Setting Up a Big Blue Button Meeting Room

1. Getting Started with BigBlueButton
   1. Where do I access BigBlueButton?
   2. Need help using BigBlueButton or Transitioning to Zoom?
   3. Not sure if BigBlueButton is the right web conferencing tool for your course?
2. Minimum requirements for connecting to BigBlueButton
3. Adding a BigBlueButton Session to Your Brightspace Course
4. Editing BigBlueButton Meeting Room Settings
   1. Edit a BBB Meeting Room Title
   2. Edit or Add Dates
   3. Delete a BBB Meeting Room
   4. Hide a BBB Meeting Room from students
   5. Add or Edit Release Conditions
   6. Add or Edit Completion Tracking
5. Joining Your BigBlueButton Session
   1. Connecting to a BBB Session via the Phone Bridge
6. Roles in BigBlueButton
   1. Adding a TA as a Moderator
   2. Additional Recommendations for Moderator/Presenters
7. Adding Guests to a BBB Session
8. Best Practices and Student Support
9. Video Tutorials for BigBlueButton  

IMPORTANT NOTICE RE: Big Blue Button

In May 2023, Big Blue Button (BBB) will reach end of life in Brightspace. Brightspace users will no longer be able to create and host new BBB sessions in their course. Please download and save any materials from past BBB sessions before April 30, 2023. Instructors are encouraged to transition to Zoom for their online classes and meetings. To get started, check out the BBB to Zoom Crosswalk document. Remember! Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) is here to help! Consultations are available to assist with this transition. If you are interested in booking a consultation, or have any questions regarding this upcoming change, please open a support request via the TLS Support Portal. 

Big Blue Button (BBB) is a synchronous web conferencing tool that allows instructors and TAs to host live online presentations, seminars, office hours, or other meetings. Big Blue Button is fully supported at Carleton University (until May 2023) and easily accessible to both instructors and students from within D2L Brightspace.

• An interactive meeting room with audio, video, presentation, chat, polling, shared notes, and whiteboard capabilities that allows students to be fully engaged in the online environment.NOTE: BBB only supports up to 100 users at a time. If you require more than 100 users you should consider using another platform, such as Zoom.
• Secure user authentication so each course can have its own private room accessible to students from within Brightspace or via email invitation for guests from outside of the Carleton community 
• A recording feature that allows online meetings to be automatically recorded and posted in Brightspace

→Check the Big Blue Button status page to see if there are any current issues

Getting Started with BigBlueButton

Minimum requirements for connecting to BigBlueButton

We recommend all users ensure they are meeting the minimum requirements below for BigBlueButton HTML5 prior to their first live session.

Below you will find Computer, Browser, Audio, Mobile Device, and Internet Bandwidth recommendations.

Adding a BigBlueButton Session to Your Brightspace Course

When you add a BBB session to your course page, you are adding a virtual web conferencing space where the course community can meet.  The BBB session can be recorded or unrecorded based your needs. You can have one or many BBB rooms in your course depending on your teaching needs. Give your BBB sessions meaningful names.

To add a BBB session:

1. Log in to Brightspace using your MyCarletonOne credentials.
2. On the Brightspace homepage, locate your course in one of the following ways:
   • • Click on the course tile under the My Courses widget.
     • Click the Course Selector Grid  and select the course from the drop-down menu. If you are enrolled in more than 20 courses, you can search for the course name using the search bar.
3. In the navbar, click Content to expand the Content area on the left side of your course page.
4. In the left sidebar under Table of Contents, click on the module/week section where you’d like to add the Assignment (Week 1 is an example of a module in the image below). Alternatively, you can scroll down the Table of Contents page to locate the module/sub-module you want to add an assignment to.  For instructions on how to add a new module or sub-module to your course, see the Adding Modules and Sub-modules page.                                 
5. Click the Existing Activities button.
6. In the drop-down menu, select External Tools.
7. In the Add an Activity window, click BigBlueButton.
8. Click the BigBlueButton link.                                                         
9. On the Create Room page, enter the following:
   1. Enter a name for your meeting.
   2. Add a description (optional)
   3. Add a welcome message (optional)
   4. You have the option to select the following checkboxes:
      • All users will join as moderators –
      • Student’s must wait until an instructor joins the session – Choose this option if if you want to prevent viewers from entering the session before the moderator who is managing the session.
      • Sessions in this room may be recorded – Choose this option if you want to record your session for later viewing.                       
10. Under Activity Details at the bottom of the page, you have the following settings options:
    • Visibility – Your BBB meeting room is visible to students by default. To hide your meeting room from students, click the visibility toggle button. The toggle will appear greyed out with a crossed out eye icon when hidden, and blue with an open eye icon when visible       
    • Completion Tracking – Completion Tracking allows instructors monitor whether students are accessing the BBB meeting room link. See the Class Progress page for more information about enabling completion tracking and viewing student progress.
      

      NOTE: The completion tracking setting will only monitor when students click on the BigBlueButton link within Brightspace and will not track attendance within the BBB meeting room.

    • Dates and Restrictions – You have the option to restrict student access to the BBB meeting room within specific start and end dates.
    • Assessment – If you will be grading BBB participation, you can link your BBB meeting room to your gradebook. Click Add a grade item…, then select an existing grade item or click the + sign to create a new grade item.
11. Click Save.

Your BBB meeting is now set up. Click Join to access your BBB meeting room.

Editing BigBlueButton Meeting Room Settings

To edit your BBB settings within Brightspace:

1. Click the arrow next to the BigBlueButton meeting room link.
2. In the drop-down menu, select one of the following options:
   • View Topic to access your BigBlueButton page, then click Edit Room to access the Edit Room page where you initially configured your meeting room settings.
   • Edit Properties in Place to edit your BBB settings within your Table of Contents.

