Collaborate Platform Features

Accessibility

Some of the accessibility features include full-screen reader support of all key workflows, whiteboard activities, and uploaded files. Global keyboard shortcuts for common actions are also supported.

The Ultra experience now provides 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.

API Framework

Blackboard Collaborate with the Ultra experience uses REST APIs for custom LMS integrations.

The public Collaborate APIs have been updated to include scheduling session, requesting session links, and attendance. Please contact Blackboard Services for more information.

Blackboard's Cloud Infrastructure

Blackboard Collaborate uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure and Blackboard hosting data centers to launch Ultra sessions.

Collaborate Ultra AWS Cloud hosted sessions FAQ's (available in English only)

New domains for Collaborate (available in English only)

Collaborate with the Ultra Experience Networking Information (available in English only)

Connection Efficiency

The Ultra experience uses WebRTC encoding.

Deployment

Collaborate is a SaaS deployment.

Downloads

The Ultra experience is entirely browser-based. No downloads or installs are required.

Integrations

The Ultra experience is available through the following means.

The public Collaborate APIs have been updated to include scheduling session, requesting session links, and attendance. Please contact Blackboard Services for more information.

Localization

Collaborate uses the language preference set in your browser. If the language is not supported, your session is in English.

Collaborate with the Ultra experience supports these language preferences:

Arabic
Brazilian Portuguese
Bulgarian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hebrew
Irish Gaelic
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Maori
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese for Portugal
Russian
Simplified Chinese
Spanish (Universal)
Swedish
Thai
Traditional Chinese
Turkish
UK English
US English
Vietnamese
Welsh

Mobile

Collaborate is supported in Chrome on Android^TM devices and Safari on iOS^®11+. Moderators and presenters on mobile devices can share files and a blank whiteboard. They can't share an application.

Users can open a Collaborate Ultra session from the Blackboard app and Blackboard Instructor, if a link is provided within a course. Users are directed to a web browser to join the session.

More on browser support on Behind the Blackboard (available in English only)

Network

Blackboard Collaborate runs best on networks that allow WebRTC over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Collaborate also requires web sockets, which is a common web technology.

Network connection management

In Blackboard Collaborate with the Ultra experience your experience is modified to accommodate your connection speed. This means that you can continue to participate in sessions in spite of slower internet connections and poor network conditions.

Telephony

With Integrated Telephony, you don't need your own teleconference provider. The teleconference service is provided by Blackboard Collaborate. Teleconference phone numbers and PINs are automatically generated during session creation. Anyone can dial into the session and initiate the connection between the session and the teleconference bridge.

We supply a Virginia-US number for U.S. and Canada, a UK number for Europe, and a Sydney number for Australia. Long distance and international calling charges may apply.

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