Blackboard Collaborate Session

I got my first introduction to Blackboard Collaborate this past weekend. A link provided in the content for Unit 4 in LIBR 203 led to a list of every session over the next several days, and luckily enough, there was one slot still open on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. So I submitted an RSVP for that time and received an email with a username, password, etc. to enter that meeting.

 

Whoever had written the message included in the invitation recommended entering Blackboard Collaborate 10 to 15 minutes before the session started, which was sound advice. If you’re new to an application, especially for something like web conferencing, it is worthwhile to explore that virtual environment beforehand. And the screen that popped up was definitely interesting.

 

Included on the far left were three boxes, each with the specific purpose of helping the participants communicate with each other:

 

1.      A spot for video/web cameras, so you could see the speaker during the conversation. There were also volume controls for the microphone and headsets along the bottom of this area. In the top right-hand corner, you could click on the icons to set up the sound options on your computer for the meeting.

2.      The middle box contains the list of participants, along with options set beside each name to interact with or see what the person was doing at that moment. Next to your own name, you had buttons to do such things as: Raise your hand, take a vote, or insert an emotion symbol.

3.      The last box had the chat option, where you could type questions or comments everyone in attendance could see (unless you had another tab open in the same area for a private chat).

 

The largest and main area contained a Powerpoint slide, and the moderators hosting the session would gradually flip through the rest during the presentation. A list of buttons sat along the edge here, similar to the art tools in Microsoft Word or Paint, that allowed you to make marks or insert clip art onto the main area—however, it turned out anything you did on the slide everyone else could see as well.

 

Anyway, when I entered Collaborate around 9:45 a.m., the moderators were already helping other early arrivals with their microphones (a requirement for the meeting). But it was not too difficult to do this, and once the session did get started everyone needed to use this equipment to introduce her or himself out loud.

 

I will not go into much detail regarding everything we talked about during the session, though it seems Blackboard Collaborate is truly an on-line classroom. Professors can hold lectures there, where all the students can listen, ask questions, or participate in various ways. It also lets students meet up for group meetings, or enter this space on an individual basis to work on projects.

 

D2L has been easy to navigate, and so has Blackboard Collaborate. If the technology is this easy to access and understand throughout my education at SLIS, the coming semesters are going to be awesome.