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Update to the roll out plan for the new whiteboard for sessions hosted in EU and US data centers
Based on monitoring the roll out of the new whiteboard in Asia Pacific and Canada, we want to take a more cautious and gradual approach for Europe and US that initially planned. This more gradual approach will allow for some optimization on scaling. With this new approach, we'll roll out the new whiteboard to some institutions in Europe and the US between August 12 and 19. Not every institution in Europe and US will be part of this initial roll out. We will update this page when we can provide more details on further steps.
Thank you for your patience. Our priority is to deploy the whiteboard in a way that gives us and your users high confidence in performance, especially in the context of the back to school period.
User experience improvements based on user feedback
- Invitation emails included the default teleconference number for the data center. Now, if an institution asks for a country specific number to be displayed in their Collaborate sessions the same number appears in the invitation email.
- Occasionally when the speaker was having network issue, the network indicator was shown as red for all attendees to reflect that their experience was being impacted. However, this led users misunderstanding and concluding that Collaborate was having a large scale issue for all users. We've changed this to avoid confusion. The network indicator now shows as red only for the specific person impacted.
Gallery view dynamic adjustment
Streaming videos can demand a lot from your network connection or device, especially with a high number of videos such as the 25 at once that gallery view now supports. Collaborate will now monitor your experience and when the load is too much will automatically reduce the number of videos to 4, to improve your experience. When it does, it will show you a notification in the banner at the top of your screen.
You can also turn the full gallery view off yourself to limit to 4 videos, if you want. Go to My Settings, open the Audio and Video Settings, and uncheck the Auto (recommended) check box under Video Quality Experience. To turn Gallery view back, on check the Auto (recommended) check box any time you want.
Announcing the roll out plan for the new whiteboard
Roll out plan and resources
An updated release plan is in the latest release note for Collaborate 21.14.
We're sharing the roll out plan for our clients in advance to give them time for change management ahead of the release of the feature.
The new whiteboard will be released to each hosting region separately, and gradually over a period of several days for each region.
- Asia Pacific: gradual roll out between the 21.12 release on July 8, 2021 and July 17, 2021
- Canada: gradual roll out between July 26, 2021 and July 30, 2021
- Europe and US: gradual roll out between the 21.14 release on August 12, 2021 and August 19, 2021
For release dates, consult the release calendar. For exact timing, refer to the release article published on Behind the Blackboard two weeks before the release.
The documentation of the new whiteboard has been published in advance:
Benefits of the new whiteboard
With the new whiteboard all attendees can enjoy better formatting, usability, and annotation persistence. With the improvements to the annotation tools, attendees can enjoy these features on a session whiteboard or shared file.
- Better formatting: Pencil thickness, fonts and font size, shapes with color fill, arrows, and more are added to the annotation tools.
- Usability: It's easier to copy and reuse elements and paste text. You can now erase part of the annotations or clear all. There are multi line text blocks, text wrapping, and safeguards before clearing all annotations.
- Interaction with breakout groups: You can annotate a file in the main room and then share it with the breakout groups including annotations. You can bring a breakout group's own annotated file into the main room together with its annotations.
- Annotation persistence: Annotations made to the whiteboard, or on a file, are saved in the session. You can share something new, go to a new slide, or stop sharing. The annotations remain. Select Clear Annotations to remove them all.
Create a blank file of several pages to have a multi-page whiteboard.
The new whiteboard doesn't include a pointer, but you can easily draw your own (arrow, dot) and move it around easily.
User experience improvements
Based on feedback, we made a couple improvements to Collaborate.
- In the recordings interface, previously the "date" was indicating the end date and time. We've changed this to have it indicate the start date and time of the recording. The interface also include the duration.
- We have removed some ambiguous emojis from the emoji picker in chat.
Expanding the availability Gallery view for participants
While all institutions are using Gallery view for moderators, we're continuing to roll out of this feature to participants. As we do this we'll monitor the experience and scaling to ensure the best experience for everyone.
We increased the number of institutions with gallery view for participants during the May release. Now we're activating it for all institutions located in Canada, USA, Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Asia Pacific regions.
