Under the Collaboration link there are two choices:
Virtual Classroom and Chat - both of which are
handy for any online or hybrid courses.
Click here to create a new session.
You can search and sort through old sessions
here by name, start or end date.
The Virtual Classroom is the more robust
of the two - allowing a lot more
interaction with students and additional
tools.
Chat is great for online office hours
it is similar to other instant
messaging tools and is not as
robust as the classroom option.
To add either a classroom session or a chat
session, give it a name, select the dates
and times for the session and choose the
tool (either the classroom or chat.)
Name your sessions so you can locate it later - usually best
to put a date or chapter in the name so it can be easily
found.
This session shows the virtual classroom tool being used.
You can also modify a session after it has been created,
for example if you had chosen chat and needed to use
the classroom instead or had the dates wrong.
Here the session is being used
for Office hours and the chat
tool is being used.
Once you click the Join button to enter a session
you and your students will most likely get the
pop up blocked message above. Click the
yellow bar to allow the session to proceed.
If the Java plug-in is not installed on the computer, the
student can go and download it. The Chat or Virtual
Classroom will not work with the full functionality
unless the plug-in is installed.
Just click to allow the pop-up and then
you have to relaunch the program
since it will kick you back out to the
main page of the BB course.
The names of the people
who are in the session
will show up in this box.
The names of the
people who are in
the session will
show up in this box.
Here is what the Virtual Classroom
looks like. There are a lot of tools
here to use: class map,
whiteboard, group web browser to
access the Internet, and the ability
to ask both private and public
questions.
Here is the Chat window,
it has a lot fewer options
to work with than the
classroom. It is basically
an instanst messenger
service much like AOL or
Yahoo has made
popular.
There are also links to help
if a student is using a screenreader
to read the words to him or her.