Pre-Lecture

• When creating a session select allow recording downloads
• Instructors can also unselect participants the ability to share audio and share video if desired
• Prepare your content for you lecture such as lecture slides, images, document, article.
• You can share your files by going to “share content” on the collaborate panel and then selecting “share files”
• For video links do not share or play through collaborate, send the links to the video in Moodle and have the students play it from there.

During-lecture

• To start recording during your session open the session menu and click start recording
• To end recording, open the session menu again and click on end recording
• For more details go to How to start recording during your session
• To change the participants, access settings, “head to my settings” on the collaborate panel then “session settings”. Look for “Participants can”, unselect and/or select your preferred settings changes.

Post- Lecture

• When the session recording is over, in the collaborate activity/room click on the session menu on the top left corner. Then select “recording”, this gives you the ability to view previous recorded session.
• If you have selected “allow recording downloads” you can download the session recording by clicking more option on the right-hand side
• Refer to how to access and download session recording

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra allows for the recording of sessions which lets participants view and download the content afterwards.

Note: The recording must be manually turned on and off for it to show up in the Recordings section. This can be done by navigating to the hamburger menu on the top left of the session page and selecting “Start Recording”.

You can share the recording to students either by uploading the download to theBox or sharing the direct link to the recording.

1. On the home page, select the hamburger menu on the top left.

 

2. Select the “Recordings” tab.

 

3. In the list of sessions, click on the 3 Ellipses on the right of the recording you want to download/view

 

4. Select the appropriate option

 

Using theBox to share session recording

Using Embed code
Uploading via Moodle File picker

Upload directly to theBox and use embed code

1. Once you have downloaded the recording.  Go to the Box website, on the top right corner click the + icon.

 

2. Select upload a video file.

 

3. Select your video file.

 

4. Give the video a Title, select copy right type and change Restrict Access to Public with embedded code and then click Save.

 

5. Once the file has been saved and uploaded, copy the embedded link from the right -hand side.

 

6. In Moodle, make a new page file in the appropriate section.

 

7. Fill out the General section with a name and description.

 

8. Go to page content and select the “Edit HTML Source” button.
Note: You may need to expand the toolbar before the advanced options are available.

 

 

9. Paste the copied link into the text box and press Update.

 

10. Student are able to view the recording by clicking on the page resource and the video can be played on demand.

Upload to theBox via page resource file picker

1. Once you have downloaded the recording of your session and create a new page resource.

2. Fill out the Name and Description in the General section.

 

3. Go to the Page Content section and in the TinyMCE text editor click on “insert Moodle media”
Note: You may need to expand the toolbar before the advanced options are available.

 

4. On file picker select the box and select your session recording file.

 

5. Change settings such as copyright, scale etc to your preference, save and then click insert.

 

6. Click “save and display” when completed.

 

7. Students can receive the Video on demand by clicking on the page resource.

Note: If you have just recently uploaded the file, the video may take a while before it is available to view.  


 

 

Sharing recordings link

Blackboard Collaborate provides the option to share video recordings with a link for people who do not have an account.

Getting the share link

1. On the home page, select the hamburger menu on the top left.

 

2. Select the “Recordings” tab.

 

3. In the list of sessions, click on the 3 Ellipses on the right of the recording you want to share

 

4. Select Copy Link.

 

Sharing a link on Moodle

1. Go to the section in the Moodle page and select “Add an activity or resource”.

 

2. Select the URL option under Resources.

 

3. Fill out the Name, URL and Description of the new page.

4. Click Save and return to course at the bottom of the page.

This section consists of some unique Collaborate ultra use cases.

Case 1: Multiple Groups accessing multiple Collaborate Sessions

Case 2: Limiting Collaborate Session access to a single group or set of groups

 

Case 1: Multiple Groups accessing multiple Collaborate Sessions

Follow these instructions to set up individual session for each group at the same time and provide individual links.

1. Create a new collaborate Activity.

 

2. Name the Activity and click on “save and display”.

 

3. Access the room, create multiple sessions and named accordingly. Then Click on “Save”
For example, 2 names sessions- Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2.

 

4. In Moodle, create 2 Groups named accordingly through course settings.

 

5. Populate the group with desired users.

 

6. In Moodle, Create 2 URL resources, named accordingly.

 

7. Copy the Guest link URL’s from previous created sessions and assign the Guest Links Copied to each of the URL resources.

