Students not able to talk or use chat in your Collaborate session?

Blackboard Collaborate is an excellent tool for facilitating live online communication with and between students using voice and text.

To communicate using voice, students (and/or faculty) need to click the TALK button in the AUDIO & VIDEO module that appears in the upper left corner of the Collaborate window.

Students who do not have access to a microphone can communicate with the rest of the class through the text chat. The chat module appears in the bottom left of the Collaborate window. Just type in the space and hit ENTER on your keyboard and your text message will go out to the whole class.

If students are reporting that the TALK button is disabled or that they cannot type in the chat window, these functions may be turned off in your Collaborate session.

To enable these functions in your session, first locate the PARTICIPANTS module, which appears on the left side of your Collaborate window, between the AUDIO & VIDEO module and the CHAT module. If the arrow to the left of the PARTICIPANTS label is pointing to the right, click the label to expand the PARTICIPANTS module. You should now see your name (labeled “Moderator”), some buttons (emoticons, away, hand-raise, yes/no), then the heading MAIN ROOM, followed by the class roster.

Across from the MAIN ROOM heading, you’ll notice a number of icons (highlighted by the red box above). Each of these icons relates to a functionality that may be made available to participants (students). In order, they are Talk, Video, (text) Chat, Whiteboard, Application Sharing, and Web Tour.

To enable one of these, click on it. So, to let students in the class talk using voice, just click the first icon (a microphone).

NOTE: you can also enable (or disable) these functions on a student-by-student basis. If you point to a name in the room roster, you’ll see a list button appears to the right of their name:

Click that list button and you’ll see a full list of properties you can change for this individual user. To enable (or disable) any of the listed functions, just click the appropriate function.

Bb Collaborate , , , , Updated: January 10, 2013

Is your Java up to date?

Blackboard Collaborate runs best when a current version of Java is installed. If you’re not sure whether your Java is up to date, the process for checking this (and installing a current version if you’re out of date) is pretty simple:

1. Go to the verify Java page either by clicking this link or by going to http://www.java.com and clicking “Do I have Java?”

2. Click the big red VERIFY JAVA VERSION button. (Note, if you’re on Windows 8, you’ll need to be in Desktop mode).

3. Wait while the page checks your Java version.

4. If you have the latest version, you’ll see a green check and a “Congratulations” message ….

… if not, you’ll want to click the big red AGREE AND START FREE DOWNLOAD button to get the latest version.

5. If you’re using Firefox, you’ll be asked whether you want to save the file …

Click SAVE FILE, then choose a location on your computer where you’ll be able to find the file when your download is done (we recommend the DOWNLOADS folder). Once the file has downloaded, locate it on your computer, then double-click to run it.

If you’re using Internet Explorer, a yellow bar will appear across the bottom of the screen asking whether you’d like to save or run the file. Choose RUN.

6. A SETUP WELCOME screen will open. Click the INSTALL button to begin the installation.

7. The setup will recommend you install a “free toolbar” or other add-on. You don’t want to do this. MAKE SURE YOU UNCHECK THE INSTALL BOX ON THIS PAGE  BEFORE CLICKING NEXT.

8. Let the installer run. It may ask to close down your web browser, if it’s still open. Let it close your browser. When the installation is complete, you’ll see a SUCCESS message.

Congratulations! Your Java is now up to date!

Bb Collaborate, Bb Collaborate, FAQ , Updated: February 4, 2014

Subscribe to Knowledge calendar

A word about using the calendar on other devices

Blackboard Learn’s iCalendar feed has a refresh time of 4 hours. The support for refresh times varies across third party calendars. Google refreshes every few hours while Outlook respects the refresh time set by Blackboard, i.e., 4 hours. So if you set up a calendar on your iPhone and it doesn’t update immediately, DON’T PANIC. It may take as long as 4 hours for the calendar to update.

 

Getting the Blackboard Learn iCalendar URL

  1. Login to Knowledge, click your name in the upper right corner, then click the calendar icon.
  2. Below the list of calendars click the button “Get External Calendar link”.
  3. Copy the URL with the .ics extension to use in the instructions below.

