After many years of use, UMBC’s license for Class Collaborate (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) will end on July 31, 2025.
As one of our longest licensed tools, Collaborate provided synchronous support for Blackboard courses, serving more than 300,000 sessions over the last ten years. However, since it was acquired by Class Technologies in 2022, it is unclear if and how Collaborate will be supported and developed over the long term, given the company’s priority of its own synchronous platform based on Zoom.
In Spring 24, we announced that we would standardize one version of Blackboard (Ultra) starting this fall. Ideally, we would also simplify the synchronous video conference platform used by courses; however, we recognize that students will likely use a variety of tools in their working lives after graduation. Therefore it is essential to expand access to licensed synchronous tools while we also still have Collaborate for another academic year.
DoIT offers three synchronous meeting tools with robust functionality:
To learn more about these synchronous platforms, please explore pedagogical and technical use cases in this comparison chart. If you have a specific use case not listed, please open an RT ticket for a consult.
Attendance Tracking
While these synchronous platforms offer Blackboard integrations at varying levels, none support 1) attendance synchronization to the Blackboard gradebook and 2) groups synchronization between breakouts and Blackboard. All platforms, however, do provide attendance reports, which will be important for faculty who need to track student attendance as well as proposed regulatory changes for attendance in 100% online courses.
We welcome faculty feedback via this brief survey about synchronous platforms and attendance.
Preparing for the Transition
Starting this fall, Instructional Technology will offer training sessions to familiarize faculty and staff with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Webex training is available upon request. These sessions will focus on both the technical aspects of using the tools and pedagogical strategies to enhance student engagement.
Users who wish to save Collaborate recordings will need to migrate them to Panopto by May 25, 2025.
Collaborate recordings made before July 1, 2024 will be retired by October 1, 2024.
NOTE: Due to FERPA restrictions, the reuse of any recordings (Collaborate, Webex, etc.) is not permitted if those recordings feature audio or video of students without their express permission.
Key Dates to Remember
May 25, 2025 - Faculty and student access to Collaborate via Blackboard ends
June 15, 2025 - Access to Collaborate sessions outside Blackboard ends
July 31, 2025 - End of support for Collaborate, including DoIT access to the Collaborate system
Keeping your classroom on topic and safe from trolling shouldn't be something you have to worry about when teaching. Unfortunately, misbehavior can and does happen. These tips should help you keep your class on track and safe from disruption when using Collaborate or Webex for live, remote instruction. (Many of these tips are applicable to business meetings.)
Avoid sharing your guest link via email or social media. The guest link allows anyone to access a meeting so if a stranger clicks the link, that person can also join.
Collaborate: Tell students to use the Course Room link or specific session that's available in the Blackboard course unless you have no other means to get the link to them. Do not share the guest link. The Collaborate link is associated with your student usernames for tracking attendance while the guest link lets students enter any name and share the link with other people. Do not share the guest link with students!
Webex: Limit the use of your personal meeting room for class or large meetings by generating a new session link per meeting through the Google Calendar integration. A passcode is automatically added for extra security. This link cannot be shared since it is uniquely coded to each invited person.
If you do have a disruptive participant in the session, you can remove that person.
Collaborate: Remove Attendees
Webex: Expel a Participant
Take note of the default settings participants have to share their screen. Unlike Zoom, both Collaborate and Webex do not allow participants to share by default.
Collaborate: Only moderators and presenters can share their screens. Participants must be promoted to presenter to share their screen with the room.
Webex: Default settings in Webex prevent attendees from sharing their screen unless the host allows. To allow an attendee to share their screen, right click on the attendee and select Make Presenter.
Chat, voice, and webcam functionality IS available by default to participants. Collaborate and Webex handle these settings differently.
Collaborate: You can disable these functions by default through the Session Settings before or during a live meeting. Ask students to raise their hands in the session if they want to speak and then promote them to presenter. Once they are finished, you can demote them back to participants.
Webex: You can control the permissions your attendees have when scheduling the meeting via the web. Under Attendee Privileges, default settings allow attendees to view participants, request remote control, and participate in private chats with presenters, hosts, and other participants. Once in the meeting, the host has the power to mute other participants or disable individual video feeds.
Turn off private chat.
Collaborate: This setting must be disabled in Collaborate BEFORE the live session. Turning it off prevents someone from messaging another participant during the live session.
Webex: By default, chat is enabled. When scheduling the meeting via the web, you can disable chat through Advanced Options. The meeting options allow you to disable public chat while attendee privileges allow you to turn off private chat.
Don’t use Zoom: It’s not licensed or supported by UMBC.
Additionally, you and your class may want to observe some general tips for presenting and attending in a live session:
Establish expectations early. Review any netiquette guidelines with your students.
Remind students to check their microphone buttons in the session. When participants do not need to talk, they should turn their microphones OFF.
Be patient during a live session, especially if your class is large. A co-moderator is essential to manage large numbers. Tell students to raise their hands if they have a question or use chat. Some instructors have students use private chat to ask a moderator a question directly.
Remind students that their peers and/or instructor are also working from home and they may have children in the same space. Let your audience know if content will be sensitive, especially if you think minors may be in the background.
Anyone who is asked to share video should check the background area to avoid inappropriate content within view.
Be aware of ambient noise (televisions, barking dogs, flushing toilets, doorbells). If someone is speaking, make sure people in the space around know not to interrupt.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups