How do I use Blackboard Collaborate (formerly called Elluminate Live) webconferencing with my Canvas course?
Blackboard Collaborate version 12 (formerly called Elluminate Live) is the primary tool for webconferencing at CMC for faculty, staff, and students. Blackboard Collaborate will soon be available to CMC instructors via their Canvas courses, by clicking the button labelled "Blackboard Collaborate." Instructors who lead a web-conference in Collaborate are "moderators" and students who join and have a less powerful role are called "participants." Also, Canvas provides a second webconferencing tool named Big Blue Button which can be accessed inside a Canvas course by clicking the "Conferences" button at left. Big Blue Button is currently available. However, unlike Collaborate, the Big Blue Button webconferencing tool does not offer a recording option. If you opt to record your Collaborate sessions--they won't be recorded unless you select that option--you will need to contact the Service Desk to request the link for that recording, which will be different than the links for joining a session. Until Collaborate is available in Canvas, please contact the Service Desk to request that a Blackboard Collaborate (formerly called Elluminate) webconferencing session be built for you. You will receive an email from the Service Desk containing the information about your Collaborate session. You will have a unique link for joining that session as a moderator under your own name as well as a separate link to share with students for them to join the session (they will be asked to provide their names as they enter the session). Your link should not be shared with students: it is specifically for you. The link for the students (and any other guests who aren't moderators) can be posted in Canvas in an Announcement, on a Page, via Conversations, in a Discussion, or as a URL added to a Module; or you can send it to your students via WebAdvisor's email feature. WARNING RE COPYING LINKS for Collaborate sessions from Outlook WEBMAIL
BE CAREFUL if you copy a URL (weblink) for a Collaborate session out of Outlook WEBMAIL. There seems to be no problem in regular Outlook, only in WEBMAIL. If you copy a URL out of Outlook WEBMAIL, you have to be careful to copy it correctly. Webmail adds in extra coding into your url and it will not function properly, even though it looks correct. Please watch this video so you'll know the way to copy a URL out of Webmail correctly, before you paste it into Canvas! |
New features of version 12 (4 mins, 30 seconds)
Videos, resources, and PDFs for version 12 for Moderators and Participants: