Manage Attendees

Where can I find attendees?

Open the Attendees list to view all attendees. Open the Collaborate panel and select Attendees.

At-a-glance you see:

  • The roles of each attendee. We've grouped attendees by roles to make it easier to see who can do what in the session.
  • Attendees with their hand raised. Those with their hand raised appear at the top of their role list.
  • Attendee status or feedback.
  • Attendees with their microphone turned on.

Browse through the list of attendees or open More options at the top of the panel and select Search.

Point to an attendee to view more information, such as their network connection. Moderators can select Attendee controls next to an attendee's name to promote them, mute them, or remove them.

If you are using keyboard navigation, press Tab from the top of the panel to find "Access list of attendees". "Access list of attendees" is not visible unless the focus is on it. Press Spacebar to activate it. Moderators can now use Tab to move through the controls for each attendee.


Keep the Attendees panel open at all times

You can leave the Attendees panel open all the time. Chat with others and see everyone in the session at the same time. You can tell who is away, has their microphone on or is having network connection trouble. All while chatting and participating in the session.

You need to detach the Attendees panel to keep it open. There are two ways to do this:

  1. Open the Collaborate panel. Drag-and-drop the Attendees icon to the main stage.
  2. Open the Collaborate panel and select Attendees. Select More options at the top of the panel. Select Detach Panel.

The main stage adjusts so you can still see everything on it. Any video, content, whiteboard and application shared are moved to the left to make room for the panel.

Close the panel any time. Select More options at the top of the panel. Select Merge Panel.


Notifications

 

Do you want to be notified when someone joins or leaves a session? How about when posts a chat message? Do you prefer an audio or visual notification?

Open the Collaborate panel and select My Settings. Select Notifications Settings.

By default all of the settings are turned on. These settings only turn on/off the notification banners and sounds.

If you turn these notifications off, you still see:

  • A joining status for the participant in the Attendees panel.
  • The number of new messages posted on the chat icon.
  • Hands raised in the Attendees panel.
  • The red light over the recording icon when you are recording.

These are personal settings. Everyone sets their own notifications. Only moderators and presenters can set notifications for when someone raises their hand.


Notification types

What kind of notification do you want? Do you want to see it? Do you want a sound to alert you to something new? Choose the notification type you want. You have three choices:

  • Collaborate pop-up: A visual notification that appears in Collaborate's content presentation area. You must have the session window open and active to see it.
  • Audio: A sound that alerts you to something new. Different notifications have different sounds.
    • Join session notification: Sounds like a boing.
    • New chat notification: Sounds like a thunk.
    • Hand raise notification: Sounds like "Duh da." Only moderators can hear hand raise notifications.
    • Leave session notification: Sounds like "Bing bong."

    Listen to each sound on the Accessibility page

  • Browser pop-up: A visual notification that appears at the top of a browser window. Browser pop-up notifications don't appear when the session window is open and active. They only appear when you have another browser window, or application, open and active.

Monitor chat

You may see students participate in chat who might be hesitant to speak up in audio/video settings.

By default you are notified when someone posts a new chat message. If you don't see or hear chat notifications, check your Notification Settings in My Settings.

Monitor chat to see if someone is about to ask a question or make a comment. Open the Collaborate panel and select Open Chat.

One person is typing

Several people are typing

You can also supervise all private chats.

If you want to supervise private chats or allow participants to only chat with moderators, you must select each option in Session Settings BEFORE the session starts.

Don't miss any chat messages while presenting. See chat alerts when in another application like PowerPoint. Select the Browser pop-up notification in your notification settings.

Mute attendees

Moderators can mute individual attendees or everyone in a session. This includes attendees using the Blackboard app or the Blackboard Instructor app.

  • Mute individual attendees: From the Attendees panel, point to an attendee with their audio on. Select Attendee controls. Select Mute.
  • Mute all attendees: Select More options at the top of the Attendees panel. Select Mute All.

Mute everyone

Mute one attendee

Muted attendees see a notification telling them that the moderator has muted their microphone.

