Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Overview


 

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Blackboard Ultra is an upgraded version of Blackboard Collaborate; a virtual classroom system that allows for online interaction. Blackboard Ultra has been incorporated into the Moodle learning management system.

Virtual classrooms are useful when situations prevent you from having face-to-face sessions with your class, such as teaching students who are geographically disadvantaged. If for some reason, students cannot participate in the live sessions, they can view and listen to the recorded sessions later. The recorded sessions can also be used by students to review their discussions at a later stage.

This page provides introductory instructions for moderators of Blackboard Ultra sessions.

You can also download a concise infographic to run a Collaborate Ultra session. 

To ensure the reliability and to maintain the highest continuity of service for Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Blackboard has temporarily disabled the following features:
  • Timer: The timer tool located in the Share Content tab
  • Chat indicator: Indicator in the chat room showing participant are typing
  • Network indicator: Indicator beside each participant's name showing their network quality
  • Video thumbnails: The maximum number of thumbnails visible in grid view has been reduced from 4 to 2
Setting up Ultra
Join & Interact
Scenarios/FAQs
Webinar Tips

Setting up Collaborate Ultra in a Course

Add a Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Session

After completing the following steps, you and your students can access all Ultra sessions from a single link in your Moodle course.

Download PDF version - Add a Collaborate Ultra Session

To create a Blackboard Ultra activity:

To create a Blackboard Ultra activity:

  1. On the course home page, click Turn editing on 2020-02-03_10-29-39.png. 
  2. In the appropriate topic or week section, click Add an activity or resource. In the resulting pop-up, select Collaborate Ultra from the pop-up menu.
  3. On the Adding a new External tool page, type a name for your activity and alter any other settings you require then click Save and display

  4. Next you will see the Blackboard Ultra home, here you can create and manage your sessions and recordings.

  5. To create a new session, click Create Session.

  1. Complete the new session fields in order to create a session; here you can obtain your guest link to share with external users (only visible after the session has been named). Once completed click Save

 2020-02-03_10-42-51.png

  1. Once saved, your sessions will show as follows; Blue indicates open active sessions, grey indicates inactive sessions.  

Guide for Event Setting

This section includes guide on each feature within the Event Setting section of a session.

Download PDF version - Event Settings

Jump to:

Dial In Setup
Guest Access
Event Details

Dial In feature

The Anonymous Dial-In feature has been disabled in Collaborate Ultra. Participants can use the 'Use phone as audio' feature available during a session to dial into the session in cases where internet connection or microphone issues are occurring.

Users can join the sessions from their phone anonymously without having to use a browser to join the session.

  1. Create a new session
    1.1.png

  2. Copy and paste dial in where users can see.
    1.2.png

Each session will have a unique phone number and PIN in which participants dial it on their phone to join the session.

Participants view when accessing the blackboard activity
1.3 copy.png

 

Participants can also join a session through Facetime and other call applications as well by clicking on dial in function and selecting their preferred application.

  1. Click on the Blackboard collaborate Activity
  2. Click on the session you want to join
    2.1.png

  3. Click on Dial In
    2.2.png

  4. Select your preferred application
    2.3.png

Guest access

In situations where unwanted access is given through guest access URL, refer to our Session Bombing section.

Guest access can be enabled to allow guest lecturers, potential students or other users who aren’t directly participating in your course to access your session.

Selecting guest access will generate a link. This link can be copied and pasted to a guest that you want to access your session.

  1. Create a new session/edit an existing one 
    3.1.png

  2. Select guest access
     3.2.png

  3. Copy and paste the link where users can use the link

Guest Role can also be controlled to be either participant, presenter or moderator.
This can be down by clicking on the drop-down box of Guest role.
3.3.png

Event Details

Event details allows you to control the start/end day and time, repeat session, early entry before start time for the session and also the description of the event.

  1. Create a new session/edit an existing one
    4.1.png

  2. Expand Drop-down list- Event details
    4.2.png

  3. Setup relevant session dates here

    Start Date and time – Allows to edit the starting date and time of the session
    End Date and time – Enables you to edit the end date and time of the session
    No end (open session) – Disables the end date
    Repeat session – Repeats the session based on regular intervals that is decided
    Early Entry – allow participants to enter the session before the start time 
    4.3.png

Guide for Session Settings

This section includes guide on each feature within the Session Setting section of a session.

Download PDF version - Session Settings

Jump to:

Allow Recording Downloads
Private Chat
Participant Access Restrictions
Edit a Recurring Session

Allow Recording Downloads

Allowing recording downloads enables users to download recording of the sessions.

  1. Create a new session or edit settings of existing session.
    10,1.png
  2. Expand Drop-down list - Session settings.
    10,2.png
     
  3. Select allow recording downloads.
    10,3.png

Recorded sessions are compressed and saved as MP4s. Recordings includes the activity in the live session. These include audio, any content shared or active speaker video, captions entered during the session or added later by a moderator and Chat messages of the everyone channel. The Breakout group part of the sessions are not recorded.

Private Chat

Participants can only chat with moderator feature

Participants can only chat with moderator feature when selected allows participants of the session to only chat privately with moderators. If not selected, the participants can chat privately with anybody else in the session.

  1. Create a new session or edit settings of existing session
    11,1.png
  2. Expand Drop-down list - Session settings
    11,2.png
     
  3. Select Participants can only chat privately with moderators
    11,3.png

Participants can now only chat privately with moderators.

Participants view during session.
11,4.png


Moderators supervise all private chats feature 

Moderators supervise all private chats feature when selected, moderators are able to monitor all private chat channels.

