If you are on a Mac and have the Catalina OS or newer and will need to screenshare in Zoom or BigBlueButton, please follow the steps in this video to enable screensharing.
Best practices for virtualized courses using BigBlueButton
Important note
For immediate assistance during a virtual course meeting, please visit www.VCLhub.com.
A link to the virtual meeting will be emailed to faculty and student CIIS email accounts at least 15 minutes before class start time. If you cannot access this email account, or you have mail forwarding set up from this account and are not receiving your meeting links in time, please contact support@uswired.com.
Virtualized courses are not recorded based on university policy and federal (HHS HIPAA & FERPA) and state regulations. Virtualized courses are for synchronous (simultaneous) attendance only. Student attendance is required, and the university’s attendance policy applies.
What can I do in advance?
Please use Chrome or Firefox only. If possible, close other data-heavy tabs/apps, e.g. Facebook and streaming (including by others sharing your wireless network). Work close to your router or if possible, use a wired connection.
For the latest information on minimum requirements, please see the What are the minimum requirements for BigBlueButton? article from Blindside Networks.
Check your permissions before class:
1. If using Chrome, please check your Chrome settings to allow webcam and microphone access. Make sure that blindsidenetworks and Zoom don’t appear in the “Blocked” category for Mic. Do the same for Webcam.
2. Additionally, if you are on a Mac and have the Catalina OS or newer, please follow the steps in this video to allow screensharing.
3. If you have trouble with either of the above, before your class, please contact IT (support@uswired.com).
If you have a presentation file to share, please try to email it to onlinelearningsupport@ciis.edu at least 24 hours in advance, along with your 6- digit Course ID Number (e.g. ACM 5500-01) and date of your presentation. Your Liaison will upload it for you at the start of class.
As a backup, you may wish to save it as a PDF (File > Save as Adobe PDF in Windows; File > Save As > PDF > Save on Mac). Email it to the class in advance in case they need to open it on their end. (If you don’t have everyone’s email address handy, you can use the Canvas Inbox feature and attach it to a message to your entire class.) Presentations that are saved as a PDF won’t include dynamic transitions, video, etc (only text, hyperlinks, and static images such as photos).
Roles in BigBlueButton
In a BigBlueButton meeting, instructors are generally the Moderator, Presenter, or both. Students are generally Viewers.
Moderators are represented by a square icon. There can be multiple moderators in a given meeting.
Moderators can do the following:
– Assign anyone (including themselves) the role of Presenter
– Create Breakout Rooms
– Mute/unmute Viewers
– Start and stop recordings
– End meetings
The Presenter is indicated by a small blue easel icon a the top left of a user’s icon. Both Moderators and Viewers can be a Presenter. There can only be 1 Presenter at a time.
Presenters can do the following:
– Upload and control slide presentations
– Access the annotation tools
– Screenshare
– Use the Share an external video feature (only supports videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Instructure Media, Twitch or Daily Motion)
– Start a poll
Viewers are represented by a circle icon.
Viewers can generally do the following:
o Share microphone and webcam
o Chat
o Respond to polls
o Write in the shared notes section
o Enter Breakout Rooms
Only the Presenter has access to the presentation controls. If you are not the Presenter, please request presenter status from a Moderator.
For the latest instructions on this topic, please see the article called Use the presentation controls on the Blindside Networks support portal.
If you have questions about the instructions, please contact onlinelearningsupport@ciis.edu.