Note: Attendees can turn their microphone back on after being muted.


Manage raised hands

Attendees can raise their hands any time during your session. They do this to get your attention or ask a question. You can choose to call on them now or close the notification and call on them later.

Turn on notifications for when someone raises their hand. An image of a person raising a hand appears beside attendees with their hand raised.& Those attendees are also brought to the top of their role list in the Attendees panel so they aren't forgotten and are easily found.

You can lower hands from the Attendees panel. Point to the attendee with their hand raised and select Attendees controls. Select Lower hand.

By default you are notified when someone raises their hand. If you do not see or hear hand raise notifications when attendees raise their hands, check your Notification Settings in My Settings.

  • Audio notification: You'll hear an alert that sounds like "Duh da".
  • Collaborate pop-up notification: A pop-up appears over the media space. Select Lower Hand in the notification to remove raised hands. Close the notification to leave the hand raised and come back to later.
  • Browser pop-up notification: A pop-up appears at the top of your browser window. Browser notifications only appear when you have another browser window, or application, open and active. Close the notification to leave the hand raised and come back to later.

Participant permissions

Do you want to mute everyone with the role participant while a guest speaker is presenting? Can participants use the whiteboard?

Decide who can do what in Session Settings any time before or during a session. Open the Collaborate panel and select My Settings. Select Session Settings.

Not sure where the Collaborate panel is? Jump to Find Your Way Around.

By default anyone with a participant role is allowed to show their profile picture, share their audio and video, post chat messages, and draw on the whiteboard and shared files.

More on Session Settings


Promote attendees

Are you sharing moderator or presenter roles with someone in your presentation? You can promote attendees to other roles anytime.

Make sure you understand the different roles before promoting someone. For example, promoted moderators have complete control over the session.

More on the different roles

Point to an attendee in the Attendees panel and select Attendee controls. Select the role you want to make that attendee.

Promote all attendees

You can also have all attendees join as presenters or moderators. From the list of Sessions, find a session. Select Session options and Edit settings. Select Presenter or Moderator in the Guest Role menu.

This is only available to users with moderator access to the Scheduler, use Collaborate in an LTI compatible LMS, or use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra in their Blackboard Learn course at this time. Not sure which one you use? Jump to Schedule Sessions.


What can the different roles do?

 

Users can be moderators, presenters, participants, and captioners in the Ultra experience.

  • Moderator: Moderators have full control over all content being shared. They can make any attendee a presenter or a moderator. Moderators see hand raise notifications and can lower hands. They can remove attendees from a session, but they cannot remove other moderators. Moderators can set the session settings, including deciding what participants can and can't do. Moderators get email with links to their session recordings.
  • Presenter: The presenter role is designed to allow students to present without giving them full moderator privileges. Presenters can upload, share, edit, and stop sharing content. They can also see hand raise notifications and can lower hands.
  • Participant: Participants can enable and disable notifications, such as when participants enter and leave a session or when someone has posted something to the chat. Moderators decide if participants share audio and video, chat, and draw on the whiteboard or shared files.

    More on participant permissions

  • Captioner: The captioner role is designed to provide an accessible learning experience for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for students whose native language is different from the moderator's. An attendee is assigned this role by a moderator. The captioner is given an area to type what is being said. Other attendees can view what the captioner is typing in real time. You can have multiple captioners for multiple languages.

    More on being a captioner


Remove attendees

Remove an attendee any time you need.

Point to an attendee in the Attendees panel and select Attendee controls. Select Remove from session.

Can an attendee rejoin?

No. Attendees are notified about the disconnection, and they aren't allowed to reconnect.

Can I remove other moderators?

No. Moderators can't be removed. You can only remove participants, presenters, and captioners.

 

Attendance

Let Collaborate take attendance for you. Collaborate tracks when attendees joined and left sessions. It also gives you an idea of how long attendees were present in the session on average.

You can view the Session attendance report for each session.

Attendance in your Blackboard Learn course