DoIT Support for Collaborate Will End Next Summer, 2025
Alternate synchronous tools include Google, Microsoft, Webex
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.
- Download Collaborate recordings to your computer.
- Create a new folder in Panopto for Collaborate recordings in My Folder.
- Upload Collaborate recordings to your new Panopto folder.
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
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: Collaborate logo (decorative)
Synchronous engagement tools provide platforms for instructors and students to meet during online, hybrid, and hyflex class sessions. Many courses record these live sessions to provide a lecture reference, support test preparation, engage student or group presentations, provide virtual office hours, and more. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Collaborate usage exceeded available storage, requiring additional expenses to maintain an unlimited retention practice during uncertain times. As UMBC moves into a post-pandemic period, however, continued storage will incur additional fees each year.
Following the announced Webex recording retention practices, reasonable limitations on Collaborate recording storage will also be implemented. Beginning July 1, 2023, Instructional Technology will retain Collaborate recordings for 12 months. Thereafter, every July, the previous twelve months of recordings will be retired and removed. A three year cycle is defined in the table below.
Retirement Month | Removal Year | Retention Year |
July 2023 | July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022 | July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 |
July 2024 | July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 | July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 |
July 2025 | July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 | July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025 |
Recordings made prior to July 1, 2021 will be removed on May 30, 2023.
If recordings are needed for reuse or longer periods of retention, instructors and session moderators must download important recordings from Collaborate and upload the MP4 files to Panopto for frequent viewing or cloud storage for long term archive. Uploading a recording to Panopto provides captions, basic editing tools, quizzing within a video, embedding options for a Blackboard course, and viewing analytics.
Collaborate recordings include a list of students who attended the live session and chat transcripts, as well as audio/video. As such, Collaborate recordings represent part of a student's educational record and are protected under FERPA for the purposes of privacy. These types of recordings should only be used in the originating course in which the synchronous session occurred, not in other courses. Students who may need access to a recording to fulfill an incomplete will have 12-months of access under this retention policy depending on the terms of the course availability override requested by the instructor.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Creating captioning for recordings from scratch can be very time consuming for instructors or accessibility staff. Beginning in May 2022, instructors can leverage the help of artificial intelligence to improve the accessibility of their Collaborate recordings
with captioning.
Captions are a valuable instructional resource, improving the accessibility of content for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired. Moreover, students gain new opportunities to access information in ways they need or want it, thanks to captions. For example:
- Anyone working in a noisy environment can read captions.
- Non-native speakers can read captions to reinforce their understanding.
- Students learning to read can follow along with the speaker.
- Students can see the spelling of terms that will be on a test.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Interested in attending an Instructional Technology Essentials session but unsure when it will be? Sign up for one of our sessions by May 20, 2022. Interested participants will be sent a Doodle poll on May 23rd to determine a time when all participants can attend.
The Essential tools that will be offered in June include:
Ultra Essentials I - Content & Engagement | 60 minutes |
Sign up here New to Ultra or need a refresher? This hands-on overview focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for communication and content creation. Topics include:
- Create and organize folders
- Upload files & link to Google Drive
- Post announcements & send messages
- Create discussions forums
- Access Collaborate for virtual web conferencing
Ultra Essentials II - Assessment & Grading | 60 minutes |
Sign up here New to Ultra or need a refresher? This hands-on overview focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for tests, assignments, and grading. Topics include:
- Creating assignments and tests
- Using the new inline grading tools
- Entering grades in the Ultra grade center
New to Blackboard Collaborate or need a refresher? This overview focuses on the essentials of using Blackboard Collaborate in your courses. Topics include:
- Using the Sharing Content Tools
- Examine active learning strategies to get participants involved in the sessions
- Create breakout rooms and polls
- Identify Collaborate features that support the needs of users with disabilities
- Describe how gallery view can be used for live remote proctoring
VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. Instructors and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload. Session topics include:
- Upload media, comment and annotate on that media, and share it with others
- Create graded VoiceThread assignments in Blackboard
- Use comment moderation to formatively assess student work, give private feedback, and use threaded commenting
- Use VoiceThread as a catalyst for class discussions
Are you interested in learning how to create video screencasts? Using Panopto, faculty can capture and narrate anything they see on their computers, and then publish an online screencast video tutorial or mini-lecture for students to watch and replay on their own time. Panopto provides multiple recording and editing options for video and audio output and a cloud-based video storage platform for new and pre-existing media content. It is available for both Blackboard Original and Ultra courses. Session topics include:
- Getting started with Panopto
- Launching Panopto from your Blackboard course
- Recording videos using the Panopto application or browser-based capture tool
- Creating videos by uploading your own media content
- Creating automatic captions.
