The choice (poll/survey) activity is a way of engaging with students in your topic, and applying a just-in-time or responsive approach to your teaching. It is an example of active teaching and feedback. Using the choice activity or a similar tool in a lecture adds interactivity. The Active Quiz has a greater level of interactivity.

The choice tool enables a teacher to ask a single question and offer a selection of possible responses. Choice results may be published after students have answered, after a certain date, or not at all. Results may be published with student names or anonymously. The choice can not be graded (for a gradeable alternative, check out the Active quiz). 

1. Plan

Creating a choice activity requires you to know what you are going to ask your students. Do you have more than one question? How many options/responses are you going to offer? Is the activity going to be anonymous?

A choice activity may be used:

• as a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a module
• to quickly test students' understanding (e.g. in a lecture/workshop)
• to facilitate student decision-making (e.g. allowing students to vote on a direction for the topic)

2. Build

Creating a choice poll can be completed once you have the question and answers/options created.

1. Create a choice activity
2. View the results of a choice activity

3. Test

• The first time you use the Choice activity, it recommended to do so with a small group of students.
  
• Preview the choice activity in FLO (Profile >Switch role to> Student)

4. Administer

• Be sure to check your responses and acknowledge the results  
  
• Share the results with your students - either automatically through the Choice tool or afterwards using a visualisation tool, like a word cloud or pie chart

5. Review

Before using the same choice activity, consider reviewing your activities prior to use.

• View the choice as a student - switch your role and vote
  
• Evaluate the purpose of the choice activity - what does it add for your students? When is it best utilised?

1. Plan  |  2. Build  |  3. Test  |  4. Administer  |  5. Review  ||  Support  

Questions/problems

• My students can't see the results in my choice activity

My students cannot see the results of my choice activity

In the settings for the choice activity, under the Results heading, make sure the option is selected for students to view results either all the time after they have made a selection or after the activity is closed.

Students provide responses to questions or surveys. Polling can be synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous or real-time polling in class allows you to display and analyse the results immediately. Asynchronous polling can be used prior to a teaching session where you collect and analyse results to inform delivery of your class.

FLO Active Quiz

Good for

• Delivery of time-boxed questions (synchronous)
• Multiple poll questions in one session where the availability of each question is controlled by the teacher
• Use in-class to check understanding of materials during presentations to allow for clarification
• Use in-class to explore class views on issues for discussion

Useful features

• Active quiz is a synchronous (real-time) timed quiz
• Multiple choice (MCQ) and True-False questions will generate a dynamic histogram of answers, making them good for polling
• Functions in group mode

Cautions

• In a live classroom setting, be careful what your screen is displaying – questions other than MCQ and T/F will display identified student answers

Tips

• Create a QR code of the Active quiz URL. Insert into your lecture presentation to make it quick and easy for students to access
• Advise students in advance to have a suitable device. Have students log into FLO at the beginning of the class

Help resources

• Active quiz

FLO Choice

Good for

• Asynchronous use (eg asking a question pre-class to explore class views on issues for discussion)
• Single in-class question where time-boxing of answer is less important
• Use at beginning of class before presentation commences
• Use at end of class to determine comprehension

Useful features

• Designed as a single question asynchronous (not real time, students working on it individually at own pace/time) polling activity
• Can be used in a live setting (synchronous/real time)
• Can display a histogram of responses
• Results can be exported
• Can be run in group mode

Limitations

• Teacher will need to refresh their screen to display the choice results
• Limited layout and styling control
• Only one question per choice activity

Tips

• Generate a QR code form the choice URL. Add to lecture slide to take students directly to the poll
• Advise students in advance to have a suitable device. Have students log into FLO at the beginning of the class

Help resources

• Choice (poll/survey)

Good for

• Asking multiple questions, including free text
• Asking the class what material they would like further clarification on in tutorial or revision sessions

Useful features

• Can deliver more than one question
• Designed for surveying, responses can be anonymous
• Can be used as a live activity in class
• Results of some question types can be displayed as a histogram

Limitations

• Teacher needs to refresh the results page to see incoming responses
• Limited layout and styling control

Tips

• Create a QR code from the feedback activity's URL. Place the QR code into a lecture slide to make it efficient for students to get to the activity on a mobile device
• Advise students in advance to have a suitable device. Have students log into FLO at the beginning of the class

Help resources

• Feedback

When running your Collaborate sessions there are a range of functions available for you to use.

• Use an introductory PowerPoint slide
• Record the session
• Present content during a session
• Engagement insights
• Manage recordings
• Live captions
• Add captions or subtitles
• Invite someone from outside your topic
• Join a session via phone
• Time sessions
• Obtain a session attendance report
• Download poll results
  
• Breakout groups
• Accessibility and screen readers
• Chat

Use an introductory PowerPoint slide

An introductory PowerPoint slide for Collaborate can be placed as a starting slide to help students get started and troubleshoot common technical issues.

Record the session

Any Collaborate session can be recorded for playback at a later date. If enabled, participants and moderators are also able to download the recording (subject to the settings being changed) for offline viewing (or reuse in a subsequent year). Session recordings record all collaboration, sharing, chat messages, voice and video.

If showing a video/other material during the recording, you may want to stop it temporarily to avoid breaching copyright. If in doubt, check with the Library (Service One > Education > Copyright for my teaching material).

For instructions on how to record a session, access the Record Sessions support material.

Recordings are accessed through the Collaborate link within your FLO topic and are processed shortly after the recording session has finished. The processing time varies depending on the length of the recording, but it is typically under 30 minutes.

For more information on accessing or downloading a recording, access the recording support materials. 

Present content during a session

Methods of sharing content with your participants:

• Share files - recommended for best overall experience for users on low bandwidth. Can share PowerPoint (each slide is optimised during upload), PDF files, images (gif, jpeg, png)
• Share application - share your desktop or a software application
  
• Share camera - share more than one camera at a time, e.g. a document camera or a camera pointed at an experiment.
  
• Share audio and video - use Chrome browser to share audio and video streams and files.
  

Notes:

1. Before sharing audio and video, it is important to consider both copyright implication and internet connection bandwidth. Copyright information can be found on Copyright for teachers page. If in doubt, check with the Library (Service One > Education > Copyright for my teaching material).
   
   
2. Users with limited bandwidth can experience difficulty in sharing or viewing the content. If planning to show a video, consider sharing the video through FLO instead, for students to watch before / after the class. For more information on how bandwidth affects content sharing, access the Network Connect support material.

2. PowerPoint presentations can be shared in a collaborate session by either sharing a file or sharing an application. When sharing a file, your presentation is converted to a series of images and hence slides are 'flattened' – animations are removed. Files are also pre-loaded, which generally provides a better experience for people with slower internet connections. Sharing a PowerPoint application will keep animations but will use more bandwidth. Animations in your PowerPoint can be simulated by a series of slides with increasing content for use with the share files method.
   
   

Engagement insights

The Session Engagement Insights Panel is a companion for moderators that shows with data how the audience is engaging while the session is occurring; opening the space to think on actions that may help keep or improve the energy of a session.

Manage recordings

• Re-using Collaborate recordings in my topics

If you wish to reuse a recording from one topic availability to another, you'll need to download the recording and upload to your My Media and publish to your topic's Media Vault.
If the recording is not capturing any collaboration or participation, it may be worth considering desktop video recording tools such as the Kaltura desktop recorder or Camtasia.

• How do I rename my recordings?

Open the Recording options and select Recording settings. The recording name always begins with the session name. Edits to the name change the text after the backslash (/) only.

• How do I download my recordings?

You must allow session recording downloads for each session. Open a session's Session Settings and check Allow download recording. Any recordings made in this session can be downloaded.  

If your once-off session has finished and you have forgotten to allow downloads, you can edit the session settings, change the end date to a few minutes into the future and tick the box that allows downloading. When the session expires, you will be able to download the recording. Please be aware however that students can access the session before the new end time.

If you have forgotten to allow downloads for your recurring session, there is no way to retroactively allow downloads (to prevent confidential discussions from being disseminated). You can make future sessions downloadable by deleting any upcoming sessions and creating a new set of recurring sessions with the download settings enabled.

Live captioning

The below actions need to be done for each individual Collaborate session.

Captions entered during the live session are included when the session is recorded. If your session had more than one caption track, only the first available one is captured.

Moderator actions

1. Open the right panel and select Attendees.
2. Click the 3 dots next to the Participant name who you are promoting to Captioner
3. Select Make captioner
   
   
4. The Captioner will need to accept the function to start. Once accepted a CC will be place in front of their name.
5. No other action is required after this.

Closed captioner actions

1. Login to FLO and navigate to the Topic Collaborate session
2. Enter session
3. Make yourself known to the Moderator and what your role is either via voice or chat window. 
4. Request to be promoted to captioner.
5. Accept captioner function
   
   
6. The caption window will open at the bottom of the screen.
7. You can change your name in the caption window if you want. Click your name and type new name eg. Closed captions
   
   
8. If you want to see the presenter talk and not the presentation, click the picture-in-picture button (bottom right) to swap your view.
9. Begin to type captions. Text will auto wrap, or you can press Enter for new lines.
   This will become a scrolling window as more text is added.

Participant requiring captions

1. When you enter the room an option to accept/decline captioning will be available. Click Yes.
   
   
2. Captions will automatically appear at the bottom of the screen. Any captions typed before activating captions will not be viewed but could be viewed later if the session is recorded.

Add captions or subtitles

Captions and subtitles make the session more accessible and allow for student diversity.

You can upload Video Text Tracks (VTT) caption and SubRip Subtitle (SRT) files to add or replace captions in recordings. From Recordings, find the recording you want, open the Recording options menu, and select Add caption source.

Invite someone from outside your topic

Use the guest link to invite people from outside of the FLO topic into the Collaborate session.

Join a session via phone

Time sessions

Accessibility and screen readers

This entry relates to both video creation and Collaborate.

While students can record and upload videos in Kaltura using the Desktop Recorder, there may be circumstances where Collaborate may be more suitable (e.g. group recordings, recordings for an entire class).

To set up a collaborate session where students can record themselves:

1. Create a session called ‘Record a video in Collaborate’
   
   
   
   
2. In event details, select No end (open session)
   
   
   
   
3. Click on the Session settings tab.Change the default attendee role to Moderator, and tick the Allow recording downloads box.
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the Create button to create your session or click on Save changes to an existing session.
   

Information to give to students

Send them the following information so they know what to do:

1. At a mutually convenient time for the whole group, enter the Collaborate session called 'Record a video in Collaborate'
   
2. Check your microphone and camera as prompted
3. To record your session, open the Session menu in the top left corner (the black button with the three lines). You don't have to start recording immediately - you can take a few moments to get organised.
   
   
   
4. If you are sharing a file or your screen, use the purple icon in the bottom right corner to the screen. Click on the Share button (highlighted in red below), then choose share file or share application.
   
    - Share file is best for PowerPoint.
    - Share application is best when you need to show a website or some other software application (e.g. excel)
   
   
   
   For more information, view the guide to sharing in Collaborate.
    
   
5. To finish recording, open the Session menu again and select Stop Recording
6. Let the topic coordinator know that your recording is done and when you did it, so they can rename it for you

Collaborate is the official web conferencing tool for learning and teaching at Flinders University.

Add Collaborate to your FLO topic

Blackboard Collaborate uses modern browser technologies and, for the best experience, please use Google Chrome. Before using Collaborate, please ensure your Google Chrome is up-to-date. Scheduling sessions and Moderator (teacher) access is facilitated through an integration in FLO. Generally, students will also access Collaborate through a FLO topic, but public URLs can also be generated if required (e.g. the Collaborate session will involve users external to Flinders University).

