When conducting your web conferencing session, consider the following best practices. Not all will be necessary for your particular session.

If you want to record your session, don't forget to start the recording.

Engage Your Participants

  • Greet participants as they join your session. At least initially, turn on your video so everyone can see you. (You may want to turn it off later to save on bandwidth.)
  • If your participants are new to Blackboard Collaborate, encourage them to do the following:
    • Use the Audio Setup Wizard to test their microphone and speakers.
    • Set their session connection speed.

    • Practice audio etiquette. If using a teleconference for audio, mute your phone when not speaking. If using a headset for audio, if you leave the Talk button on when not speaking, place the microphone above your nose to avoid "the Darth Vader effect".

    • Raise their hands when they have a question or comment. This is especially important if you enabled Multiple Simultaneous Talkers, so people don't talk over one another.

      If a few people raise their hands, each hand displays a number indicating the order in which the hands were raised. Invite each person to speak in turn.

    • Use chat to send text messages to other participants and moderators during the session.
    • Create their profiles (if you turned on Show Profiles of Everyone).
  • Speak clearly and don't rush. Animate your delivery.
  • Ask questions and provide opportunity for interaction.
  • Engage participants by getting them interacting with feedback tools such as polling tools, hand raising, emoticons, drawing on the whiteboard.
  • Poll the participants at various intervals to obtain feedback and check for understanding. View the polling summary as needed. Consider sharing the results when appropriate. Clear responses after each poll.
  • On the whiteboard, use the tools to assist you in your delivery. For example, use the pointer to call attention to specific regions on the screen.
  • For small group collaboration or private conferences, have participants meet in breakout rooms.

Monitor Session Activity

  • Take note of which participants are using mobile devices to connect to the session and adjust your presentation accordingly.
  • Look at the whole screen, not just the content area (Whiteboard or Application Sharing or Web Tour). For example, watch the Chat panel for text messages and the Participants panel for participants who have raised their hands.
  • Monitor status indicators in the Participants list (the amber and red boxes on the Audio and Video activity indictors) so you can see when it might be appropriate to adjust your pace so others can catch up (for example, temporarily stop talking, ask people to turn off their video cameras or pause your Application Sharing session).
  • If there is a suitable person in your session, recruit them to help you monitor and manage the session. Make sure you make them a moderator.

Grant Moderator Privileges

You can give moderator privileges to one or more participants at any time during your session and maintain your own moderator status. With moderator privileges, the participants have the same access to features that you do, including the ability to grant moderator privileges to other participants. However, they cannot remove the moderator privileges from the moderator of record. This moderator was given moderator privileges in the session scheduling server by the session creator.

How to Grant Moderator Privileges

  1. Select one or more participants in the participants list.
  2. Right-click (Control-click on Mac) the selected participants to open the participant option menu and click Give Moderator Privileges.

    -OR-

    From the Tools menu, point to Moderator and click Give Moderator Privileges.

  3. In the Give Moderator Privilege window, click Yes.

    The participants receive a confirmation message indicating that they are now moderators. The participants list is updated for everyone in the class to see the change in status.

If a moderator exits or is disconnected from a session, the remaining moderators can continue. The moderator who was disconnected can rejoin the session. If all the moderators exit or are disconnected, leaving the session without a moderator, all participant permissions may be removed depending on your session configuration. To re-establish a moderator, the original moderator of record must reconnect to the session.

How to Revoke Moderator Privileges

You can revoke moderator privileges from a participant. The moderator becomes a participant, and the participants list updates to reflect this change in status.

When you remove moderator privileges from participants, they retain any permissions you had granted them before they became moderators.

  1. Select one or more moderators in the participants list.
  2. Press and drag the selected moderators to the participants section at the bottom of the participants list.

    -OR-

    Right-click (Control-click on Mac) the selected moderators to open their participant option menu and click Take Away Moderator Privileges.

    -OR-

    From the Tools menu, click Moderator and then click Take Away Moderator Privileges.