A Doodle Poll will be sent to interested participants by May 23 to determine when the session will be offered. Webinars will take place in a Blackboard Collaborate virtual conference room.
Prior to the event
For the best viewing experience, we recommend using Chrome or Firefox, preferably the most recent updates to those browsers. Closing any unnecessary browser tabs will help conserve your bandwidth.
At least 5 registrations are needed for sessions to proceed. Sessions will be recorded if two or more people attend and the link will be distributed to everyone who completed the sign up form.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
While teaching a synchronous session using web conferencing tools, instructors juggle content, conversation, and context. Engaging participants and maintaining a high level of interaction is an essential outcome of an online experience. Even when webcams are on, how do you know if students are engaged?
In late SP2022, Collaborate launches a new Engagement Insights Panel as a companion tool for faculty moderators to reveal how the student audience is engaging while the session is occurring. In this first release, instructors will be able to toggle a panel at the bottom of their live Collaborate session to show the percentage of hands raised and chat messages sent in both the main room and in breakout rooms. As the data refreshes, faculty can use this information to note high and low engagement in the live session.
Image 1: Example of Collaborate Live Engagement Insights
Collaborate will also offer metrics for session recordings including how many students have watched the recordings or downloaded the recording file (if downloads are enabled). Faculty can also see the last date and time when a recording was viewed or downloaded. This information will be available on the Recordings tab.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Breakout groups are a powerful engagement tool for active learning in a synchronous session, providing private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat for small group collaboration. Instructors can
distribute files with breakout groups, and
pull those files back into the main room for sharing with the entire class.
In Collaborate, breakout groups were
typically created with random student placements to the groups or manual placements by the instructor with an optional setting to allow students to switch groups.
With this new integration, however, instructors will be able to use their existing groups in their Blackboard courses to quickly create and launch breakout groups in Collaborate. As needed, instructors can adjust groups while maintaining the original placements.
The Collaborate and Blackboard Learn groups integration applies to both Original and Ultra courses, but will require the use of group sets rather than individually created groups in the course.
The Collaborate and Blackboard Learn groups integration is scheduled for gradual release in mid-September. As soon we have additional information, we will update the FAQs with how-to documentation and related resources. UPDATE: New FAQ is available.
Additionally, with this release, Collaborate will proactively inform users about outdated browser use and encourage them to upgrade to a supported browser. Users will still be allowed to join a session, but the experience may not be the same.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
]]>
Breakout groups are a powerful engagement tool for active learning in a synchronous session, providing private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat for small group...
https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology/posts/111913
https://beta.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/111913/guest@my.umbc.edu/b2f1689c1c04219624acc0f3a3bb8064/api/pixel
active-learning
breakout-groups
collaborate
fa2021
online-learning
ultra-update
Instructional Technology
https://beta.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xsmall.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/original.png?1446126703
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xxlarge.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xlarge.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/large.png?1446126703
https://assets4-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/medium.png?1446126703
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/small.png?1446126703
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xsmall.png?1446126703
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xxsmall.png?1446126703
Instructional Technology
https://assets4-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/xxlarge.jpg?1630501227
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/xlarge.jpg?1630501227
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/large.jpg?1630501227
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/medium.jpg?1630501227
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/small.jpg?1630501227
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/xsmall.jpg?1630501227
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/913/13771dc0bfbc18b7486895087f95d15f/xxsmall.jpg?1630501227
1
0
true
Tue, 07 Sep 2021 11:59:08 -0400
Mon, 13 Sep 2021 10:54:43 -0400
Enhanced whiteboard tools coming to Collaborate in August
Draw freehand customize text & retain session annotations
A whiteboard is an important pedagogical tool to support handwritten expression and annotation, especially in a virtual classroom. Over the last year, Blackboard has been redesigning the whiteboard tool for Collaborate to provide more comprehensive tools and functionality. These
new whiteboard tools are expected in time for FA2021 courses.
When files or a blank whiteboard are shared in Collaborate, instructors can use annotation tools to edit and mark up the document during the live session. The enhanced functionality includes:
- Draw freehand on the page with various colors, thickness, and opacity. Select the eraser to remove annotations. You can erase parts of a freehand drawing with the eraser or select the Delete icon to delete the whole drawing.
- Add text directly on the page. You can move, edit, and change the text and select the font, size, alignment, and color of the text.
- Draw shapes including Line, Arrow, Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and Polyline. Each shape has its own settings to change the color, width, opacity, and more.
- Highlight text on a shared file. You can also strikethrough, underline, squiggle, or comment on the highlighted section. Note: The highlighter is not available on the whiteboard.
