Collaborate - conduct a secure session with someone

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.

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

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

Disabled features

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

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
    guest access

  • 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.

    session already created

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.

    Invite the participant


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.

restrict access

» How-to glossary