Guest speaker on Conference

[melinda_robins]

I use BigBlueButton to meet with my class in real-time. I'd like to invite someone from "the outside world" to interact with them. What's the best way to do this? Intuitively, I'm thinking of doing a Google Hangout with him, then sharing the desktop. But can my students ask this person questions that way? Any bright ideas?

Thanks.

[awilliams]

You might check with your local Canvas Admin/IT Help Desk and see if they will create a temporary Canvas account for this guest so they can log in and access your course and BBB. I've done this for our faculty and we even have a formalized process for giving guests temporary accounts for various college services.

Otherwise, I think doing a Google Hangout or Skype Call with the guest is a good idea. I would try this out ahead of time though. There's a lot of potential for techno-gremlins to rear their ugly heads trying to use two different conferencing solutions at once.

[Stef_retired]

 @melinda_robins ​, if most of your students will be passive participants, you can use Google+ Hangouts on Air: How do I start a Google+ Hangout On Air in my Canvas course? It's ideal for a guest speaker. This isn't ideal if you want an active comments or chat window, though. You might consider running a Chat session in a separate window so that students can enter their questions in real time in Chat and you, as moderator, can redirect them to the guest speaker.

[melinda_robins]

Thanks, guys. I'll check with out IT people to see if they can do that. I want the students to be able to interact with the guest and ask questions, etc. Google+ won't work with more than 10 people, and I have 16 students.  I'll keep trying! Going through Canvas probably isn't the best bet, though.

[kyrasma]

Melinda,

We use Zoom.us and it works GREAT! You can provide anyone the URL or the code to access the Zoom conference and even with the free account, you have up to 25 users. You can provide the link in your Canvas Course for students to log into directly. We've used Zoom for our online/blended Speech classes, for workshops and for meetings. Yes, it's outside of Canvas, but it's a great way to provide a meeting place for just your students and a guest.

Sheila

[melinda_robins]

Now you're talking! Thanks.

[canvas_admin]

 @melinda_robins ​, when you create a conference, BBB creates a link that you can share with "Guests" so that they can join the conference and it gives a phone number in case the guest wants to join via phone.  Here's a screenshot:

[ccarriga]

This answer by the Canvas Admin should be listed above as the "correct answer", not the other comment currently selected.  @melinda_robins ‌

[zfisher]

 @ccarriga ‌ The screenshot in the "correct" answer is from four years ago and BBB looks totally different now. I don't see this feature when I open Canvas Conferences - there's no way to invite guests or get a phone number for dial-in under "Settings" or anywhere else that I can find.

Also, the What are Conferences? guide says that users can "Invite special guests to your classroom by adding them as a student or observer to your course." So, which is it? We can provide guests with a link, or we have to make Canvas accounts for them? We have several professional/technical programs that rely heavily on guest lecturers from industry and we don't really want to make them observers in Canvas just so they can participate in a conference.

[awilliams]

Hey  @zfisher ‌. I was researching this and I believe the answer is that to invite a guest outside of Canvas, you will need to be using the Premium tier of Big Blue Button. Check out https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-18572-conferences-resources#jive_content_id_FAQ which is where I found that information.

[jsavage2]

Yes, that is correct.

To get around the limitation of the current version we created a special role for guest presenters based on the TA role (with a very limited subset of permissions) and a quick-and-dirty LTI tool let faculty request temporary guest accounts for outside presenters.

[rnielsen2]

The answer in this thread is from many years ago, can anyone provide an update for this topic? How do I create a link for guests to join our BBB conference, so they are able to present and discuss materials with my class in real time??