To use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra in Canvas, you must verify that Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is enabled in Canvas navigation and publish your Canvas course. These two steps make your course visible to your students, and make Blackboard Collaborate Ultra visible in your course navigation. See our Canvas Primer page for more on using Canvas.

Once Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is enabled, you can point your students to the navigation link where students can join any sessions you've scheduled.

Separately from Canvas, you can use the widget on the MyUW Homepage to start a Blackboard Collaborate meeting quickly. This method would be suitable for small group activities, University business, and one-on-one meetings. The links at the bottom of this page provide step-by-step instructions.

Consider adapting this boilerplate message as a starting point, perhaps used in the body of an email or Canvas announcement. Take note that this example implies a more complicated mix of traditional lecture and a small group activity.

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Preparation

Our next class will meet synchronously at the usual class time. You can join the lecture by logging into our Canvas course site and clicking on the BBCollaborate Ultra link in the navigation. You can join from anywhere that has a good internet connection and is reasonably free from distractions and noise. You should expect to respond to questions via chat, and participate in a small group activity that will require headphones, a microphone, and a webcam (earbuds would work just fine).

The application we are going to use is called Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Make sure you have access to a computer with a webcam, mic, headphones. Do your best to use the most functional space for participating in class as possible.

Please test your connection anytime before class in the open session. During your test, you'll use the settings menu to ensure that your microphone and webcam are working correctly.

Important Notices:

• Blackboard Collaborate Ultra has a iOS and Android app, but please use a laptop if available due to the app missing a few features.

• The session will be recorded

• Ultra does NOT record your breakout activity conversations but does record audio, video, and chat of the whole class discussion.

Tips for the Best Experience

• Use the Chrome web browser

• Close all unnecessary tabs and programs during class, including:

  • Streaming music (Pandora, Spotify, etc.)

  • Social media sites

  • YouTube or other video sites

  • Online/Offline Gaming

If you experience difficulties and need additional assistance, please contact the Help Desk

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is part of the Learn@UW suite of learning technologies and has the appropriate agreements in place regarding Federally protected student privacy and data retention (FERPA).

Regarding accessibility, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is Section 508 compliant and is capable of providing Live Closed Captioning.

Zoom provides you and your students with a place to meet synchronously (live), for lectures and smaller discussions in breakout rooms and has many industry leading innovations. You can share documents, create polls and surveys, and use whiteboard technology to collaborate with one another. You can access UW-Madison Zoom here.

Google Hangouts Meet is another web-conferencing tool available to campus as part of UW Google Apps. Google Hangouts is not as full-featured as Blackboard Collaborate Ultra but may be helpful in some situations simply because students tend to be more familiar with Google. While Google does include the ability to display automatically generated captions, it does not have the same ability to include a live captioner.

Webex Meeting is a Cisco product that distinguishes itself because it can handle a large number of participants and includes several advanced features. Generally speaking, Webex is more complicated to start using, but given time and practice it is a highly capable technology.