Avenue Help Center | Adding/Editing BigBlueButton

Digital Learning Development: BigBlueButton

Adding/Editing BigBlueButton

Margarita Berezyanskaya

Last Update há 2 meses

BigBlueButton is Avenue's virtual classroom software. It comes pre-loaded in all Avenue courses near the top of the course page. Instructors can use BBB to facilitate a session with an entire class while displaying a slideshow or while writing/marking up a whiteboard. Learners can also be given access to the whiteboard, and they can be placed in breakout rooms for small group activities.

Step-by-step Setting up a BBB Virtual Classroom

Your Avenue course should arrive with a BigBlueButton activity and you can re-use this over and over, but you may want to make new BigBlueButton classrooms for specific purposes.

1. On your course, click the Turn editing on button.

2. Click the Add an activity or resource link at the bottom of the appropriate topic.

3. The Add an activity or resource pop-up appears.

4. Select BigBlueButton in the Activities tab.

The BigBlueButton setting page appears.

5. In the Instance type drop-down menu, choose from the options.

6. Type a short Virtual classroom name for this BigBlueButton class.

7. If you want to alert students that this activity has been added or updated, check the Notify this change to users enrolled box.

8. If you want to enter a description of the activity, click on Show More…

You can leave the Description text box empty for your class, but it may be useful for archiving purposes or for letting students know what is going to happen in the session. The text you enter will appear on the BigBlueButton launch page.

9. If you also want the Description to appear on the main course page, check the Display description on course page check box.

10. In the Activity/Room settings section, type the Welcome message you wish to have displayed.

Note: If the Welcome message field is left blank, the default will be displayed for students in the BigBlueButton public chat.

11. Check Wait for moderator, to accommodate learners who arrive early.

12. Check Session can be recorded, if you want to record this session.

13. In the Lock settings, choose the option(s) as you see fit for your session.

14. You can upload a presentation file before the session starts by using the File picker or dragging it to the drag-and-drop area.

15. Under the Role assigned during live session setting, you can choose to assign roles to the participants from the Add assignation drop-down menu.

Clicking on Role will make a list of Moodle roles available.

16. Choose a Role and click on Add to add that role to the Assignation list below.

Clicking on User will make the list of course participants available.

17. Choose a User and click on Add to add them to the Assignation list below.

18. The Assignation list lets you determine how you would like each Role or User to join the session. Options are Viewer and Moderator. Choose the suitable option as you see fit for your participants.

Note: We recommend that All users enrolled is set to Viewer, and Role is set for Teacher or Instructor (non-Editing) to Moderator.

19. In the Schedule for session section, set the start time of the session by Enabling the Join open settings and choosing a date and time.

Other settings are the same as those for other Moodle activities.

Click on Save and Display to open the activity.

The BigBlueButton activity appears on the course page, with the description (if that option was selected).

BigBlueButton Session

The BigBlueButton module requires some information before the virtual meeting / class can start. This is what you can expect the first time you use the BigBlueButton.

1. Click on the BigBlueButton activity link in your course.

The BigBlueButton invitation page appears, with the start time mentioned.

If the start time has passed, the Join Session button will be displayed.

2. Click on the Join session button.

An audio popup window appears.

3. Click on Microphone.

Another pop-up appears, asking if you allow BigBlueButton to use your microphone.

4. Click on Allow.

Note: Other popup windows that look different may appear, but they all ask for your permission to use your computer microphone.

On the Change your audio settings pop-up, there are the Microphone source and the Speaker source drop-down menus.

5. Choose Default sources or other options available.

6. Speak a few words to test your speakers. If these are set correctly, you will hear your voice played back and see a green bar moving under Your audio stream volume.

7. Click Join audio.

8. The full BigBlueButton screen appears.

Parts of the BigBlueButton screen:

9. When students arrive, ask them to mute themselves by clicking on the microphone icon at the bottom of their screens.

This will change the look of their microphone.

10. Inform learners that they can use emojis or raise hands for attention by clicking on the Reactions Bar (hand icon) at the bottom of their screen.

They can click any of the available options.

When a reaction is chosen, the user icon changes and the selected emoji will be displayed in place of the user's initials.

11. In the Users' panel, moderators can access more control over the session by clicking on the settings icon.

12. These options are explained in more detail in the BigBlueButton Session Facilitation article.

13. To upload a presentation, click on the Actions icon.

Choose the Upload/Manage presentations option.

Note: PDF documents work best in BigBlueButton. If you have a PowerPoint, you can save it as PDF first and then upload it to BigBlueButton

14. Drag your file to the upload area, or click on browse for files to select a file from your computer.

The name of your file appears under the Current presentation list. Make sure there is a check mark in the circle next to the presentation name.

15. Click Upload to upload the file and return to the main page to show the presentation.

It is good practice to use polls to ensure students are engaged and comprehending the lesson.

16. To start a poll, click on the Actions icon.

Choose the Start a poll option.

The Polling panel appears. The Custom Input option is set to Off by default.

17. Add the poll question and choose the type of response you would like for the question, including True/False, Multiple Choice, Yes/No/Abstention, and Typed Response.

Clicking on each option will open further fields for you to set for your poll. Here is an example of a multiple choice Response fields. At the bottom of the panel, there is the option to make the responses anonymous.

Note: Practice using different types of polls before using them live with learners.

18. Click on the Share your screen icon at the bottom of the presentation panel if you wish to do that.

A pop up appears for you to choose what you want to share. In Microsoft Edge or Chrome browsers, you can share a specific Tab, a Window, or your Entire Screen. Other browsers may provide slightly different options.

19. Choose what you want to share from the list under each tab.

20. Click on the Share tab audio, if you want to share the audio as well.

21. Click on Share to share your screen.

22. Click on the Stop sharing button when you no longer wish to share your presentation.

23. The Chat panel appears on the left side of the screen. You can use it to post hyperlinks to online resources and communicate with each other during the presentation. The chats can be saved for future purposes.

24. To end a session, click on the Options icon in the top-right corner of the page.

25. Choose the End meeting option.

A pop-up appears asking you to confirm the end of the session.

At the end of the session, you will have an opportunity to view and download the session's data and analytics.

26. Click to open the Learning Analytics Dashboard.

A new page opens showing the session data.

27. Close this window and click on OK to return to your home screen.

Resources

Moodle Documents: BigBlueButton