8. Go to restrict access and add a new restriction “Groups”.

 

Select the group with the respective URL resource and save the settings.

 

Now student under the specific group can only access that URL.

Student View:

Note: Users can copy and share that URL with other users not enrolled in Moodle!

Additionally, the collaborate Activity should also be hidden to students as students will be able to access the activity and thus join the sessions.

 

Case 2: Limiting Collaborate Session access to a single group or set of groups

Follow these instructions if you want to limit the access of the Collaborate Ultra session to a single group or multiple groups of students.

Note: No other Collaborate Sessions must be created in the room- i.e. no other Collaborate activities should be created. If another Session is created in the Collaborate Room, users will be able to access both Sessions!

1. Create a new Collaborate Activity/room.

 

 

2. Name the activity and click on “save and display”.>

 

3. Create a new session, name it accordingly and unselect “Guest Link”.

 

4. In Moodle, Head to Course Settings and Select “Groups” under Users.

 

5. Create a new Group, name the group and click “Save Changes”.

6. Then, Click on “Add/remove users” and then add desired users.

 

7. In Moodle, edit settings of the created Collaborate Activity/Room.

 

8. Go to Restrict Access and click on “add restriction”.

 

 

9. select “Groups” and select the desired group.

 

10. Save the changes in the activity’s settings and now only a single group can access the single Collaborate Ultra session.

 

Student View:

For students to be able to share their screen or application they should be given Presenter role. This can be given by the Moderator during the session. 

Once the students have joined the session, their default role will be participant. Follow the bellow steps to give them presenter access.

 

1. Open the “attendees” Tab from the collaborate panel.

 

2. Click on “Attendees control” on the right-hand side of the desired user and select “make presenter”

 

3. If you want then to stop sharing, change the role back to “Participant”.

Once students are given presenter access they can follow the Student Guide to share their content.  

Bulletin/Advisory Information from Blackboard:

Updated: February 11, 2020
"We have conducted some exploratory tests with users from major tier 1 and tier 2 cities within China to better understand what the user experience might look like for Collaborate Ultra users in China.  We tested using the top three telecommunication carriers in China, namely China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom.

In our experience experience, both China Unicom and China Mobile performed well, with only some users occasionally being disconnected/reconnected from the session.  China Telecom did not perform well, as multiple users encountered session connectivity issues throughout the session.

These testing results are not exhaustive and should not be interpreted as guaranteed compatibility of Collaborate Ultra in China.  Experiences will vary depending on a number of factors, including personal Internet connection, bandwidth, network connectivity and firewall settings."

View the full article here: Collaborate Ultra Capabilities in China

In situations where the Guest access URL has been misused to grant unwanted access to your session, instructors can follow these steps to mitigate impact and remove guest users:

1. Upon noticing unwanted access, instructors may disable normal participants from using their microphone, camera and chat. This will not affect presenters and moderators. This can be re-enabled later via the same "Session settings" screen.
   1. In the session, click the bottom right "Open Collaborate Panel"
      
   2. Select the "My settings", cog icon tab
      
   3. In the "Session Settings" tab, untick the "Participants can:" checkboxes.
      
2. Instructors can disable guest access in the session to prevent further guests from entering, this will not affect guests that are already in the session.
   1. In your course, click the "Collaborate Ultra" link and open the session list
      
   2. Click on the session to open the settings
      
   3. Untick the "Guest access" checkbox
      
3. Instructors can remove unwanted guests from within a session. This should be done after disabling guest access to guests cannot rejoin.
   1. In the session, click the bottom right "Open Collaborate Panel"
      
   2. Click the "Attendees" tab
      
   3. Click the three dot icon menu beside a participant and select "Remove from session"
      

In situations where you or your student's microphone or camera are experiencing issues in Collaborate Ultra, these steps may be followed:

Perform Audio/Video Test

The audio and video test allows you to choose the microphone and camera Collaborate Ultra will use and check whether the device is receiving any audio/video. In situations where the computer has multiple devices attached, Collaborate Ultra may be using the wrong microphone/camera by default.

1. In the Collaborate Ultra session, click 'Open Collaborate Panel' towards the bottom right and select the cog 'Settings' icon.
   