  1. Create a new session or edit settings of existing session
    12,1.png
  2. Expand Drop-down list - Session settings
    12,2.png
     
  3. Select moderators supervise all private chats
    12,3.png

Moderators view whilst in session.
12,4.png

Participates are alerted when this feature is turned on when engaging into private chat during the session.
12,5.png

Participants Access Restrictions

Moderators can restrict participants access on what they can or cannot do during the session.

  1. Create a new session or edit settings of existing session.
    13,1.png
  2. Expand drop down list- session settings.
    13,2.png
     
  3. Unselect 'participants can' options to restrict access.
    13,3.png

When you unselect;

Share audio: Participants cannot share their audio and only presenters and moderators can.

Share video: Moderators and presenters can only share video.

Post chat messages: Participants cannot post in chat but moderators and presenters can. Participants can see the chat post by moderators and presenters.

Draw on whiteboard and files: Participants are unable to draw on whiteboards and files.

Edit a recurring session

Recurring sessions repeat over a period of time and appear as a folder with individual sessions inside.  Any setting set on the recurring session will be shared with the individual sessions inside it. As such, staff must perform edits to the recurring session itself and will have limited options to edit the individual sessions within it.

When editing recurring sessions, staff may receive an error notice saying that the session end time is in the past. This guide will go over how to edit a recurring session, including what to do when this notice appears:

  1. Click the 'Session options' icon beside the recurring session.

    Make sure you are clicking the icon for the recurring session 'Folder' and not for any individual sessions inside it.
    Session Options button
     
  2. Click 'Edit recurring session'
    Edit recurring session button
     
  3. The start and end date will display the original date you set this recurring session up with. If the first session has already completed, these dates will be in the past.

    To make changes to the recurring session, you will need to change the start date to a current/future date. To keep session dates and times consistent, update the start and end date to the time that the next session will occur.
    Dates updated whilst retaining the same weekday and time
     
  4. You can leave repeating settings as is, however, you may want to change the number of occurrences to match the number of classes left after the new date as some classes may have been completed already.
    End after occurences
     
  5. The steps to make a past recurring session editable are completed, make any additional setting changes that you need.
     
  6. Click Save. All setting changes will be applied to the recurring sessions.
You may notice that the sessions for the recurring session are no longer be listed in the 'All previous sessions' page. This is a visual change to match the new settings for the recurring session and no previous data is lost. Users can still view session recordings via the recordings page and attendance reports via the 'View reports' button within the recurring session itself.

System requirements and support information

Internet Browsers

 

Supported browsers:

  • Google Chrome 32 bit version 55 or later (recommended for optimal compatibility)
  • Mozilla Firefox 49.0 or later (recommended for optimal compatibility)
  • Safari 10 or later 

For Mobile devices (Smartphones/Tablets) it is recommended to use web browser. Please do not use the Blackboard Collaborate app. 

Not Supported:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Mobile App

Support for Desktop Sharing

To be able to share your desktop, you must be using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox and have the Desktop Sharing plugin installed. To install the plugin:

  1. Start your Collaborate Ultra session.
  2. Click the Share Content icon (+ symbol).
  3. Click Share Application.
  4. Install the extension by clicking Add to Chrome.


Hardware Requirements

The minimum hardware requirement are a microphone and speakers.

Ensure the platform you will use to access Collaborate has the desired Input and Output devices such as the correct microphone and speakers selected in your System setup.

Cameras are also supported and must be selected in your platform's System setup.
 

Support Resources

For support on using Blackboard Ultra tools, click here.

For support on setting up your video or audio capabilities within Blackboard Ultra, click here.

Known Issues

For known Blackboard Ultra issues, please click here.

Alternatively, you can also check the known issues ton Blackboard's website here.

Support Contacts

For support on setting up Blackboard Ultra please contact External TELT Support.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 02 9385 3331

Joining a Session and Interacting

Audio and Video set up guide for moderator

Download PDF version - Audio and Video set up guide for moderator

Jump to : 

Audio Setup
Video Setup
Setting up Audio and Video Later
Sharing Audio and Video during Session
Dial into a session with your phone

Providing Permissions

The first time you join a Collaborate session, you are asked to provide permission to access your microphone and camera. You need to allow both Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and if prompted, your browser, to access your microphone and/or camera in order to use the voice chat and video sharing features.

1. Join a session for the first time

2. Select Allow when Chrome/Firefox prompts you to give permission for access to use your microphone and camera

If you have denied Blackboard Collaborate Ultra access to your microphone or camera, you can enable it by exiting, re-entering the session and selecting allow for the permission prompts.

In case you have permanently blocked Blackboard Collaborate Ultra from accessing your camera/microphone, you can update the permissions in the permissions page of your browser's settings/preferences menu.

Setting up Audio

The first time you enter a Collaborate session, you will be prompted to test your audio and video sources. If you do not wish to use a microphone or camera, you can skip this step by clicking on the “X” towards the top right of the audio overlay.

 

  1.  Click on the drop-down box and select your preferred microphone

  2. You can test whether the selected microphone is working by speaking into it. If the purple audio bar does not move when you speak, no audio is being picked up by the microphone.

  3. Click “Yes - its working”



Setting up Video
 

  1. After you confirm your audio source, you will be prompted to set up your video source. If you do not wish to use your camera, you can skip this step by clicking on the “X” icon towards the top right of the video overlay.

    Click on the drop-down box and select your preferred camera

Note: if you blocked permission for the browser to gain access to your camera, no cameras can be used, and no video playback will be shown.

 

  1. Test whether the camera is working by checking if the camera recording is visible on the screen.