By default, a Collaborate link will be placed in your FLO site and hidden from students (until you unhide the link). However, a link can be added manually. To utilise Collaborate in your topic, complete the following steps:

1. Turn editing on in your topic
   
   
2. Select 'Add an activity or resource'
   
   
3. Select the Collaborate activity
    
   
   
4. Add a title to the Activity name field
   
   
5. Click on Show more...
   
   
6. In the Activity description paste in this following sentence 
   
   Collaborate is an online live collaboration space, including chat, audio, video, images, files, and screen-sharing. By entering Collaborate sessions you consent to being recorded. Please check your settings prior to your session.
   
   
7. Tick the box Display description on topic page
   
   
8. Select Save and display

The Collaborate landing page for your topic will be displayed.

By default, the only room available is the 'Course room' - the course room is a room that is perpetually open and does not have a set start or end time. This is useful for ad-hoc appointments or testing your device for use with Collaborate (e.g. browser version, webcam and microphone).

We recommend leaving the Course room enabled, but this can be disabled if desired by selecting the menu icon for the Course room and choosing 'Lock course room':

See the Collaborate support materials for more information.

This is a quick guide to Collaborate with a brief but comprehensive listing of how to set up/manage a Collaborate session. It is recommended these be used when running sessions, feel free to make the participant guide URL available to your students via a link in your FLO topic https://staff.flinders.edu.au/content/dam/staff/documents/collaborate/collaborate-participant-visual-guide.pdf

Create sessions for teaching

By default, Collaborate provides a 'Course room' which is always open for impromptu sessions. If you'd like to schedule one (or more repeating sessions) with a start and an end date, you'll need to create sessions within the Collaborate interface.

To add sessions in Collaborate, access the Collaborate activity created in the step above and refer to the detailed information on creating and editing sessions. When creating repeat sessions, you can select show occurrences to view all occurrences of the session.

The default settings for a Collaborate session are as follows:

• Early access available 15 minutes before session
• Recorded sessions are not permitted to be downloaded
• The default role for students is 'Participant'
• Participants can share:
  • Audio
  • Video / webcam
  • Post chat messages
  • Draw on the whiteboard
  • Attendees can join the session using a telephone and pin number

For more on session settings, please review the support materials.

  You're able to run secure sessions outside of the Collaborate instance within your teaching topic.

At times you may have a need to run a Collaborate session and be confident no-one else can just “wander in”. Examples could be:

• Confidential discussions concerning assessments or access plans with a student
• Assessing a student’s viva voce
• Confidential meetings between staff members

Creating a Collaborate session within a teaching topic means anyone enrolled in the topic can see the link and access the session, so be aware the session is not private. If you need to create a private session we recommend using an instance of Collaborate within your own sandpit. If you do not have a sandpit you can request one by submitting a Service One request to Education Services > FLO - general query.

Step 1 - Open your sandpit

• Open your FLO sandpit and add Collaborate if it’s not already there. If you do not have a sandpit, you can request one from your eLearning support team.
  
• If you are conducting private meetings we recommend keeping Collaborate hidden within your sandpit, especially if you have given other people access to your site. This will ensure they cannot see the meeting sessions and enter the room.
• It is not usually possible to keep Collaborate hidden within your topic site, hence why we recommend using a sandpit for this functionality.
  
  

Step 2 - Create your session

• Create a session for your meeting.
• Ensure you have ticked Guest access under the 'Event details' heading
  
  
  
• Click on the Create button to save the session.

Step 3 - Copy the guest link

• Once the session has been set up, click on the three dots to the right of the session listing (see below) and chose copy guest link from the sub-menu.
  
  
  
  

Step 4 - Invite the participant

• You can email the guest link to the participant so they’re able to join the session taking place within your sandpit.
  OR
• Within your topic, you can add a URL and restrict access to the intended student. Ensure you give the session a meaningful name and paste in the correct guest link. Don't put this URL into your sandpit as your students won't have access, it must be placed in your topic FLO site.
  
  

Step 5 - Restrict the session

• Restrict the session to the students’ ID number (student ID) so they’re the only person who can follow the link and gain access to the session.
• NOTE: if the meeting is confidential you must also close the eye to the left of the student ID details, so the link isn’t visible in your FLO site.
• It would also be good practice to consider the name of the session to ensure confidential information is kept private.

This entry relates to the Collaborate tool.

1. Plan

Finding a compatible classroom

Not all classrooms are set up for hybrid teaching. Check your topic’s timetable against the list of compatible classrooms. If your room is not compatible, lodge a Service One request to change your classroom. If you cannot get a compatible room, contact your local eLearning team to borrow a group chat kit.  The kits are ideal for small group sessions, have a 30m wireless range and are best placed in the middle of the room.

2. Build

Create a session so that online students can attend. Notify students how to access the online session.

Keep the design of your lesson in mind: What are you trying to achieve with students during their class? Your college’s Academic Developer and Learning Designer may be able to provide some guidance.

Content preparation

You may need to put resources and activities online that you would normally deliver in class, so both your online and face-to-face students can access them.

• Tool options - resources
• Tool options - quiz and survey
• Collaborate in OneDrive (for replacing group activities using a whiteboard or paper)

3. Test

Provide a time before the first class where students can test their technology setup.

Some students may need to purchase a headset or webcam to be able to fully engage in a hybrid class raising equity issues; to assist Adelaide-based students the library is equipped with spaces where students can access Collaborate using a computer with the necessary equipment.    

4. Administer

The Collaborate - administration guide provides a view of the key features you may use while using Collaborate.

The following resources may help you achieve the most from using Collaborate:

• Sharing files/screen sharing in Collaborate (tip: upload the files you will be sharing before the class starts).
• Using a whiteboard in Collaborate
• Statuses that students can use whilst in Collaborate
• Using breakout rooms for small group tasks

When a class starts, encourage some students in the classroom to log into Collaborate with their cameras on and microphones off, to help the sense of inclusion for remote students. The camera can be directed at a wider room, and does not have to be recording a particular student.

