[Using Sakai] Experience with BigBlueButton?

Tue Mar 19 08:06:39 PDT 2013

Great timing for this question. We are currently pilot Big Blue Button with a small group of faculty and staff.

So far the only real issue we run into is we need to occasionally restart the BBB server, as the audio controls degrade not allowing the host to mute the audio of any participants.  Has any one else had that issue?

Other than that no problems. One class has been using BBB for group work/discussions and we have not heard of any issues. No news is good news sometimes.

Thanks,
Jimmy Rico
Texas State University - San Marcos

On Mar 19, 2013, at 8:34 AM, Jeff Pasch <jwp292 at nyu.edu<mailto:jwp292 at nyu.edu>>
 wrote:

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! Much appreciated.

Best,
Jeff

----
Jeff Pasch
Project Manager
ITS .edu Services
New York University
----

On Mar 15, 2013, at 2:04 PM, Mary Jane Palm <janie at uri.edu<mailto:janie at uri.edu>> wrote:

Hi Jeff,

Nice synopsis Becky!
URI is currently using BBB in Sakai 2.8. We plan to move to 2.9 in August 2013.
We use one server, but are planning a second for the recordings as use grows.
We agree that not being able to record all aspects of the 'meeting' is somewhat limiting, but that is only a matter of time.
We just got our telephony connection installed and I like that the voice bridge instructions show up in the Chat area.
In the meantime, here are some of the ways I know about that people here have been using BBB with success:

Some of our smaller (20-50 student) classes have found BBB to be a good fit. These could be online or blended classes.
Faculty use BBB to connect two synchronous classes on different campuses for discussion sessions.
Online office hours or meetings.
Guest lecturers.
Our Curriculum Materials Laboratory in the library has just started using a special BBB landing page, outside of Sakai, to train students who cannot attend the face-to-face training.
Our Help Desk also has a room on this page where any URI students who will use BBB in a class can get assistance testing their connections and audio.
Instructional Technology has used BBB for some Short Course training sessions to accommodate folks who cannot come on site.
It has also been used internationally for training by our Institute for Immunology and Informatics.

Hope this is useful too!
Janie

On Mar 15, 2013, at 12:20 PM, Becky Roehrs wrote:

Jeff

We have just started using BigBlueButton (BBB), and have been using Sakai CLE 2.9 since August/2012. We had previously performed a pilot with Adobe Connect (AC). Since I ran the AC pilot, I've been working with Big Blue Button, on XP SP3 and Windows 7 (a bit) and Firefox 19:

Set-up

1) The student set-up is the same for Adobe Connect/BBB: Students must have installed Adobe Flash 10.3 or higher.

2) The instructor/presenter set-up is the same for AC/BBB: Both have to have Java installed.

File uploads

1) Both products require that you save  your PowerPoint presentations as pdfs and can't play animations.

Sharing features

1) I think BBB's desktop sharing is better than Adobe Connect, since BBB provides a small preview window, so you know if your sharing attempt is really working. That is extremely helpful!

2) With both products, you can share your whiteboard, desktop, webcam or file very well, plus chat. I like the BBB zoom feature for files: you can move a 100%-400% triangle icon to zoom out on a slide.

3) BBB has less bells and whistles than Adobe Connect, which I like, since it's easier to train others on how to use it. But AC has some nice features for more sophisticated users, such as break out sessions, for example, and of course, recording.

BBB Recording

This is something new, and definitely needs folks to work on, but here's some facts I've gathered

1) There are no start/stop buttons. You have to state you want a recording performed when you create or update the Meeting settings. It stops when the meeting creator/presenter exits the meeting.

2) My personal experience: It takes a few seconds to start a recording, even if someone enters the meeting as soon as it starts.

3) White board and mouse movements are not recorded

4) Big Blue Button recordings play in Firefox and Chrome.

5) Unless you do some setup changes/programming: You can't download or update the recordings now.

My estimation: Great for meetings, not ready for prime-time for recordings. That's fine for the students I've tested it with.

I'm writing a Tips & Tricks guide for our Instructors and Students, but have added to our Sakai wiki links to important FAQ's I found on the BigBlueButton web site (it's not pretty, we're just getting started):
http://courses.durhamtech.edu/wiki/index.php/Sakai:_Communication_Tools#Communication_Tools

Hope that helps! Becky Roehrs

Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:04:08 -0400
From: Jeff Pasch <jwp292 at nyu.edu<mailto:jwp292 at nyu.edu>>
Subject: [Using Sakai] Experience with BigBlueButton?
To: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>
Message-ID: <8986E1EC-1EF0-4563-B311-25F7F3FED258 at nyu.edu<mailto:8986E1EC-1EF0-4563-B311-25F7F3FED258 at nyu.edu>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi all,

NYU is looking at BigBlueButton as a possible web conferencing solution, to be integrated with our instance of Sakai CLE 2.8.

Are there any institutions out there who are using / have used BBB with Sakai who would be willing to share their experiences with us? Pros and cons? Issues? Triumphs?! Comparisons with other web conferencing solutions you've used?

Any input/advice you have would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Jeff

----
Jeff Pasch
Project Manager
ITS .edu Services
New York University

Becky Roehrs   M.Ed, CPP
Coordinator of Distance Learning/Learning Technology Specialist
Durham Technical Community College
1637 Lawson Street
Durham, NC 27703
Email: roehrsb at durhamtech.edu<mailto:roehrsb at durhamtech.edu>
Durham Tech Sakai blog: http://durhamtechsakai.blogspot.com/
Phone: 919-536-7213 X5901

Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and shall be disclosed to third parties when required by the statutes. (NCGS.Ch. 132)

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner<http://www.mailscanner.info/>, and is
believed to be clean. _______________________________________________
sakai-user mailing list
sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>
http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-user-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-user-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org> with a subject of "unsubscribe"

_______________________________________________
sakai-user mailing list
sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>
http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-user-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of "unsubscribe"

_______________________________________________
sakai-user mailing list
sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>
http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-user-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of "unsubscribe"

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-user/attachments/20130319/88ad1279/attachment.html 