Big Blue Button (also called BBB or Canvas Conferences) Basics
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Information
Big Blue Button is the Canvas tool for video-conferencng similar to BlackBoard's Collaborate. It is designed with a "minimalistic interface" and is "designed for online learning" not business video-conference calls. Info can be found here: http://bigbluebutton.org
Here is their FAQs: http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ
Here is their users support forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bigbluebutton-users
- Both instructors and students can schedule sessions immediately and last indefinitely.
- There is no current way for multiple presenters (the session creator can switch it among participants).
- It is not a completely secure communication.
- When groups of 20 are using a session, turning off video and/or muting audio can help retain stability.
- Presenters who want to share their desktop should have Java 7 update 45 and not use the Chrome Browser.
- If it states "camera is in use," the the best solution may be to restart the computer; also look for an ALLOW button at the top of the screen, especially in Chrome.
- There is not a way to share additional video (beyond your webcam) such as YouTube.
- The Chrome is recommended unless it is necessary to use the share screen tool; in that case, use the FireFox browser.
- To test connection, use http://www.bandwidthplace.com/ . The recommended download speed is 1 mbps, and the upload speed is 1 mbps.
- The use of mobile devices does not seem to be recommended; there seem to be some workarounds but none that that are easy or foolproof.
- Individuals control video panels, and enlarge or delete individuals.
- Headphone use is recommended.
- To draw, load a blank document into the white board.
- The recording are kept for 14 days and are not able to be downloaded (although screen-capture is a possibility; QuickTime Player for Mac or Screen Recorder for PC).
- Users can rejoin a session (if dropped) by refreshing their browser.
This is a longer (51:37, especially the first 17 minutes) webinar video but goes over a lot of features and trouble-shooting tips for instructors: