Orientation to Collaborate 11 Farnoush Zadeh, Instructional Designer Continuing & Distance Education St. Francis Xavier University
! Provide a brief introduction to the Collaborate platform How to get help Checking your system requirements How to get to the class! Discover the tools available to teach and learn effectively Audio & video Participant window Chat window Whiteboard Menu bar Session Objectives
Your Support Team! Farnoush Zadeh (Collaborate Teaching and Learning Support) fzadeh@stfx.ca Tel: (867) 5728 www.stfx.ca/people/fzadeh! Blackboard Admin (Farnoush Zadeh/Anthony MacPherson - Blackboard Support) bbadmin@stfx.ca Tel: (867) 3971 Toll free: 1-877-867-3971 United States and Canada: 1.888.788.5264! Collaborate Technical Support Toll Free: North America: 1-877-382-2293 Blackboard Support documents Live Chat Continuing and Distance Education Tutorial Page
Behind a School Firewall? What your school-based technician needs to know:! Collaborate connects on one of two ports 2187 or 80 [non-encrypted] or 443 or 80 [encrypted].! Access through either port to one of the above listed servers is required to make a connection to Collaborate session. Communication is in a proprietary protocol called the Collaborative Communication Framework (CCF), which is layered on a TCP transport protocol.! Click here for more technical details about connection issue.
Minimum requirements for your computer! Make sure you update your system! For Mac, click on the apple at the top left corner and choose software updates! For Windows, click on start button at the left bottom corner and choose widows update.! Click Here to check your system requirements.
How to Get in?! Every collaborate classroom comes with a Moodle course which is a repository space. When you log in to Moodle and click on your course, there will be a section called Collaborate. In that section, there is a link to the Collaborate classroom, sand box, recording, and support documents. You may also get the links from your instructor through email.
You click on the classroom link:! If your Browser blocks popups, left click the Allow Popups Button to allow the popup. According to the security level of your computer and settings, you may not see the first window but if you do, click run! in the next window accept. If you get a security warning, select Always allow from the options given.! A window prompt to ask you about your connection. If you are not dial up, choose cable/dsl. This setting is also good for wireless networks as well.! Enter you first and last name and log in
! You will see a small window with a progress bar on your screen after a minute or so you should be in the classroom When you access Collaborate, the first screen is the Launch screen. Don t close it and be patient; it is loading in the background.
Menu bar Basic Screen Layout Audio and Video Participant Area Chat Window The Screen or Whiteboard area
! To c h a n g e y o u r layout, simply click and drag each section from the top and drop any where you like.! What you see here is our recommendation.! Up to 6 cameras can run at a time! If you close your video window, it automatically goes back to the top left corner of the page where it was originally. Changing the Layout of Your Screen
Audio and Video Window Expand and collapse the video panel Mic & Speaker level slider and level indicators Talk Button! Only one participant can speak at a time. Video Preview Start Video! Left-click once on the Talk Button in the Audio window to talk, left-click once to turn off your mic.! To test and adjust your audio: Tools Audio Audio Setup Wizard Or click on the following icon to start the audio set up.
Audio Setup Wizard! Click on refresh and then ok.! In the next window, click play and adjust the slider to your liking and then stop.! The third window will prompt to ask you if you were successful to set the speaker volume. If you were successful, click ok.
! Click on record and record a message, then stop and play back to see if you hear your speaker properly. Finally click stop.! Refresh and click ok. Audio Setup Wizard Cont.! This window is asking you if the loudness of the message was as loud as the message you heard at the beginning. If yes, click ok.! The last window will give you confirmation that your audio set up was completed.
Participant Window Collapse/Expand This is You Your Polling Options Moderators appear above this line Your Emoticon
Participant Window cont. If you step away from your computer, click this button If you want to talk, raise your hand and enter the queue When you are number 1, it is your turn to talk You can right click on some one and send a private chat or view their profile.
Chat Window Expand and collapse the window Area to type your message! You can also send a private message to that person by right clicking on their name in the participant window and choose send a private message.! Now at the bottom of the window you have 2 tabs. Make sure when you are sending the private message, you are on the right tab.
Chat Window Cont.! If you want to close the tabs, move you mouse over the little picture on the tab and it will change in to an X, then you can close that tab. Make sure when you are sending the private message, you are on the right tab! If you have not detached and expanded your chat window and you have more than 3 tabs open, you see an arrow on the right side. To get to other people if have to click on that arrow and choose the person you want to sent the private message to.
Participant Window cont. Indicator of streaming video Indicator of typing in chat box Indicator of active microphone Indicator of writing on whiteboard
User Profiles! If the participant has added a profile it will appear when you right click on his/her name in the participant window.! To add profile, you can right click on your name and edit profile or go to edit, then preference and under profile you can update your profile.! You can also send a private message to that person by right clicking on their name and choose send a private message.
Break Out Room! In order to go in and out of a breakout room, click on your name so it is highlighted in blue.! Click on the rectangle called main room and from the drop down menu, click on the room that you want to go.! You can go to other rooms or back to the main room following the same procedure.! A breakout room has the same features as the main room and can be used to facilitate small group activities or private meetings.! Breakout rooms have their own private Audio, Whiteboard, Application Sharing, Video, polling, etc.! What is said or viewed in a breakout room will not be captured in a recording. There is no limit on the number of breakout rooms or the number of participants in each room.
Whiteboard Change the whiteboard size Writing tools
Whiteboard Tools Cursor Different pointer Pen Text Box Solid rectangle or circle Hollow rectangle or circle Straight line Screen capture Clip art Clip art has many options. There are a variety of backgrounds for different disciplines and much more. Just go through each tab and explore.
Whiteboard Tools If you click on any of these tools, an option window will open at the bottom of the tools column which you can change the color, opacity, font type and size, and line thickness. If you click on the color portion of each palette. The above window opens up with so many option for color.
File Transfer (only for moderators)! When a file or URL is transferred, a pop up window will ask you if you want to save the file. Click yes and save the file where you want on your computer.! If you choose no and wanted to save it later, it stays in the file transfer library until the end of the class.! To open the transfer library just click on Window in the menu bar and choose Show File Transfer Library.! You can also share the URL through the chat window.! If you are not the moderator, your window will only have the save option.
View Session Recordings! If the session was recorded, a link to that recording will be added automatically to your Blackboard course site within a few hours.! In Blackboard, go to Content, then Click the Collaborate folder Click Class Recordings! What you see is exactly like a collaborate classrooms but there is a pause/play button at the bottom of the page is added. There is also a slider to show where you are in the recording.! The files that are transferred during the session are not going to be saved. Pause/Play Slider