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Setting up Collaborate for Online Teaching - Staff Guide

Collaborate can be used as a virtual classroom and can host up 250 participants in standard mode, and up to 500 participants in large-scale mode. This guide looks at the three ways you can set up Collaborate, and why you might use these set-up methods if you intend on using Collaborate for any online teaching you are delivering on your module:

1. The Module Room (also known as the Course Room) is suitable if your module's online teaching is timetabled at different times/days. You can advise your students to join you in the Collaborate Module Room at the time and day shown on their online timetables - this avoids you having to create sessions. A Module Room can host up to 250 participants. If a Module Room is what you need, see Enabling and accessing the Module Room.

2. Create Sessions - as each module only has one Module Room, if your module's online teaching runs concurrently or overlaps you would need to Create Sessions. For example you might have two tutors offering online tutorials at the same time and day, or have one online activity which starts with Tutor A at 10am for 2 hours, with the second online activity starting at 11am with Tutor B. In this scenario you would Create Sessions for each Tutor to use, these will act as individual 'rooms', your students would then join the relevant Tutor's 'room'.

You do not need to enable the Module Room (Course Room) for your module to be able to Create Sessions, in fact you may want to avoid enabling the Module Room if you intend on using Sessions to avoid confusing your students. If Sessions are more suitable for your module, see Creating and accessing Sessions.

3. Large-scale mode for more than 250 participants - If you want to host more than 250 participants (and up to 500), you would need to Create Sessions in large-scale mode. Large-scale mode disables certain participant functionality, however this is to avoid the common issues experienced with trying to manage larger online groups. If you want to deliver online sessions for more than 250 participants in Collaborate, see the Large-scale mode in Collaborate guide.

In this guide

Enabling and accessing the Module Room

Each module has one Module Room which can be used to host online teaching. To use the Module Room you will need to enable it.

1. You will only need to enable the Module Room the first time you use Collaborate. Under the Details & Actions area in your module, under the Blackboard Collaborate heading if you see a Join Session link, the Module Room is already enabled, you can move onto step 2.

If you see 'Room Disabled', click the three dots menu to the right of the Blackboard Collaborate heading and select Enable module room.

You should then see a Join session link under the Blackboard Collaborate heading. Your Module Room is now enabled. The Collaborate icon will now be purple and flash discretely to show that the Module Room has been enabled.

2. From the Details & Actions area, under the Blackboard Collaborate heading, click the Join session link and select Module Room, you will then be taken to the Module Room where you can start your online teaching activity.

Your students will use the same method to enter the Module Room. If you want to use the Module Room, we recommend your usage mirrors what the student has on their University timetable - remind your students to consult their online timetables and join the session by clicking the Join session and selecting Module Room, at the time and day shown on their timetables.

Students will be assigned a Participant role when they enter the Module Room. Staff will automatically have a Moderator role.


Module Room Settings

This guide does not cover Module Room settings in any detail, teaching staff should familiarise themselves with Module Room settings to ensure they are set according to the needs of their teaching activity (e.g. anonymised chat, guest access etc).

Modules with multiple teaching staff could mean that each member of staff tailors the Module Room settings for their online teaching before they use it. Teaching staff are advised to take time before the teaching activity starts to ensure Module Room settings are as they desire. The current model of activities finishing 5 minutes to the hour would be recommended to ensure teaching staff have time to do this when module activities are timetabled consecutively.

To access the settings of a Module Room:

1. From the Details & Actions area, click the three dots menu to the right of Blackboard Collaborate and choose Edit module room settings.

2. This will open the Sessions page. At the top of the page there will be a Course Room for your module, click the 'name of your module - Course Room', this will then open the Event Details panel. There are two tabs, click the Cog tab to reveal the Session settings, select the ones you want to use for your Module Room and select Save when you've finished. See, Session Settings on Blackboard's website for guidance on each of the settings.


Leaving a Collaborate Module Room

To leave a Module Room, click the hamburger menu (it's in the top left) and choose Leave Session.


Jointly-taught online teaching using Collaborate

If you intend using Collaborate for jointly-taught teaching please also see the, Using Collaborate for Jointly Taught Online Teaching section.

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Creating and accessing Sessions

To create Sessions which can be used like individual 'rooms':

1. From the Details & Actions area of your module, click the three dots menu next to the Blackboard Collaborate heading.

2. Select Manage all sessions.

3. This will load the Sessions page. You will now create a session, select Create Session.

4. This will open the Event Details panel. As a minimum, enter:

  • a Session Name - e.g. Tutor A's Room.
  • check the No end (open session) box, it should go green. If you do not check this box you will need to enter a start and end date for when the Session is available to your students.