Tips for after a session:   

• Tell students how to find any recordings. The FLO Student Support page has instructions you can link to.
• Create a discussion forum on FLO where students can pose questions about the class, or utilise an existing forum.
• Create a feedback activity for students to give feedback throughout the semester.

5. Review

• If you have created a Feedback activity, review any feedback given.
• You can download the chat in your session and review it for improvements you can make next time  
• Take a moment to reflect and review what may need to be tweaked for next time

This entry relates to the Collaborate tool.

1. Plan

The following provides information on best practice and use cases for Collaborate, along with guidance on adding and creating Collaborate sessions within your FLO topic.

In the Collaborate planning guide, explore the key topics associated with planning to use Collaborate, such as:

• What do you want to achieve with Collaborate?
• What does Collaborate look like?
• Things to consider when planning your session
• Collaborative and sharing tools
• Software, equipment, teaching spaces and telephone dialling
• Support for mobile browsers

2. Build

You have planned your use of the Collaborate virtual classroom. Now add the Collaborate shortcut to FLO (if it's not already there) and create your sessions.

1. Add Collaborate to your FLO topic
2. Create sessions for teaching
3. Conduct a secure session with someone
4. Allow students to record video inside Collaborate
   

3. Test

When using a tool like Collaborate for the first time, it is a good idea to give yourself and your students the opportunity to test they can enter the room. This will help reduce unnecessary technical issues before scheduling important sessions.

• Orientation/troubleshooting session for your students
• Course room (unlocked room)

4. Administer

There are several key aspects associated with the management of sessions.

• Tips for running hybrid classes
• Use an introductory PowerPoint slide
• Record sessions
• Manage recordings
• Engagement insights
  
• Live captions
• Add captions or subtitles
• Invite someone from outside your topic
• Join a session via phone
• Conduct a secure session with someone
• Time sessions
• Breakout groups
• Obtain a session attendance report
• Accessibility and screen readers

5. Review

It is important that you evaluate your use of Collaborate at the conclusion of each session. This will help you to improve your use of the tool and therefore enhance learning and teaching.

Collaborate is the official web conferencing tool for learning and teaching at Flinders University. Below is a summary of considerations when planning to use Collaborate in your teaching:

• What do you want to achieve with Collaborate?
• What does Collaborate look like?
• Things to consider when planning your session
• Collaborative and sharing tools
• Software, equipment, teaching spaces and telephone dialling
• Support for mobile browsers

What do you want to achieve with Collaborate?

Collaborate can be used for a range of different purposes: One-to-one, one-to-many and, many-to-many.

• One to one

  • Discussion/consultation between one academic and one student
    This format usually replaces a face-to-face consultation/meeting due to distance as a barrier for staff or student. May be useful for discussing topics virtually face-to-face for remote students, including supervised research students, where a document needs to be shared on the screen (in comparison to a phone only discussion which does not require a visual sharing). Not traditionally recorded, but individual video camera advisable.

  • Presentation by an individual student for assessment purpose to one other (teacher)
    This format will replace the face-to-face aural/visual presentation due to distance as a barrier. Individual student presents to an assessor (teacher). Not traditionally recorded, but individual video camera advisable.

• One to many

  • Group discussion between students and teacher
    This format is useful for discussing assessment requirements prior to submission, where distance or time is a barrier. Students are provided with the opportunity to ask questions of their teacher and/or peers to help clarify any confusing information associated with the assessment task. Aural discussions are more useful at clarifying points than written email or forum posts, as ideas can be expressed differently. The session can be recorded to provide the information for non-attendees. Individual (presenter) video camera advisable.

  • Tutorials and lecture-style sessions
    This format sees one presenter/teacher presenting to multiple participants, where discussion or quizzing interaction is encouraged. The session can be recorded to provide the information for non-attendees or as revision for attendees. If no interaction is encouraged for this session, then the presentation may be best recorded using video creation tools like Camtasia or the Kaltura desktop recorder, both freely available at Flinders University. Individual (presenter) video camera advisable.

  • Presentation by a student for assessment or activity to a group of students
    

    This format is used in classrooms, where off-site students present to an on-campus class. View the room booking list and search for 'web conferencing' to find compatible rooms.

  • Student/other is absent from a physical classroom but can participate remotely
    You can conduct Collaborate sessions in enabled rooms on campus. This means that you can bring off-campus participants (students, guest lecturers) into the physical classroom, and have off-campus participants attend your classes synchronously. 

• Many to many

• Group discussion between students
  This format opens communication equally between all participants in a session. Common Uses for this approach is for student peer discussion over a shared task or assessment where location is a barrier. Other uses for this approach is to discuss topics from tutorial tasks. Breaking up large groups of students into small groups for facilitating the discussion is appropriate in this format. Individual video camera and recording of the session not advisable.

• Presentation by a group of students for assessment or other task to another group of students
  This format will replace the face-to-face aural/visual presentation due to distance as a barrier. Students present to a small group of students and an assessor (teacher). The session can be recorded to provide information for non-attendees. Individual video camera not advisable (especially as break-out rooms are not recorded).

  Collaborate can also be used in some classrooms, meaning that off-site students could present to an on-campus class or vice versa. To find compatible classrooms, view the room booking list and search for 'web conferencing'.

• Collaborative task between students
  This format includes students sharing documents and screens to support their collaboration, such as preparing for a presentation or other activity. Individual video camera and recording of the session not advisable.
  
  

What does Collaborate look like?

Collaborate provides Moderators (teachers in a session) and Participants (students in a session) with a simple, clean and user-friendly interface. The following video provides a quick introduction to the Collaborate interface:

For more information on the Collaborate interface, please see the Collaborate support material for Session Interface Update

Things to consider when planning your session

Moderating large numbers or rich student collaboration can quickly become difficult in an online classroom. When planning your sessions, consider the interaction that you are wanting your students to partake in. The more complex the interactions, the more likely you'll need to support your students to complete the task.

