Tips and Tricks to Engage with the New Blackboard Collaborate Ultra - Lau Eng Tang & Nick...

Tips and Tricks to Engage with the New Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Eng Tang Lau, SE, APACNick Benwell, SE, APAC

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The Internet … wasn’t built by educators to optimize learning. It presents information not in a carefully balanced way but as a concentration-fragmenting mishmash. The Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention …

What we are experiencing is, in a metaphorical sense, a reversal of the early trajectory of civilization: we are evolving from being cultivators of personal knowledge to being hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forest.Carr, N. (2010). The shallows – What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. P. 131

Virtual spaces are mirroring this change

Office Hours & Support

Teaching & Learning

Group collaboration & meetings

Four Main Use Cases

Professional Development

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So, we know why and for what reasons.Now let’s focus on how to be an effective moderator in a Collaborate session.

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A clear focus on improving the education experience for the learner

#1Get

Prepared

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Understand the time limits

Best Practices for Webinars - Adobe

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A clear focus on improving the education experience for the learner

#2“Technical”

Support

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Can you hear me? • Use the hand raise tool to let me know that you can

hear me speaking.

Want to send a message?• Open the chat panel to type.

Need to troubleshoot audio?• Hover over your profile image to display My Settings.

Click to select. • Click Audio and Video Settings > Set Up your Camera

and Microphone. Select your preferred device and watch for the moving meter bar.

Welcome to the Bb Collaborate Ultra Experience

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Troubleshooting Tips for moderator

• Have you updated your browser? • Enter the session early and get prepared (upload slides you want to use)• First time accessing requires more bandwidth • Audio/video settings• First slide to show new entrants where the tools are• Is video necessary or not?• Check their bandwidth, anticipate problems

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Troubleshooting Tips for participants

• Is the headset plugged in correctly?• Is there a mute switch on the headset?• Is the computer’s audio muted or turned waydown?• Did the user select the correct audio inputdevice? You may have more than onemicrophone or input device so double check.• If you are hearing an echo, check to make surethe participant is not sitting in the same physicallocation with another participant.

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Know the tools to help you manage the environment

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A clear focus on improving the education experience for the learner

#3Engage

Participants

The Doctor’s Waiting Room

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Challenge Participants to Engage

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What is the next number in the sequence?

Write the answer in the chat window.

8 = 567 = 426 = 305 = 204 = ?

Challenge Participants to Engage

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Troubleshooting Tips

•Ask questions•Direct how and where students should answer•Enforce rules such as turn-taking

•What would you suggest?

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A clear focus on improving the education experience for the learner

#4Always check for understanding

Polling Within Collaborate

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Troubleshooting Tips

•Ask for chat responses•Use the ‘Hands-up’ function•Use the polls•Ask selected students•Use slides adapted to elicit feedback