We're working closely with several institutions in the LAC region (Latin America and the Caribbean) to validate the experience and performance in their regional context before rolling out to more institutions there.
Activation of the feature will happen gradually for institutions between the 12th and the 18th of June. Users who have devices, performance, or networks that can't support a good gallery view experience will see their number of videos automatically scaled down to 4. Limiting the number of videos they see gives them the most fluid experience for their situation.
Just like for moderators, when participants enter a room, the default view is the usual speaker view with 1 big video along the top and small videos underneath. If participants want to use gallery view, they can pick the view in the top right corner.
More on gallery view for participants
When gallery view is available for participants at the institution level, a new option appears for moderators that allows them to decide to limit the number of videos that participants see to 4, in order to limit distractions, while moderators continue to see all available videos.
More on the Gallery view permission settings
Camera as content on mobile devices
Now moderators can share a camera on their mobile device as content on the screen. When attendees share their video using using the main tools along the bottom of the screen, their front facing camera is used. This ability to share the camera as content on a mobile device means that moderators can now choose to use their back or rear facing camera as well.
Only one camera can be shared at a time from a mobile device. Any video already shared will end to show the video from the new camera.
Collaborate improvements in our mobile apps
With the latest Blackboard app and Blackboard Instructor releases students and instructors can now access recordings and be reminded when sessions are live.
Instructors can now also able to manage their sessions from the Blackboard Instructor app.
Pin videos to the top
We know it's important for you to choose who you want to focus on in a session. Instructors may want to keep a close eye on students who are struggling with the course. Students may want to follow a sign language interpreter, stay focused on the instructor, or see their study buddies. Now with Gallery view, attendees can pin videos so they are always in view.
When you pin a video, it moves the video to the top of the list and pins, or anchors, it there. It doesn't change the number of videos you see, just the order you see them in.
Only moderators can see more than 4 videos at a time. We'll expand availability of all videos to participants in the future through gradual roll out.
Use the Attendee controls in the Attendees list or in the lower right corner of a video to pin and unpin videos. Jump to Pin videos to learn more.
Action Required: Switch to CloudFlare CDN for Collaborate recording streaming
Network administrators will need to ALLOW *.collab.cloudflare.blackboardcdn.com prior to the dates listed above in order for recordings to stream properly.
Blackboard Collaborate will be switching to CloudFlare CDN (content delivery network) for streaming recordings.
This information is necessary if you have designed your network in such a way that specific traffic can be blocked, prioritized or made available through proxy. In such cases, network administrators will need to ALLOW *.collab.cloudflare.blackboardcdn.com prior to the dates listed above in order for recordings to stream properly.
We recommend that clients continue to allow *.cloudfront.net in the event that it is necessary to roll back to the current CDN, CloudFront.
Please visit the Ultra Experience - Collaborate with the Ultra Experience Networking Information article on Behind the Blackboard for full details about network requirements and dates.
See more students with Gallery view
Gallery view isn't available in Safari® on iOS or iPadOS at this time.
Built for education, we understand that instructors want to be able to see their students' faces clearly. Body language and facial expressions help instructors tell if their students are paying attention and understanding the material. For this reason, moderators can see up to 25 videos at a time in Gallery view. This is the ideal maximum number of videos to show at one time and still see enough detail for the non-verbal feedback instructors are looking for. With the zoom controls, Tiled view, and Speaker view moderators have even greater control over how they want to see their students.
The number of videos you see depends on the size of your screen and if you have the Session menu or Collaborate panel open. Limitations on the number of videos imposed by browser support or large sessions (250+) setting remain.
The Gallery view zoom controls give you the ability to zoom in on fewer videos at a time, making each video larger. While the Tiled and Speaker views emphasize who is speaking. These views show up to 4 videos with one video larger than the others. This larger video shows who is speaking so you can see them more clearly. As the discussion unfolds, the larger video changes to match the active speaker.
In Gallery view moderators can use the previous and next buttons to see all of their students. Moderators can also point to an attendee video and select the Attendee Controls to send them a private chat, promote a participant, mute the attendee, or remove the person from the session.
In this first release, you share content, you can switch between all videos and the content in the bottom right corner. In a further release you'll be able to see videos and content side by side and this workflow will likely change a bit.
While Gallery view is made available only to moderators in this first release, we're going to expand availability to students as soon as scalability monitoring allows. Making it available to students won't require downtime so this may be made available outside of the monthly release schedule.
Gallery view
Speaker view
Tiled view
Watch a video introduction of Gallery view
The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.
Video: Gallery View in Blackboard Collaborate introduces Collaborate's Gallery view.
User experience improvements
Based on instructor feedback, we made a couple improvements to Collaborate.
- We made the the whiteboard editing tools easier to see.
- We also updated the Clear whiteboard tool. Clear is now a trash can to better represent that the tool clears the entire whiteboard and not just a selected element.
To delete just one thing off the whiteboard, select the item and press Delete on your keyboard.
- We moved the Remove attendee option so it is now the last option in the Attendee controls menu. The option is now also red to make it easier to see. We made these changes so that moderators don't accidentally remove people from a session when trying to mute them.
Collaborate Support chatbot available in more places
Now, attendees have more access to immediate support when they need it. The Collaborate Support chatbot, released in January in sessions, is now also available on some error pages, as well as on the Report an Issue panel.
Always have access to previous institution reports
Now, managers have access to institution reports previously generated. Managers can download existing reports or generate new ones. If the report includes a lot of data, it may take some time to generate. Managers can leave the panel while the report generates and go back later to download it.
Sessions that run for very long are automatically disconnected
Based on user feedback, we've changed the time from 8h (previously announced) to 12h. In future releases, we'll be looking at providing a shorter duration with an option to extend the length while in the session. Learn more on the Community site.
By default, sessions that last longer than 12 hours are disconnected. While sessions can be scheduled for any length of time including no end date, it's unusual that anyone stays in the session for more than 12 hours at a time. We assume it is unintended and disconnect the room. Attendees can rejoin the session, if they need.
Maintenance release
The release of Collaborate Ultra version 21.02 has been rescheduled for all regions on Thursday, February 25, 2021. For more details visit, the Collaborate Ultra Version 21.02 release article.
The Collaborate team has been actively working and focusing on new big features so we can release them as soon as possible. Much of this work is behind the scenes and not visible for end users yet. The Collaborate 21.02 release is considered a maintenance release for this reason. A lot of work has been done to improve stability and current experience. You can view maintenance items on Behind the Blackboard on February 25.
Based on user feedback, we improved further the privacy status of recordings to add clarity for non public recordings. Now, you can tell at-a-glance if the recording is available to the public or to course members only.
Support chatbot available in the session
We're excited to introduce our new Chat Support feature. Now, attendees can get support troubleshooting common issues while still in their session. With the new access to support, attendees can troubleshoot first and contact their institution administrator for support after, if they still need. You can find the new Chat Support feature at the end of the My Settings panel.
Recording privacy status more visible
Now moderators and session owners know at-a-glance if a recording is locked or public. Locked means only course members can view the video. Anyone not enrolled in a course can't view the video even with a link. Public means anyone with a link can view the recording. You can change the recording sharing privacy in the Recording settings.
Large sessions support for 1000 attendees (postponed)
We're having to postpone the release of this feature that was targeted for December, to address performance concerns in particular use cases. We're working to fix this and release the extension to 1000 users as soon as we can, and will update this release note accordingly. Improvements to the participant list's performance, rolled out in the December release, will remain available for all, but the attendee limit for large sessions will remain at 500 for now.
Chat mentions and formatting
Interactions with peers and instructors can lead to greater student success. It's important for students to be able to engage socially and collaboratively. With this in mind, we are excited to introduce two new features added to Collaborate's chat.
- Chat mentions
- Message formatting
Chat mentions
Now attendees can tag someone in Chat when they mention them. Anyone tagged is notified so they don't miss it. Type the at (@) symbol and start typing who in the session you want to tag. Select the name when it appears in the list. Moderators are identified with a MOD label so they are easy to find.
Attendees can turn off chat mention notifications in their personal notification settings.
Message formatting
We've updated the Rich Text Editor (RTE) in the Chat panel. Now attendees can format their messages to really get their point across.
