BigBlueButton Fall 2016 updates
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This document covers three new capabilities in Blindside Networks hosting of BigBlueButton coming this fall:
- Closed Captioning
- BigBlueButton now supports live captioning during a session - a moderator (such as a stenographer) can enter captions for a selected language, and students can view the live captions for a language. The recordings will display the captions as subtitles.
- Faster Desktop Sharing
- BigBlueButton offers faster desktop sharing with full capture of the cursor - the presenter can pause/resume the desktop sharing, and desktop sharing works with all major browsers (Chrome, FireFox, IE, Edge, and Safari).
- Breakout Rooms
- Instructors can place students into breakout rooms for increased collaboration. When setting up a breakout room, instructors can specify time limit, number of breakout rooms, and enable/disable recording. The instructor can also monitor activity in the breakout room (audio only or fully join).
How do I do closed captioning?
Entering captions for a language
How do I start desktop sharing?
How do I start a breakout room?
Student Joining a Breakout Room
New features for Fall 2016
How do I use closed captioning?
BigBlueButton now supports live closed captioning during a session. Any moderator can provide captioning for any language. BigBlueButton supports multiple simultaneous closed caption streams (one for each language).
The captioning will appear in the recordings as subtitles.
Entering captions for a language
When a moderator clicks the ‘Closed Caption’ layout, BigBlueButton will display the Closed Caption window.
The moderator then selects a language to provide captions.
And then clicks the first tab (it will have the name of the selected language).
Next, the moderator clicks ‘Take Ownership’ (this ensures only one moderator at a time is entering captions for the given language).
At this point, the moderator can begin typing text (or using a stenograph machine to inject text).
Viewing captions
When a viewer (student) selects the Closed Captioning layout, The Closed Captioning dialog will display the active language streams.
Clicking a language opens a new tab. Clicking on the first tab shows the live captions as they are typed.
Viewing captions in playback
Later, when viewing the recording, the playback bar will have a ‘CC’ button. Clicking on the ‘CC’ button will show the available captions.
How do I start desktop sharing?
The presenter launches desktop sharing outside the browser by opening a Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP) file called screenshare.jnlp.
The new desktop is faster and will capture all the cursor changes. Unlike the previous version, this new version launches outside the browser.
Starting desktop sharing
To start desktop sharing, the presenter clicks the desktop sharing icon in the toolbar
BigBlueButton client will display the Desktop Sharing Presenters Preview window (this will show the presenter a thumbnail view of their desktop sharing stream when desktop sharing starts).
The window display a set of images that guide the user through starting the desktop sharing. These images are specific to the user's OS + Browser.
When the user clicks ‘Start’, BigBlueButton will download screenshare.jnlp. The file may be called screenshare(1).jnlp, screenshare(2).jnlp, etc. depending on previous downloads.
Following the steps shown in the window, the instructor can opens screenshare.jnlp, which causes Java to launch and download and run BigBlueButton Screenshare. Java will display certificate confirmation dialog requesting permissions to run BigBlueButton Screenshare.
Once running, the Desktop Sharing Presenters Preview window shows a thumbnail video of what students are currently seeing. This thumbnail is not resizable (students see the desktop in a resizable window).
The presenter can pause/resume the desktop sharing stream. Clicking ‘Close’ will stop the desktop sharing.
Sharing a Region (Windows only)
On Windows, the presenter has the option of sharing region or full screen. When choosing region, the presenter will see a dashed outline of the desktop sharing area when BigBlueButton Screenshare runs.
Clicking ‘Start Sharing’ will start sharing the selected region. As with sharing full screen, a thumbnail version of what the remote students see will appear in the Desktop Sharing Presenter’s Preview window
How do I start a breakout room?
Any moderator (usually the instructor) can now place students into breakout rooms, monitor their interaction, and end the breakout rooms at any time.
Breakout rooms are full BigBlueButton sessions. The ability to record breakout rooms is under development. Each student in a breakout room has moderator role, which means any student can make themselves presenter and upload a presentation for sharing with other students.
To start a breakout room, choose “Breakout Rooms …” from the gear icon.
Configure Breakout Rooms
When you choose “Breakout Rooms …” the following dialog box appears.
The Breakout Room dialog enables the instructor to specify
- the number of breakout rooms: 2,3,4, or 5
- time limit
- enable/disable recording
- drag and drop users between rooms
- which users should not be placed into breakout room (the “Not Assigned” room)
Student Joining a Breakout Room
When the moderator presses the ‘Start’ button in the Breakout Room dialog, any user assigned to a breakout room will see the following dialog inviting them to join the breakout room.
Clicking ‘Yes’ causes the breakout room session to open in a new tab. The user remains joined in the main session (where they can chat with the instructor and ask questions). BigBlueButton will disconnect drop them from the audio from the main room. This will prevent students from being joined into two different audio sessions at the same time.
The breakout room will have a countdown timer about the chat to inform the users of the remaining time [1]. Once the timer reaches 0, the breakout room will automatically close.
Users can return to the previous tab and rejoin the audio in the main room.
Monitoring Breakout Rooms
When the instructor clicks ‘Start’ in the Breakout Room dialog, a breakout room status table will appear in the Users window.
The instructor can join the breakout room in a new tab [1], or join only the audio [2]. The instructor can also close the breakout rooms early (before the time remaining expires) [3].