This guide does not cover Session settings in any detail, teaching staff should familiarise themselves with Session settings to ensure they are set according to the needs of their teaching activity (e.g. anonymised chat, guest access etc). Click the Cog tab to reveal the Session settings. See, Session Settings on Blackboard's website for guidance on each of the settings.

5. Select Create to complete the creation process.

Your Session should now be created.


Accessing a Session

You and your students access the Session in the same way.

1. From the Details & Actions area of your module, under the Blackboard Collaborate heading, click Join session, this will open the drop down menu. Choose the tutor whose room you want to enter.

You will then join the Collaborate session.

Students will be assigned a Participant role when they enter, staff will automatically have a Moderator role.

If you want to use Sessions, we recommend your usage mirrors what the student has on their University timetable - - remind your students to consult their online timetables and join the session by clicking Join session and selecting the room for their tutor, at the time and day shown on their timetables.


Leaving a Session

To leave a Session, click the hamburger menu (it's in the top left) and choose Leave Session.


Jointly-taught online teaching using Collaborate

If you intend using Collaborate for jointly-taught teaching please also see the, Using Collaborate for Jointly Taught Online Teaching section.

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Using Collaborate for Jointly Taught Online Teaching

Some modules may share teaching with other modules, this is commonly known as jointly-taught teaching.

1. If a module has jointly-taught teaching there will be a requirement to choose one of the modules to host the teaching – this should be the module that the staff member teaching has access to, through Banner (SIAASGN - Faculty Assignment).

2. For jointly-taught online teaching using Collaborate, you will need to allow Guest access.

Guest access should only be used for jointly taught online teaching due to security implications. Please avoid giving guest access to any online teaching that is not jointly taught across a number of modules. Guest access can be enabled from the Settings panel.

3. Open the Settings panel by clicking the three dots menu next to Blackboard Collaborate and selecting Manage all sessions.

4. Your Module room and any Sessions you have created will be listed. Select the small three dots menu to the right of the room/session you want to allow Guest access for and choose Edit settings from the drop-down menu that is displayed.

5. This will open the Event Details panel. Check the Guest access option. Guests will be automatically assigned a participant role.

6. Click Save to generate the guest link.

This guest link should then be shared via email with students who are not enrolled on the host module (so students who are enrolled on the other jointly taught modules), to allow them to join at the time shown on their timetable. We would recommend the link be circulated to students in good time. Staff teaching the activity should also be notified which module has been designated the host so they know where to navigate to, to deliver their teaching.

N.B. A guest link is a public link that can be used and shared by anyone who has it. Do not post the link on a public domain e.g. twitter. You can disable and enable Guest access as required by checking/unchecking the Guest access box in the settings panel.

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Localised guidance to provide to your students

Think about how students will know when they should use Collaborate to access online teaching.

If you are using Sessions to create a room for each tutor, are you expecting your students to check their University teaching timetables and join at the time and day shown? Don't forget to provide them clear guidance on how you expect them to access any online teaching you are offering for your module.

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General considerations when using Collaborate

  • Clicking the three dots menu to the left of the Blackboard Collaborate heading in the Details & Actions area gives users access to recordings made in Collaborate. It is not possible to restrict who has access to a recording, anyone enrolled on the module can access all of the recordings. Clicking View all recordings, opens a page which list of the Recordings available.

  • If you wish to add Collaborate recordings to MediaSite (for captioning or retention purposes), they will need to be uploaded manually.
  • When recording teaching in a Module Room/Session if students do not wish to be identified in a recording you can hide their names. This must be set prior to starting a recording, it isn't possible to do this once recording has started.
  • You cannot pause a recording, but you can create multiple recordings by stopping the recording and starting a new one without having to leave the Module Room/Session.
  • Module Room recordings will only appear once everyone has left the Module Room (and can take time to process depending on their length).
  • Session recordings will appear as soon as they have been processed. Processing begins when the user stops recording – it is not linked to the session end time.
  • Module Room and Session recordings are given numerical names (recording 1, 2 and so on). We would recommend academic staff take time to rename their recordings to something more descriptive to help students identify recordings more easily (e.g. Week 1 Lecture, Tutor A’s Week 6 Lab).
  • Please avoid using guest links where possible as there are security implications, though it is understood that jointly taught activities will need this enabled as explained in the Organising Jointly Taught Online Teaching section.
  • You need to inform participants that a session is going to be recorded and shared. This must be communicated before the session (e.g. email) to allow participants to advise if they do not want to be recorded, or do not want to be identified in the recording. Further information is available in the Audio Visual Policy (PDF).

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