Recording storage information in the Recording report
Find out the storage space used by each recording at your institution. There is now a storage usage column in the Recording report that shows the size for each recording in GB.
The Recording report is a manager level report.
Maintenance release
Collaborate 20.20 is a maintenance release. You can view maintenance items on Behind the Blackboard on November 12.
Update
We've applied an update to Collaborate. Based on your feedback, we’ve made changes to the library of words removed by the profanity filter in English, Spanish, and French.
This feature primarily filters out some of the most commonly used offensive terms relating to race/national origin and gender identity/expression, as well as derogatory slang for body parts or sexual acts. It is in English, French, and Spanish. It is primarily intended for use by K12 schools. The default is that this feature is disabled. We understand that, by its nature, no such list will be complete and is likely to be over- or under-inclusive.
Changes in profanity filter settings will apply for new sessions and subsequent session recordings. Reloading the current session is not sufficient.
Performance improvement maintenance window
Collaborate's regular release calendar is published well in advance, and we confirm any maintenance window 2 weeks before they happen. We recognize maintenance windows, even though happening at night, can be disruptive for some institutions. We try to plan them to minimize disruption to your regular schedule.
However, we've made the decision to include an extra maintenance window on 5/6 November 2020. This maintenance window will provide critical improvement to Collaborate's stability and performance. The alternative would have been to combine it with the planned 20.20 release. Combining it would have meant delaying those improvements as well as extending the maintenance window of that release, potentially conflicting with your regular session schedule in the morning.
With that in mind, we believe adding this extra maintenance window at night is the best compromise to minimize disruptions.
We also strongly recommend avoiding using Collaborate Ultra throughout these maintenance windows due to the database maintenance being performed, even if the site is up and running. In the unlikely event that a rollback is necessary, any data created or updated during the maintenance windows would be lost. We will try to complete the work in as little time as possible and our Status Pages will be updated when each maintenance window has ended. Please refer to our Status Pages for updates.
Visit Behind the Blackboard for the schedule and more details
Recording processing status
Collaborate now shows the status of recording processing. You can see if a recording is still processing or ready to watch from the Recordings page in the Scheduler.
Bulk invite attendees
In this Collaborate release, session owners can save time and invite more than one attendee to a session at once. From the Invitations panel, select Import Attendees to upload a CSV file with attendee information. Collaborate sends invite emails to the attendees with all the information they need to join.
Beta release of the new whiteboard
The new whiteboard was released as a beta to select clients for testing purposes from 23 July 2020. Then extended to a broader audience September 10, 2020. Beta access is now closed for application. General availability of the whiteboard is postponed due to testing. We’ll inform you of a new release date when the new date is determined. Learn more on the Community site.
Now attendees can enjoy better formatting, usability, and annotation persistence with the release of the new whiteboard annotation tools. With the improvements to the annotation tools, attendees can enjoy these features on a session whiteboard or shared file.
- Better formatting: Pencil thickness, fonts and font size, shapes with color fill, arrows, and more are added to the annotation tools.
- Usability: It's easier to copy and reuse elements and paste text. You can now erase part of the annotations or clear all. There are multi line text blocks, text wrapping, and safeguards before clearing all annotations.
- Interaction with breakout groups: You can annotate a file in the main room and then share it with the breakout groups including annotations.
- Annotation persistence: Annotations made to the whiteboard, or on a file, are saved in the session. You can share something new, go to a new slide, or stop sharing. The annotations remain. Select Clear Annotations to remove them all.
Create a blank file of several pages to have a multi-page whiteboard.
More on the new annotation tools
Watch a video about the benefits of the new whiteboard on YouTube
Recording reminder
Now Collaborate reminds moderators to start recording the session before they begin. As soon as moderators join the session, Collaborate presents a recording reminder. The reminder is visible until the moderator starts the recording or closes the reminder.
Secure recording links
Secure recordings will only be available for clients with Collaborate Scheduler and Blackboard Learn clients using the Collaborate Ultra Building Block and LTI integration.
