Moderate Sessions

Session Best Practices

There are several best practices that are recommended to ensure a successful experience. This includes making sure you have the correct equipment, having a strong internet connection, smart scheduling, prepping for your session, accessibility considerations, how to facilitate dynamic sessions, and good session follow up.

See the Session Best Practices help article for more information.

Audio

Audio is great for when you want to have conversations with your students. Audio helps you transfer your passion through tone and inflection. And if your students also share their audio, you can get get a sense of how they are doing through their expression.

See the Audio help article for more information about why to use audio and how to manage audio settings.

Share Content

The Ultra experience of Blackboard Collaborate makes it easy to share your knowledge. You can upload content, including PowerPoint^® presentations, or share your desktop screen to show more details.

See the Share Content help article for information about sharing your camera, files, PowerPoint slides, whiteboard, and other applications.

Chat

Make your sessions more engaging with Chat!  Most students are extremely comfortable with some form of text-based communication. You may see students participate who might be hesitant to speak up in audio/video settings.

See the Chat help article for more information about the chat functionality.

Breakout Groups

To facilitate small group collaboration, you can create breakout groups that are separate from the main room and assign attendees to them.  Breakout groups have their own private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat. Any collaboration that takes place in a group is independent of the Main room (and other groups).

See the Breakout Groups help article or view the Breakout Groups video for details.

Polls

Polls are great to engage your attendees and keep them interested. They have so many uses.

For example: Keep your attendees' attention by giving them opportunities to participate. Start a discussion by asking your attendees their opinion on something. Ask questions to see how well they understood what you presented. Or use reflective questions to help them retain what you presented.

Attendees respond to your poll by selecting one of up to five responses. You decide how many choices attendees see.

See the Polls help article or watch the Polling video for more information about using Polls.

Manage Attendees

Open the Attendees list to view all attendees. Open the Collaborate panel and select Attendees. 

At-a-glance you see:

• The roles of each attendee. We've grouped attendees by roles to make it easier to see who can do what in the session.
• Attendees with their hand raised. Those with their hand raised appear at the top of their role list.
• Attendee status or feedback.
• Attendees with their microphone turned on.

Browse through the list of attendees or open More options at the top of the panel and select Search. You can hide the Participants and Presenters lists.

Point to an attendee to view more information, such as their network connection. Moderators can select Attendee controls next to an attendee's name to promote them, mute them, or remove them.

See the Manage Attendees help article or view the Attendee Management video for more information.

Live Closed Captioning

The Blackboard Collaborate Ultra includes live closed captioning. This provides an accessible learning experience for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for students whose native language is different from the moderator's.

See the Live Closed Captioning help article or view the Closed Captioning video for more information.

Video

When teaching remotely you want every available tool in your disposal to engage your students. Video helps you transfer your passion through gestures and other non-verbal cues. And if your students also share their video, you can get real time feedback in the form of smiles, eye-rolls, and head nods.

See the Video in Collaborate help article for more information.

Recordings