Joining Your BigBlueButton Session

BigBlueButton sessions are launched within your Brightspace course page. To launch and configure a new session, you will need to first add the big blue button session to your course page. Once a BBB session has been added, you can configure and test your audio/microphone settings and begin your meeting.

To join your BBB session:

1. Log in to Brightspace using your MyCarletonOne credentials.
2. On the Brightspace homepage, locate your course in one of the following ways:
   • • Click on the course tile under the My Courses widget.
     • Click the Course Selector Grid  and select the course from the drop-down menu. If you are enrolled in more than 20 courses, you can search for the course name using the search bar.
3. In the navbar, click Content to expand the Content area on the left side of your course page.
4. In the left sidebar under Table of Contents, click on the module/week section that you added your BBB room to. Alternatively, you can scroll down your table of content page to locate the link.
5. Click on your BigBlueButton meeting link.                                     
6. Click on the link to your BigBlueButton session on your main course page.
   

   NOTE: If you don’t see a BigBlueButton link, you will first need to add a BigBlueButton session

7. Click Join Session.                                                                   
8. Choose whether to participate by using a microphone or listen only.  As the session moderator, you should select microphone if you will be speaking during your meeting.                         
   

   TIP: It is advised that instructors and students join the session with a wired microphone headset as this will allow them to participate with clean audio. In an emergency, users can phone in to access the audio portion of the BBB session. (See Phone Bridge below.) If the student is only experiencing an audio problem on their computer, they can watch the computer screen while listening/speaking using their phone. Should they connect by phone alone, they will not be able to view any visual presentations, use the chat features, or join Breakout Rooms.

9. Test your audio by speaking a few words and listening for the sound of your voice. See the screen shot below for a visual of the Echo test window. The Echo test will ask you to speak and then play back your words.                             
10. Click Yes if the audio test has been successful (i.e. you were able to hear yourself speak through the headset speakers).   Click No If your audio test was not successful. You can then check that you have selected the appropriate microphone, and that your microphone is plugged in correctly. 

You are now successfully setup to begin your BBB session. Watch the video tutorial below provides an overview of your capabilities as a moderator, including how you can mute/unmute users, assign presenters, create breakout rooms for student discussions, and share your screen:

See the Managing a BigBlueButton Session page for the following instructions:

• Manage viewers audio
• Locking or unlocking features (Enabling Private Chat or Shared Notes)
• Assigning students a presenter role
• Creating Breakout Rooms
• Closed Captioning
• Ending Meetings

Roles in BigBlueButton

In a BigBlueButton session, there are three types of users: a Viewer, Presenter and Moderator.

• Viewers (Students) have the following capabilities unless restricted by the Moderator:
  • Share audio & webcam
  • Chat/use emojis
  • Respond to polls
  • Write in the shared notes. Export the shared notes.
  • Respond to invites for breakout rooms.
  • Answer Poll questions

• Presenters (Instructors or students) have the following capabilities:
  • Upload slides and advance slides
  • Use the annotation tools
  • Show an external video
  • Start a poll and publish poll results

• Moderators (Instructors/TAs) have all the capabilities of a viewer plus the following:
  • Manage viewers audio (Mute/unmute)
  • Lockdown viewers (i.e. restrict them from doing private chat)
  • Assign anyone (including themselves) the role of presenter
  • Create breakout rooms for student discussions
  • Write closed captions
  • Start/Stop Recordings
  • End Meetings

Adding a TA as a Moderator

If you plan on having a TA moderate a BBB session in your course, you can promote them to moderator during your session.

TAs as Moderators

1. In the Users List on the left side of your session window, click the name of the user you want to promote to moderator.
2. In the drop-down menu, select Promote to moderator.

NOTE: Viewers who are promoted to Moderator status during a session will default to their original roles in future sessions.

Adding Guests to a BBB Session

If you want to add a guest to your BBB session who is not enrolled in your Brightspace course, you can send them an invitation link to your meeting via email. This invitation cannot be created in advance. The invitation link is created after the BBB session is initiated. The invitation link is only valid during the current session and will no longer work after the session has ended. Each new session generates a new invitation. You must start the session and then email the invitation link to your guest.

To invite a guest to your session:

1. In the Public Chat window, click Invite a guest to join this meeting.                 
2. Click Email an invite to open a new email composer window.                           
3. Compose and Send your invitation email.  By default, you will see the message below with a link to your BBB session.       

Best Practices and Student Support

Not all students will have access to robust internet during the Covid pandemic. Please take this into consideration when designing your course with synchronous activities. Please watch this video prior to designing your course. The video gives an overview of the differences in synchronous and asynchronous online teaching design.

BigBlueButton Student Support Page

• Encourage users to connect with a current version of Chrome or Firefox browsers
• Encourage users to use a headset and microphone, not their laptop/computer microphone
• Open the session early
• Alert students if you will be recording. This should be done in advance and at the start of each session.
• Send participants directions and reminders ahead of time
• Have a BBB session early in the semester to allow students to get familiar with the tool.
• Request input for the session agenda from students
• Review the session layout with participants, reminding them that they can chat or raise a hand to ask questions
• Create an opening slide with set up instructions
• Have participants introduce themselves
• Use polling and emoticons to keep students engaged
• If a student is promoted to a Moderator or Presenter role they will require higher internet bandwidth to use the presentation tools. Please refer to the bandwidth requirement section of this support site.

Video Tutorials for BigBlueButton  

• Setting up Audio in BigBlueButton
• Viewer Overview (student view) 
• Moderator/Presenter Tutorial 
• Share YouTube video in BigBlueButton
• Minimize Presentation
• Shared notes in the Big Blue Button HTML5 client

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