One of the most popular uses of Blackboard's Collaborate Ultra is creating virtual office hours for students to meet with their instructor and ask questions, go over class work, etc. The steps below explain how to set up a Collaborate Ultra for virtual office hours.
Step-by-Step Guide
How to Create Virtual Office Hours Using Collaborate Ultra
- Click the + sign at the top left of your course menu to add Tool Link
- Name your Collaborate link. Select Blackboard Collaborate Ultra from the tool type down-down menu, make the link available to users, and click Submit.
- Click the link to enter the Collaborate page.
- Once on the Collaborate page, click Create Session.
- Name the Collaborate session. We suggest "Virtual Office Hours" followed by the day(s) and times. For example, the below image shows "Virtual Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3-5pm”.
- Under Event Details, select the session availability. For office hours, we suggest selecting the No End check box to keep the session open for the entire semester.
- Add early entry if desired.
- Add a description if desired.
- Click the gear icon to navigate to Session Settings, select the default participant role.
- Choose options you'd like for Recording, Moderator permissions, Participant permissions, session telephony, private chat
- Click Save to finish creating the session.
- A link will appear on the session list for the new Virtual Office Hours session. Depending on the start time you chose, the link will either be black (available) or grey (unavailable).
Your students will see the same page when they click the Virtual Office Hours link you created in the Course Menu. You are now ready to start holding virtual office hours!
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