Inviting guests
Share your room with guest lecturers or students by email
- You can send the guest link to the session to anyone. This will effectively give them a short-cut to the session and not require them to log in and authenticate through Blackboard. Tutors should access the session via the Blackboard module to ensure you have moderator permissions. Be careful about who you email the link to, as they will then have access into your session based on the start and end times you use.
- You can also send the guest link to external people such as guest lecturers once the session has started you can then promote them to enable them to present. Send a reminder an hour or so before the session is due to start with the guest link embedded again.
How do I generate a guest link?
Go to your course, and find your Virtual Classroom, and locate the session you want to invite a guest to:
Click on the three dots in a circle
Click to enable your Guest Link. Click Save on the page and your guest link will be generated.
You can email this and send it to anyone who needs access.
How do I ensure only authorised participants can join my session?
The most secure way to join a Collaborate session is through your students accessing it directly from your Blackboard course. Sessions in a course require attendees to sign into the course to access the session. Blackboard authenticates the user and creates a unique session link that helps each session identify the user. Each link is associated with an individual session and a specific user in that session. This means that the link only works for that user in that moment. The link to join session can't be used again or shared with another user. Session links expire after 5 minutes.
Guest links provide an easy way to provide access to a Collaborate session. However, guest links for your virtual classroom can be shared and anyone with the link can enter your session. If you do decide to use guest links, make sure guests are assigned the participant role and that you restrict participant access.
Moderators can also control participant permissions while in an active Collaborate Ultra session. Instructors can control a participants ability to enable their audio, video, type in the chat or draw on the whiteboard, and add files. This is intended to prevent disruptive behavior from participants.