In some circumstances (eg large sessions, break-out rooms etc.) it may be best to have multiple Moderators present to facilitate the online session. Multiple Moderators allow a presenter to concentrate on presenting while other moderators monitor the chat, provide basic technical support to students etc.

Time Zones

The times in Collaborate are converted and displayed according to the timezones set on the student's device. For example, if you are in Adelaide and create a session that starts at 3 pm, a student in Sydney or Melbourne will see that it starts at 3:30 pm.

Consider the student cohort

Before holding a formal or required session, it is worth offering one or two informal Collaborate sessions to ensure your students are familiar with the technology and are able to test their microphone and webcam (if this is required).

It is also important to consider students with limited bandwidth (eg students located in remote locations, students using mobile devices) as some features such as screen sharing or multiple webcams require a large amount of bandwidth to stream.

Collaborate provides many features to assist in managing differing bandwidths. You can easily determine a student's relative ability to exchange audio, video, or application sharing during a session with the new session user connectivity indicators. It will also dynamically adjust what is being displayed within the session for each participant based on their current connection. For more information on how this works, access the Network Connect support material.

Collaborate recordings for future use

Collaborate recordings will be retained for the life of the FLO topic or 1 year. If you wish to reuse a recording from one topic availability to another, you'll need to download the recording and upload it to your Media Vault.

If the recording is not capturing any collaboration or participation, it may be worth considering desktop video recording tools such as Camtasia or the Kaltura desktop recorder.

Allowing students to moderate their own sessions

The course room can be used by students and this does not require a staff member to be present - students can access the Course Room at any time from any device. By default, a Participants role allows them to share their audio and video. To find out more about roles in Collaborate, access the 'What can the different roles do' support materials.

If you'd like your students to have all of the permissions that a Moderator has, your Course Room can be altered to give any person that enters Moderator (or Presenter) permissions. This will provide students with the collaborative tools outlined in the 'Collaborative sharing tools' section.

Using Collaborate for assessment

Please contact your College eLearning team to talk through considerations around using Collaborate for assessment purposes.

Accessibility

Collaborate has been built with enhanced accessibility features including support for JAWS, VoiceOver, Live Closed Captioning, Keyboard Navigation and Screen readers. For more information on these features, see the following information:

• Screen reader support - Blackboard recommends using Firefox on Windows or VoiceOver through Safari on a Mac
• Keyboard navigation
• Live closed captioning

Collaborative and sharing tools

Collaborate provides several tools to share content and engage with session participants. These tools are as follows:

• Breakout groups: Split participants within the session into small groups for collaboration
• Chat: Text chat with all participants (chat also allows a restricted chat between Moderators)
• Polling: Poll Participants with simple polls such as True / False or using 1 - 4 options that you define
• Document or screen sharing: Either share your screen or upload a document to present to all participants
  
  Supported file types for uploaded documents include: .ppt, .pptx, .pdf and supported image files include: .gif, .jpeg, .png. It is recommended that you upload PowerPoint / PDF files rather than share your screen as this requires less bandwidth for all participants and increases the accessibility of the content

The following video provides an overview of these sharing tools:

Software, equipment, teaching spaces and telephone dialling

Software

Collaborate supports the two most recent releases of Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. Flinders recommends using Google Chrome to utilise the application sharing features. You do not need to install any additional software or plugins to use Collaborate.

For staff computers managed by Flinders University, we recommend checking the Software Centre to ensure you have the most recent version of Google Chrome installed. Instructions on using the Software Centre.

More information on system requirements.

Equipment

When enabling your microphone or webcam in Collaborate, you'll need to provide Google Chrome permission to activate and transmit your webcam. Please refer to the Collaborate support materials when using Google Chrome.

Video/webcam: When using Google Chrome, Collaborate is able to transmit up to five videos and audio (webcam and microphone) streams. Although more microphones and webcams can be enabled, Collaborate prioritises the top five based on who is currently speaking. There may be a slight delay while Collaborate re-enables a microphone/webcam for a participant that Collaborate has previously muted.

Audio: It is recommended that any user who is speaking uses a headset with a microphone or uses the teleconference number to reduce the occurrence of background noise and feedback. Although Collaborate has echo cancellation built-in, using a headset will give the best experience. If a student does not have a headset, we advise requesting the student to use the teleconference number.

Video chat kits are available for loan to academic staff for use in desktop video conferencing, virtual classroom sessions (eg Collaborate) or recording short videos for FLO. Each eLearning support team has:

• 2 webchat kits (consisting of a webcam and USB headset)
• 1 web group chat kit (consisting of a webcam and a Bluetooth microphone/speaker).

Please contact your local eLearning support team for further details and booking.

Teaching spaces and meeting rooms

Flinders University has a number of teaching spaces and meeting rooms suitable for Collaborate. Please refer to the room booking list to see rooms that support web conferencing (including classrooms).

IDS have produced a user guide for using Collaborate in a classroom.

Telephone dialling / Teleconference number

Collaborate allows users (moderators and participants) to listen/talk into a session by dialling into a telephone number and enter the session PIN (please note: each pin is unique to a session and an individual user in that session) - commonly referred to as teleconferencing. This is useful if a participant does not have the correct equipment, or is struggling to enable their microphone. Each participant receives a unique PIN for each session they enter (PIN is available within the Session Menu) and can dial into a local or international number to participate within the session. For help using this functionality click here.

The local number for Adelaide is +61 8 7100 1859.

Support for mobile browsers

Collaborate works on mobile phones for participants and presenters, but some of the presentation features are limited.

What mobile browsers does Collaborate work on?

Collaborate supports the browsers on recent versions of iOS and Android. The Collaborate website has further details on what these are.

Older mobile phones may work, but there is no guarantee that all features will work correctly.