 

Google Calendar™

  1. Click the down-arrow next to Other calendars
  2. Select Add by URL from the menu
  3. Enter the Blackboard Learn iCalendar URL in the field provided
  4. Click the Add Calendar button. The calendar will appear in the Other Calendars section of the calendar list to the left.

 

iPhone®

  1. Mail the iCalendar URL ending in .ics to the email account set up on your iPhone.
  2. Open the email on your phone and click the URL.
  3. iPhone recognizes the .ics extension as a calendar and prompts you to subscribe. Choose yes.

 

Microsoft® Outlook®

  1. In Account Settings choose the Internet Calendars tab.
  2. Click on New and Paste the iCalendar URL you copied from Blackboard Learn into the location and click Add.

 

Yahoo!®

  1. Go to calendar.yahoo.com
  2. Click + icon next to Subscribed.
  3. Choose Subscribe to other calendars.
  4. Enter the iCalendar URL from Blackboard Learn in ical address and enter a display name.

Additional notes – Yahoo cannot subscribe to the URL if the server IP address is specified instead of the server name.

 

Mac iCal®

  1. Open iCal
  2. From the Calendar menu, choose Subscribe…
  3. Next, enter the iCalendar URL from Blackboard Learn into the field Calendar URL
  4. Click Subscribe.

 

Android™

Android does not provide an option to directly There is no direct way to subscribe to an .ics feed in Android yet. The workaround is to subscribe to the feed through Google Calendar.

  1. Subscribe to the Blackboard Learn calendar in Google. using the steps described in the section for ‘Google’ above.
  2. Go to the Android phone
  3. Applications -> Calendar
  4. Menu -> More -> Settings
  5. Calendars
  6. View the Blackboard Learn calendar you subscribed to in Google.

 

Windows Live™

  1. Go to calendar.live.com.
  2. Click on subscribe
  3. Choose Subscribe to a public calendar
  4. Paste the iCalendar URL in Calendar URL. Enter a Calendar Name.
  5. Click ‘Subscribe to Calendar‘ button.

NOTE: These instructions are largely taken from a Blackboard support page (https://blackboard.secure.force.com/btbb_articleview?id=kA270000000KzxE).

FAQ, My Knowledge , , , Updated: February 4, 2014

Setting up a course calendar

Knowledge now provides a simple course calendar that is easy for both students and faculty to use. This calendar can not only be viewed inside Knowledge, but it can also be viewed on mobile devices (such as iPhones) and in other 3rd party calendaring systems such as Google Calendar.

To view the calendar inside Knowledge, click your name in the upper right corner of the screen then click the calendar icon –

– or select TOOLS from a course menu, then select CALENDAR on the tools page.

The calendar itself lists events set up for all available courses which you are enrolled in (this is true for both faculty and students). On the left side of the Calendar page you’ll see a list of color coded calendars. To stop seeing events from a calendar, uncheck the box next to its name. To add an event to the calendar, click the + button in the upper right corner of the page.

To add an event, simply complete the form that appears in an overlay window. Enter the name of the event (e.g. “Course evaluations due”), on the CALENDAR line, select the course you want to add the event to (note: if you access the calendar by entering a course, then selecting TOOLS/CALENDAR, that course’s calendar will be selected by default), then enter the date / time range for the event either by editing the default data manually or by using the selectors that appear when you click into the Starts and Ends boxes. You may also enter a description for the event if you choose.

Automatically added events

What makes the calendar most useful, however, is that many date-related events added through the course site are automatically added to the calendar as well. Bb Collaborate sessions, Assignment and Grade Center due dates, and windows of availability for tests, quizzes, and surveys all automatically add to a course’s calendar. As a result, IDS now recommends adding due dates and descriptions to Assignments and new Grade Center columns.

Content Area , , , Updated: January 2, 2013

Add color to your course site

Changes made to Knowledge for the start of Term 2 2012-2013 academic year make it possible to easily add some color to your course site. To the left of the EDIT MODE switch, you should see a quarter-circle composed of colored wedges.

To change the color scheme for your course site, select an option from the sizeable list that appears. If you’d like to revert to the original scheme, just select Default.

Customization , , , , Updated: January 2, 2013
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