous tool, which means users have to be online at the same time to interact. You can also add polls to your Meeting and record your Meetings, too.

Creating and Running a Meeting plus Student Handouts *

• Are step-by-step instructions available for creating, starting, and running a Meeting? Yes.
  • Instructions for an instructor to create a meeting: Create a Meeting Handout
  • Instructions for an instructor to run a meeting: Running a Meeting Handout
  • Instructions for an instructor to share their desktop during a Meeting: Sharing a Desktop during a Meeting Handout | video
  • Handout for Students* Instructions for Students attending a Meeting
  • Do's and Don'ts of Synchronous Online Learning: Plan, Prepare, Practice!

What can you do with Fall 2016 Meetings 1.0 Release?

• We have the latest version, released Fall 2016, BigBlueButton 1.0
• Latest VIDEO Tutorials for Instructors and Students (BigBlueButton)
  • Setting up Audio, Viewer (student) Overview, and Moderator/Presenter (instructor) Overview
• New Fall 2016 videos!:
  • Faster Screen Sharing,
  • Live Closed Captioning, and
  • Breakout Rooms
• New Fall 2016 step-by-step instructions for Closed Captioning, Faster Desktop Sharing and Breakout Rooms
• BigBlueButton's (Blindside Networks) User Guide
  • What can an instructor do with the Meetings 1.0 tool/BigBlueButton? (BigBlueButton)
  • What could an instructor do with .9 of Meetings/BigBlueButton

Meetings Basics

• Computer requirements
• Audio Setup

Meetings Features

• User Area
• Uploading and Displaying Presentations
  • Can I upload Microsoft documents to BigBlueButton? Don't, they may not display well. Tip: Save your file as a PDF
  • How do I upload a document to display to my students?
• Using the Whiteboard
• Chatting in the Chat box
• Managing your Layout
• Using your webcam
• Recording and Playback
• Polls
  • Here's a number of screen shots of how to add polling to your next Meeting.
• Sharing your Desktop during a Meeting
• Advanced: Breakout Rooms
  • Here is a video with step-by-step instructions on how to add and use Breakout Rooms (video)

Accessibility

• Are Meetings/Chat/Recordings Accessible to those using screen readers? Yes, since release 0.8+.
  • Live Closed Captions are now available: video

What features will be added in the future?

BigBlueButton has a feature roadmap that you can check out at any time