Features available on mobile browsers

After a Collaborate session, you can view and download an attendance report, and download the results of any polling undertaken. These reports will be available approximately 5 minutes after the last person has left the session.

• How to view session reports
• Session attendance report
• Download poll results

How to view session reports

You can view reports of completed sessions on the Collaborate Sessions page. 

1. Use the Filter by drop-down menu to help you locate the completed session
2. When you've found the session you want to see a report on, select the Session Options menu
3. Select View reports

Session attendance report

The Session attendance report provides an overview of when attendees joined and left the session. It also gives you an idea of how long attendees were present in the session on average. 

See the steps above on how to view session reports and then click the View report link under Attendance.

Now that you know when students joined and left the session, you can check in with them to see if they had any technical issues or need a quick review of what was presented and discussed.

Report particulars

Name	The name of each unique attendee
Role	Moderator = Teaching team member Participant = Student More on roles and permissions
Attendee Type	Integration indicates that an attendee entered the session via the Collaborate tool in FLO Guest indicates that an attendee entered the session via a link provided to them (e.g. someone from outside your topic)
First join	Date and time when the attendee first joined the session
Last leave	Date and time when the attendee last left the session
Total time	The total time the attendee was in the session
Joins	The number of times the attendee joined and/or reconnected to the session If an attendee joined more than once, click the View join details icon on the right for all join/leave details

Download poll results

If you've used the Polling feature in a Collaborate session, you can download the poll results. 

See the steps above on how to view session reports then click the download icon under Polls. 

The report includes the poll question/s, how each attendee responded and the date/time of their response.

To ensure you don't disrupt your Collaborate teaching sessions with troubleshooting issues, it's advisable to run test sessions with students at key times. To do this you can either create a session and informally invite your students to visit during a scheduled time, or you can encourage your students to visit you using the 'Course Room'.

Orientation / troubleshooting session for your students

• Orientation session
  This should be arranged for the beginning of the semester and is a great way for everyone to come together and test their equipment in an informal session. This is then stress free as there's time to fix any technical issues students may be experiencing.
  
  
• Using Collaborate to bring online students or guest speakers into a physical classroom
  This can be arranged with the group of students who are coming in remotely. The eLearning team can also help you test the classroom to ensure everything works as expected.
  
  
• Using Collaborate at home
  This may not necessarily have students involved in the test, but you can arrange a call either with a colleague or a member of the eLearning team to test if your equipment works before your session.
  
  
• Regular Collaborate sessions
  If you're running regular sessions within your topic, we advise joining the room a little early and encouraging your students to do the same so there is time to sort out any issues that may arise before the session is scheduled to begin.
  
  
• FLO student support
  The FLO Student Helpdesk is available to support students when they require assistance with Collaborate.

Course room (unlocked room)

By default, Collaborate provides a 'Course Room' which is always open for impromptu sessions. It is also a good place to test access to a room for future scheduled sessions.

The Course Room is open at all times and gives students the opportunity to meet with you or with each other at any time without the need to schedule sessions. It also enables users (you and your students) to check that they can enter the room and use some features, like video, audio and chat.

If you'd like to schedule one (or more repeating sessions) with a start and an end date, you'll need to create sessions within the Collaborate interface.

This entry relates to the Database activity.

Once you have created the database activity 'shell', you need to build it (using fields) and create templates. To build the database you can:

• Choose a predefined set of fields
• Create your own fields
• Customise the database search
  
  

Choose a predefined set of fields (preset)

1. Click the Presets tab
    
   
   
2. On the Presets page, scroll down to the Use a preset section
   
   
   
3. Select the preset (eg Image gallery) and click Choose. Note that a field for tags will be automatically added, but will not be visible on this page
   
   
4. On the Field mappings page, select the Overwrite current settings check box and click Continue – you will be invited to Add entries
   
   
   
5. If you want to edit the preset fields, go to the Fields tab. Click on the cog wheel next to the field under the Action menu. You can also Create a new field in this screen (see instructions below)
   
   

Create your own fields

You will have thought about the following questions in the database activity planning phase:

• What fields/questions do I want my students to answer?
• What format will my students answer in? Text? Uploading images or documents? Links?
• What fields are required/optional?

1. Click the Fields tab to create a new field section
    
   
   
2. Choose the field type you want to create (Text area, Radio button, URL etc) from the drop-down list. For a description of what the different field types mean (eg Text area vs Text input), see Moodle Docs: Building Database
   
   
   
3. Enter the Field name and Field description (note: the Field description is not the instructions to the user, it is for administrator viewing only). If you need to ensure one or several particular fields are always completed, then tick the Required field box. Click Add.
    
   
   
4. Once you have finished adding your fields they will appear listed in the Fields tab
    
   
5. Next, you may want to edit the database templates to make the database entries display the way you want them. See Create templates for your database (step 3). 

Customise the database search

Once you and your students have populated the database beyond a certain size, you'll want it to be (more) searchable. The database is searchable by default, but you can customise the search to suit the database.

1. On the View list or Search page, deselect the Advanced search check box and click Save settings
   
   
   

2. Do one of the following:

1. Use the fields that now display below the list to conduct a simple search. To search, enter a Search term and either click Save settings or press Enter
   OR
   
2. Select the Templates tab, then on the Templates page select the Advanced search template tab, and define the template to suit your and your students' needs

This entry relates to the Database activity.

First you have to create the activity (steps below). This provides the 'shell' for the activity. Then you will need to build the database (fields and searchability) (step 2) and create templates to aid usability (step 3).

When setting up the conditions for adding entries, you can decide whether entries need to be approved, and whether/who to give ratings to entries (if ratings are used for marking). 