As part of our commitment to security and privacy, we want to give instructors more control over their recordings. Public access to recordings is now off by default for new sessions. Only session owners and students enrolled in the course can see the recording. Any links shared to the recording will no longer work when the recording is secure. When public access is off, the recording is secure.
Instructors can choose to allow public access in the Recording Settings. When the Public access check box is selected, a shareable link to the recording is available. Anybody with the link can view the recording while public access is allowed. If the instructor clears the Public access check box later, the shareable link stops working.
If you want the default changed to public access always on, submit a request on Behind the Blackboard. Instructors can choose to turn public access off in the recording settings.
Only recordings made after the 20.13 release have public access turned off by default. All previous recordings have public access on by default. You can change the access for earlier recordings in the recording settings.
Chat profanity filter
We are excited to announce the new profanity filter for English and Spanish terms. Now, if someone uses inappropriate words in the chat those words are filtered out. The words are replaced with a series of stars.
This feature primarily filters out some of the most commonly used offensive terms relating to race/national origin and gender identity/expression, as well as derogatory slang for body parts or sexual acts. It is in English, French, and Spanish. It is primarily intended for use by K12 schools. The default is that this feature is disabled. We understand that, by its nature, no such list will be complete and is likely to be over- or under-inclusive.
The chat profanity filter is off by default. Moderators can turn it on in Session Settings.
- Select the checkbox next to Hide profanity in chat messages
- End the current session
- Start a new session to apply the changed setting. Changes will also apply to subsequent session recordings.
Reloading the session is not sufficient.
Learn more about the chat profanity filter
Browser support updates
As of July 1, 2020 Collaborate will no longer support these browser versions:
- Native Microsoft Edge ®
- Google ChromeTM 78 and earlier
Update your browser to the latest version.
Session owners and admins can always download recordings
Session owners, course instructors, and administrators can now always download recordings even if the option to download recordings is clear in the session settings. Use the Allow recording downloads check box to let everyone else download the recording.
Share camera
Collaborate 20.02, 20.04, 20.06, and 20.08 releases included in this 20.09 release.
The Share camera option gives you the ability to share more than one camera. Share your video and share another camera connected to your computer. Students can see you and anything else you want to show. You're only limited by the number of cameras and USB ports in your computer.
The video will appear backwards to you in the preview. This is normal. Your video will appear correctly to others in the session and in recordings. The video won't appear backwards to other attendees or in recordings. Video is only mirrored in the preview window.
Improved the create and edit session functionality
We have improved the user experience for creating and editing sessions in the Collaborate Ultra Scheduler. This improvement also prevents unintended changes to a session from being accidentally saved. Administrators and session owners now need to save changes with the Save button.
Download poll results report
Collaborate 20.02, 20.04, 20.06, and 20.08 releases included in this 20.09 release.
Now moderators, instructors, and administrators can download a session's Poll report. This report includes the poll question and how each attendee responded.
Whiteboard updates
Collaborate 20.02, 20.04, 20.06, and 20.08 releases included in this 20.09 release.
In this release, we made minor improvements to the whiteboard. It's now easier to select and rotate items.
Collaborate sessions secure by default
All newly-created Collaborate sessions are now secure by default. The Guest Access check box is clear when a new session is being created. The check box must be selected to allow guest access. Scheduler users still have the option to enable guest access if they choose, in order to allow public access to their session.
Webinar mode
Webinar mode is not available for our clients on the Moderator Access (Classroom) license. It is available for clients on our Department and Enterprise licenses. For questions about your license or to upgrade, please contact your Blackboard Account Executive.
We are excited to announce that administrators can now create large sessions that support up to 500 attendees. You no longer need to submit a large session request. Change any session to webinar mode in the Session Settings.
If you don't see the option in Session Settings, submit a request to enable it on Behind the Blackboard.
More on Collaborate's webinar mode
A special note from Product Management
COVID-19
The team has been taking several pre-emptive infrastructure measures to help prepare for significantly increased traffic as a growing number of schools move to fully online courses. We will continue to monitor closely and take any additional steps required to provide a seamless service.
Maintenance release
The Collaborate February release is a maintenance release. You can view maintenance items on Behind the Blackboard on February 13.
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