2. In the 'Audio and Video Settings' section, click 'Set up your camera and microphone'
   
3. The 'Audio test' will begin first, use the dropdown to select your microphone. Speak into the microphone, the colored rectangle above the dropdown should move. If it does not move, there may be issues with the microphone. Double check it is plugged in correctly. Click 'Yes, Audio is working'.
   
4. The 'Video test' begins second, use the dropdown to select your camera. Double check that video from the camera is displaying above the dropdown. If video is not displaying, there may be issues with the camera. Double check the camera is plugged in corrected and is not currently in use in other applications.

Update Permissions

If the audio/video test does not resolve the issue, or you get a 'locked permission' error message when opening the audio/video test, you may need to update your browser permissions to allow use of your microphone/camera. 

In many browsers, this can be done by:

1. In the Collaborate Ultra session, click the lock icon towards the left of the webpage URL. This is located on the top of the page.
   
2. In the pop up, set 'Camera' and 'Microphone' to 'Allow'
   

Instructors may also use the 'Use phone as audio' feature (rates apply) to use their phone instead of a microphone in urgent situations.

Check Connection with Collaborate Ultra

Instructors and students can check all participant's current internet connection speeds with Collaborate Ultra by:

1. In a Collaborate Ultra Session, click 'Open Collaborate Panel' towards the bottom right and select the 'Attendees' icon.
   
2. Hover over the rectangular icon towards the right of yourself or a student. You will see a comment describing the participant's overall experience and their upload/download speeds. The amount of small rectangles and the color of the icon represents the connection status. More rectangles and a green color represent a good connection and less rectangles with a red color a bad connection.
   

 

What occurs during connectivity issues

If the presenter has a poor connection for 'Up'/upload, participants in the call will have reduced quality. If a participant has a poor connection for 'Down'/Download, they will experience reduced call quality.

Some things that may occur with a low or inconsistent network are:

• A decrease in video quality: shared content such as cameras or screens may appear blurred. In the worst cases, the shared content may appear stuck on the same image or may not be viewable
• The user with network issues may disconnect from the session or in the worst cases the session may take longer to join or time out

 

Improving Session Quality

Call quality, especially for users with lower network bandwidth/consistency may be improved by 

• Reduce the amount of video and shared content within the session if students are experiencing network issues. This means turning off any shared cameras. This is especially help 
• Use share files instead of share screen/application whenever possible. Share files uses less internet and is more consistent than share application/screen
• If Share screen/application is used: Using Share application instead of share screen and reducing the size of the shared application's window will reduce network usage
• The Presenter and any students with network issues can close any additional applications which may be using network. When presenting video content, it is recommended to play an already downloaded video file instead of presenting with a video played online as the presenter will also be downloading the video during the presentation.

In situations where major issues occur or there are recurring problems such as connectivity, instructors can report the issue by:

1. In the session when the issue is occurring, instructors and affected students should click on the top left menu icon and click 'Report an issue'
   
2. Instructors will need to also copy their own 'Session UID' inside the autogenerated report and save it in a text document for future reference. If you cannot find the session UID, the entire report may be copied.
   
3. Instructors and affected students should fill in the issue details and click submit

After reporting the issue, Instructors can email External TELT providing the following information to have the Collaborate Ultra team investigate the issue and get back to you:

• All related Session UIDs or copies of the Autogenerated report
• Description of issue that happened

Q: Do I need any special software to run Collaborate Ultra?

A: No, just a web browser! Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is recommended for best performance.

Q: How soon before the start time can my students access the session?

A: You can allow students to join between 15 and 60 minutes prior to the session beginning, you can do this within the scheduling tool.

Q: If I want to use the guest link, do participants need to have UNSW accounts or access to Moodle?

A: No, the guest link allows anyone to join the session, provided you have the guest link option enabled.

Q: How do I make my colleague a moderator during a session?

A: You can provide moderator access by clicking on the participants list button, then clicking the ellipses button next to the name of the person you want to provide access to. There you will find multiple options for access you can provide. 

Q: How do I record a session?

A: To record a session you must access it and click the ellipses button at the top of the page and click "start recording".

Q: How do I make recordings available to students after a session?

A: Recordings are automatically made available to students under the recordings section after the session is complete. You can change this via the settings.

Q: Can I record breakout groups? 

A: No, breakout groups cannot be recorded. If you are recording your session and initiate breakout groups, when you and your students return back to the 'Main Room', you must manually start the recording again to ensure lecture content is not missed.