Steps

1. Turn editing on using the green button – this button is available top left of screen on the topic homepage
    
2. Go to the module where you would like the database to appear
   
3. Click the Add an activity or resource link at the bottom of the module
   
   
   
4. Select Database from Activities tab
   
    
5. In the General section enter a Name for the database and some text in the Description field explaining how the database will be used
   
   
   
6. Under Entries, select: 
   o whether the topic coordinator/teacher's approval is required before the entry will display to other students in the database
   o whether it is allowed to edit the approved entries (this is disabled if no approval is required)
   o whether you will allow comments on entries
   o the number of entries required for completion per student for the activity to be considered complete
   o the number of entries required before viewing other students’ entries
   o the maximum number of entries any student can contribute to the database
   
   
   
7. If necessary, under Availability, enable the date fields and define the periods for which the database will be available for contributions, and in read-only form (Read only from) if applicable
   Timeline block: The 'Available to' date will show to students in the Timeline block.
   
   
   
   
8. Set up the Ratings system if you want students to rate entries. You must save the activity before the Roles with permission to rate will display – ask your eLearning support team to add students (permissions). You can:
   o tell FLO how to decide on a final rating (Aggregate type)
   o indicate whether to apply a Scale to the ratings
   o Restrict ratings to items with dates in the given date range
   
   
   
   
9. You can set up activity completion for your database based on the below conditions 
   
    
10. Complete the remainder of the page and click Save and display
    

This entry relates to the Database activity.

Templates for the database activity allow you to control the visual layout of information when listing, viewing or editing database entries. A basic level of HTML knowledge may be necessary to edit database templates. If you need help, contact your local eLearning support team. 

There are six template types, but the most important ones (for a good user experience) are the Add template, Single template and List template. You will need to make changes to all three templates. The instructions below are for basic customisations only. For more sophisticated customisations, contact your local eLearning support team. 

1. View template options 

Then create your templates in the following (logical) order:

1. Add template (how the Add entry looks)
2. Single template (how a single entry looks)
3. List template (how a list of entries looks)

View template options

These instructions tell you how to bold the field names, and make the table that field names and field types sit in more viewable and usable.

To view the complete list of templates, and access the View list, View single and Add entry types:

1. Click on the database activity you have set up
   
   
2. In the next screen, click on the Templates tab. You will see the template options. Select the tab you want to create a template (Add template, Single template, List template)
   
   

1. Create an Add template

The Add template determines what users see when they click on the Add entry prompt (ie how the fields are displayed). In this template, you can provide more information/instruction to users about what they need to enter into a field (eg instead of just having the field title, have a question and/or examples). Example field name: 'Duration' – the question could be 'How long did this task take? (Please enter in hours, rounded to the nearest full hour)'

These instructions tell you how to bold the field names, and make the table that the field names and field types sit in more viewable and usable.

1. As per the steps above (View template options), make sure you are in the Add template tab
   
   
2. To bold field names, highlight the field name and click on the B prompt in the HTML toolbar
   
   
   
3. To make the table more user friendly, by creating more space between field names (left column) and responses (right column), you will need to go into the HTML code. To do this, click on the HTML icon in the HTML editor 
   
   
   
4. You will now see the HTML code view for the template
   
   
5. Add style="width:100%;" cellpadding="5" align="left" [+ space after "left"/before code that follows] after <table ...> (ie <table style="width:100%;" cellpadding="5" align="left" ). This code means the table will use all space available in the screen (width:100%), the distance between table cell and text will be 5 pixels (cellpadding="5"), and text will be aligned left (you could also align "center" (note American spelling) or "right"
   
   
   
6. To provide instructions to the user adding an entry, put your cursor at the beginning of a right-hand row, and click Enter. Fill in the space above with the instruction
   
   
   
7. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Save template
   


8. To see what your changes look like, click on the Add entry tab
    
   

2. Create a Single template

The Single template determines how one result looks to the user. This is the template where you can add a user tag so that you know who has contributed.

These instructions tell you how to bold the field names, and make the table that field names and field types sit in more viewable and usable.

1. As per the steps above (View template options), make sure you are in the Single template tab (under Templates)
   
   
2. Follow steps 2-6 above (under Create an Add template)
   
   
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Save template 
   
   
4. To see what your changes look like, click on the View single tab (you need to have added an entry to see what this looks like)
   

Add a user tag

If you add a user tag, you will be able to see who has added an entry, which will be useful for adding comments etc. You can update the template with this tag even after the database is open for adding entries (and entries have been added).

These instructions assume you have already set up this template (see above).

1. Under Templates, click on the Single template tab
   
   
2. With your mouse, select the row in the Single template text box that you want to add a user row/column after/before
   
   
   
3. Click on the Table icon in the HTML toolbar and select Insert row after or Insert row before (or column)
   
   
   
4. To add the user tag, place your cursor where you want it to go in the template box, then select User (under Other) in the Available tags box. The ##user## tag should automatically appear in the selected location in your template table
   
   
   
5. Scroll down and click Save template
   
   
6. To check, click on the View single tab (add an entry to see how this looks if the database is not yet open to students)
   
   
   

3. Create a List template

The List template determines how a list of results (entries) looks to the user. You do not need to include every field (eg as for the Add template), particularly when there are lots of fields. The list can just be some key fields (eg Journal name).

1. As per the steps above (View template options), make sure you are in the List template tab
   
   
2. Follow steps 2-6 above (under Create an Add template)
   
   
3. To delete a field, select the table row, click on the Table icon in the HTML editor and select Delete row
   
   
   
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Save template
   
   
5. To see what your changes look like, click on the View list tab (you need to have added at least one entry to see what this looks like)
   
   

• as a collaborative collection of web links, books, book reviews, journal references etc
• to display student-created photos, posters, websites or text for peer comment and review.

1. Plan

The success of the database activity is in the planning. Once students begin adding content (entries), it can be tricky to change the fields, so thinking ahead is key. 

What is the intended purpose of the database activity? 

• What fields/questions do you want your students to answer? What format – uploading images or documents? Links? What fields are required/optional?
  
• How does it link to assessment – is it an assessment item itself, or is it a step towards an assessment item (eg resource supporting assessment, digital literacy skill development)?
  