In addition to annotation persistence, which allows you to retain markups on a whiteboard even after closing the whiteboard, the new tool will support moving the whiteboard or shared file on the page as well as zooming and adjusting the view to automatically fit the width. Group annotations on a whiteboard will also be saved. Even a multi-page whiteboard is possible!
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
]]>
A whiteboard is an important pedagogical tool to support handwritten expression and annotation, especially in a virtual classroom. Over the last year, Blackboard has been redesigning the...
https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology/posts/111114
https://beta.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/111114/guest@my.umbc.edu/d315da6b6e9fabcaf56276bbef08f9f5/api/pixel
active-learning
collaborate
fa2021
online-learning
ultra-update
whiteboard
Instructional Technology
https://beta.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xsmall.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/original.png?1446126703
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xxlarge.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xlarge.png?1446126703
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/large.png?1446126703
https://assets4-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/medium.png?1446126703
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/small.png?1446126703
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xsmall.png?1446126703
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/001/164/dec3b026b81ee6d890a8f82f75c94a2e/xxsmall.png?1446126703
Instructional Technology
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/xxlarge.jpg?1626786832
https://assets3-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/xlarge.jpg?1626786832
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/large.jpg?1626786832
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/medium.jpg?1626786832
https://assets2-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/small.jpg?1626786832
https://assets1-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/xsmall.jpg?1626786832
https://assets4-beta.my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/111/114/03ed6c135c5912cf3bd6060f43ededf1/xxsmall.jpg?1626786832
1
0
true
Mon, 02 Aug 2021 10:30:40 -0400
Mon, 02 Aug 2021 10:32:23 -0400
UMBC to pilot Collaborate automated transcription recording
Pilot will take place during summer session through 9/15
Update @ 10/1: The pilot has concluded.
In partnership with Blackboard, UMBC will pilot a recording transcription feature in the Collaborate web conferencing platform this summer. This feature will be available from July 15 - September 15, 2021.
Captions improve the accessibility of content for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired. However, captions with videos offer opportunities for students to access the information in ways they need or want it.
- Anyone working in a noisy environment can read captions.
- Non-native speakers can read captions to reinforce their understanding.
- Students learning to read can follow along with the speaker.
- Students can see the spelling of terms that will be on a test.
In Collaborate, the recording transcription feature is triggered by the instructor through the recording settings page for the session. Please
review this FAQ for step by step instructions.
Collaborate leverages AI powered speech to text recognition to generate a transcription of what is said during the session. After the captions are created, captions are available from the recording list. The captions also immediately appear in the recording player for anybody having access to the recording.
As with Panopto, if you want to improve or correct anything in the captions, you can download the caption file to edit and replace it.
During the pilot, Blackboard would like to gather feedback from faculty who use the feature. Surveys will be distributed to faculty who use Collaborate recordings during the pilot. Please share your thoughts as this feedback is important to improving the feature for all future users.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
UPDATE: Following the introduction of gallery view to faculty in April 2021, we are pleased to announce that students and participants will also have access to 25 videos per page with the May update.
Sometimes it can important for users to choose who they want to focus on in a synchronous session. Instructors may want to keep a close eye on students who are struggling with the course. Students may want to follow a sign language interpreter, stay focused on the instructor, or see their study buddies. Gallery view introduced 25 videos per page in April 2021. With this month's Collaborate update, attendees can pin videos so they are always in view.
When you pin a video, it moves the video to the top of the list and pins, or anchors, it there. It doesn't change the number of videos you see, just the order you see them in.
Use the Attendee controls in the Attendees list or in the lower right corner of a video to pin and unpin videos. Pinned videos will appear in the order they were pinned, and you can pin more than one. Videos remained pinned even in breakout sessions. Only you know which video you pinned. Videos stay pinned until you unpin them or leave the session. Learn more with this FAQ.
NOTE: Only moderators can see more than 4 videos at a time. Increased access to gallery view will be gradually rolled out to attendees.
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
- Recording & sharing videos with Panopto: Flip your classroom & prepare lectures.
- Building online community: Schedule, deliver & record virtual classes with Collaborate.
- Delivering & configuring virtual tests: Create online tests and promote academic integrity in online testing using Bb and Respondus Lockdown Browser.
- Tuning up your Blackboard gradebook: Create columns, drop scores, check calculations, verify weighted totals, etc.
The May 13th sprint will occur in two time slots to accommodate varied schedules.
The virtual drop-in will take place in a Blackboard Collaborate virtual conference room. Please view either the Morning Sprint or Afternoon Sprint myUMBC events and join the session by clicking the "Join Online Event" button at the top of the event page.
Prior to the sprint
Please note that this is not formal training.
