Collaborate is a live, collaborative space that provides the ability to chat, screen-share, share audio and video, poll students, collaborate using a virtual whiteboard or group participants into small 'break-out' spaces. Using the Collaborate activity
in a topic ideally consists of the following 5 stages.
To help increase the stability of the system and increase performance, the following features are temporarily disabled by the vendor:
Timer (a countdown timer)
Chat typing indicator (a visual indicator that someone is typing. Chat is otherwise functional.)
The number of videos showing at any one time in some browsers has been reduced from 4 to 2
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.