• How interactive do you want the activity to be? Allow comments on entries (moderated/unmoderated)? Students/teachers rate entries? Ratings can be aggregated to form a final grade which is recorded in the Gradebook.

The structure of the entries is defined by the teacher as a number of fields. The visual layout of information when listing, viewing or editing database entries is  controlled by templates. 

When creating a database for the first time, it can be helpful to think about it like an Excel spreadsheet. The teacher creates the columns (fields), and students and/or teachers add rows of content.

2. Build

Once you have planned your database fields, you are ready to set up your database.

1. Create a database activity (settings)
2. Define database fields (preset, create your own, make your database searchable)
3. Customise the templates (View list, View single, Add entry)
   

3. Test

The database activity is a highly customisable and very versatile tool, so it's important to test what you've built thoroughly before releasing the activity to students. Ask your local eLearning support team to check your Database for you (especially if this is your first time). It is best to amend mistakes before students add entries.

• Practice creating an entry – as a form of scaffolding, you could support students by showing what an entry that's added looks like
• Preview the Single, List, and Add views – is the layout is clear and easy to understand?
  

4. Administer

When setting up your database activity, you can enable a number of optional settings. Some of these settings require administration by a teacher:

• Approve entries – If enabled, entries require approving by a teacher before they are viewable by everyone
  
• Give ratings to entries – if ratings are being used for marking (settings)
  

To encourage students to add entries, you could add an initial entry to model good practice, setting a standard and ensuring that instructions are not misunderstood. You could add the first entry in the Test phase). This is equivalent to making the first post in a forum. The fields you set up when you built the database will also prompt students as to what to add to create an entry. Students like examples and will engage more promptly with the tool.

You can see how many students have contributed on the topic homepage:

5. Review

How did your database activity go? Would you set up the activity differently next time round? Talk to colleagues and/or your local eLearning support team to get ideas for improvement.

If you are happy with the activity and you want to use the content in a future topic version/other topics, you can ask your eLearning support team to roll over or import the database activity. The entries will need to be exported/imported separately. 

Entries can be exported from the database in either a CSV (comma separated values) or ODS (OpenOffice) format. 

To export entries, click on the Export tab at the top of the database [1]. Select the export format [2] and choose the fields that you wish to export [3]. Select the export options [4] and click export entries to export the entries [5]. 

Entries can also be exported from the Actions menu cog. 

A banner is designed to give a face to your site and make it recognisable to your students. The banner is visible on top of the site, as well as on the topic 'card' on the My FLO page.

Image specifications

The same image file is used for both the topic site banner and the topic card viewed on My FLO, with each displaying different elements of the picture. It should also be noted that these two regions can vary slightly depending on window size, device and whether the navigation menu is open.

Most landscape orientation photos will be roughly 4x3 aspect ratio (width x height). If a full image like this is uploaded, the central area is displayed as in the example below.

To ensure a high quality banner, images should be optimised and cropped to 1920 x 850 pixels (px), the recommended dimensions. The example below shows the image which would be uploaded to FLO.

On My FLO, this banner image would appear like this in topic cards:

Within the topic, this banner image would appear like this:

The FLO topic name and navigation breadcrumbs sit over the left side of the banner. Depending on the image content, it may be useful to flip the image horizontally. In this example, the image has been flipped and the darker less interesting region has the topic title overtop.

What if the area of interest in the image is not central?

If the area of interest is not central in the image, it may still be a suitable image for a banner, as long as it can be cropped to 1920 x 850 px region centred around the area of interest.

Examples:

For staff who wish to prepare their own banner image, Snagit is a University-supplied program which can do everyday image editing. Snagit is available through the IDS Support Portal. Home-use licences are also available (request via Service One)

Banners for teaching sites will be uploaded by college eLearning teams. Send your image via a Service One request. You can either send them a cropped, optimised image or a candidate image that they can prepare for you.

If you wish to see how your banner looks, try uploading it to your sandpit.

Note: Images must be royalty/copyright free.

Suggested sources of free images

1. Pexels
2. Unsplash
3. Pixabay

This entry relates to the FLO interface.

A banner is designed to give a face to your site and make it recognisable to your students. The banner is visible on top of the site, as well as on the topic 'card' on the My FLO page.

1. Plan

It is advised that you have a process for creating your banner. Decide what elements, colours, image(s) you need and discuss your requirements with your local eLearning team. Either you can design the banner image or we can assist you.

A FLO banner has certain guidelines:

• Needs to be 1920px (width) x 850px (height)
  
• Banner images are not cropped as much in site card view as in site banner view. Outlier elements can be included in the site card view.
  
• Banner images are cropped in site banner view. Keep important elements visible within the center 200px.
  
• Do not use text as it can be overlaid by other elements such the site name and code.
  
• Check to see if the banner conveys its meaning in both formats; i.e. site summary card view and site banner view.
• Use your own photos or one that you have permission to use – don’t copy from a website without permission. Free images can be sourced from Pexels, Unsplash, or Pixabay
  

2. Build

You will need a sandpit to upload and test the banner on. If you don't already have a sandpit, please contact your local eLearning team.

Upload the banner to your sandpit

1. Open your sandpit and, click Topic Management in the top menu (note: you must be on the home page of your sandpit)
   
   
2. Click on the cog in the top right corner, then click Edit settings
   
   
   
3. Drag and drop your image to upload
   
   
4. Click Save and display
   
   
5. Check to see if the banner displays properly, both as the site banner as well as the site card image on My FLO page. Tweak the image if certain parts aren't showing or you need something highlighted.
   

3. Test

Ask your colleagues or the eLearning support team to check the set up of your banner. Once you are satisfied with the banner in all formats, please contact your local eLearning team to upload the banner from your sandpit to your topic.

4. Review

How does it look? What did students think? These types of questions can help you refine the banner. Please contact your local eLearning team for assistance.