BigBlueButton manual for organizers

Manual for organizers shows advanced features for moderators of the sessions and extends the manual for participants.

Recording the session

Moderators of the room will see a button Start recording at the top of the meeting room.

To record, click on the Start recording button.

A pop-up will notify you that you can pause the recording and resume it later. Click Yes to start recording.

The Start recording Button will change and indicate the length of recording.

To stop the recording click on the button again. After confirming you want to stop recording in the pop-up notification your recording will be stopped.

Button will change and be ready to resume the recording.

After you end the meeting the recording will become available on your main room page. It usually takes a few minutes for the recording to be available.

Make participant a presenter

As only one user can be a presenter at the same time, user with moderator role will need to assign Presenter role to the user that needs it. Moderator can also take away the presenter role and assign it to themselves.

To give Presenter rights to the user, click on their name in Users list and select Make a presenter.

To get Presenter role back, click on your name and select Take presenter.

Promote participant to moderator role

To promote the participant to moderator role click on their name and select Promote to moderator. Now they will have the same rights to manage the room as you have.

Managing presentations

For best results uploading an Adobe Acrobat document (.pdf) document is recommended, although BigBlueButton will accept other file formats - Office documents (.doc .docx .pptx), text documents (.txt), images(.png ,.jpg).

Please note the maximum size is 30 MB or 150 pages per document. You can upload multiple documents as long as they are under the size restrictions.

To upload a presentation first click on the blue “+” button at the bottom and then select Manage presentations.

A window where you can upload your presentation will open.

The default presentation is on the top of the list and you can add new ones by dropping them on the Drag files here to upload area or selecting them by clicking the upload area or browse for files link.

After you select the file, it appears on the list with To be uploaded... status

To upload it, click on the Upload button at the top of the screen. It will take a few seconds for the presentation to be uploaded and converted to PDF.

The uploaded presentation will immediately appear in the room (so if you don’t want to show it now, load it beforehand or include an empty slide).

If you would like to select or upload another presentation go to + button again and select Manage presentations. The current presentation has a label CURRENT and a green circle checkbox.

To select another presentation click in the empty circle and click button Confirm at the top of the page.

If you would like the users to be able to download the presentation then enable sharing by clicking on the down arrow icon next to green circle checkbox. The users will now have a little download icon available in the bottom left corner of the presentation.

To remove a presentation click on trash can icon.

You will be able to use additional features to write and draw over the presentation. Review the available tools by clicking on the hand icon on the left side of presentation. If you are the moderator, you can also make these tools available to other participants. Click on the multi-user whiteboard icon at the bottom to enable it.

Next, paste the video URL into the text field and click on the button Share a new video.

The video will start playing in the main window. Participants can pause and play the video on their screen. Beware than not all participants might see the video as the content of the video might be geoblocked by YouTube or other services.

To stop the video click on Plus (+) icon and select Stop sharing external video.

As a moderator or presenter you can share the screen. Click on the Share your screen icon below the presentation.

When the browser’s notification pops up select the screen you would like to share:

Window: shares a specific application you have open. If you move to other applications, it doesn't affect what participants see.
Entire screen: shares whatever you are seeing, as you change applications and programs – beware this is a risky option as participants can see everything!

Confirm your choice with a click on the button Allow.

Polls

You need to have a Presenter role in order to run a poll.

To create a poll click on the blue (+) button and select Start a poll.

Next you will see a window with poll options. You can select one of the predefined polls or create a custom one.

Enter an Ask a question text
Select question type: True/False, ABCD (2 to 4 possible customizable answers), Yes/No/abstention, and open ended (each participant can fill out their answer in free text)

When you are ready click on Start Poll.

Each participant will get a message to answer the poll.

You will be able to monitor the answers.

When the poll has ended select Publish polling results and all participants will see the results in a chat.

Create breakout rooms

Manage users gear icon and Create breakout rooms, number of rooms, randomly assign or allow users to choose or assign)

Select a random user

Sometimes you would like to call out a random user and a feature Select random user can help you make a more random selection. Click on the Plus (+) icon and Select random user.

On the screen all participants will see a popup window with a randomly selected user.

Interpretation

Promote interpreters to moderators and they will then see a purple button where they can select the language they will be interpreting to.