Seneca BigBlueButton web gateway help

This page is a work in progress.

General Help

Logging In

To log in to the Seneca BigBlueButton server, simply type in your Seneca username and password into "Login Name" and "Password". Student IDs and employee IDs are both valid. On logging in, you will automatically be taken to the Join Meetings page.

Joining Meetings

To join a meeting click on the Join link in the menu. This is also the page you are sent to when you log in.

Meetings are divided into Lectures and plain Meetings. To join a meeting you will need to receive a password for that meeting. The creator has to supply the password to you.

Create Meetings

This is the page where you can create a meeting of your own. If you are logged in as a Professor, you will have the option of creating either a Lecture or a Meeting. Otherwise, you will only have the option to create a Meeting.

• To create a Lecture, first check the "Create a Lecture?" box. Select your course code from the drop-down list; if your course code is not there, contact the system administrator. You may add a Section code if you wish. Your lecture will appear on the Join page as a combination of course code and section, with your name attached (ie, "OOP344-B (Sarah-Jane Smith)")

• To create a Meeting, fill in the "Name of Meeting" field with the title you would like your meeting listed as on the Join page. Your meeting will appear on the Join page as that title with your name attached (ie, "Group Meeting for APC100 Assignment (Jack Harkness)")

• For both Lectures and Meetings, you must then select and confirm a password for Moderators and a password for Viewers. When you begin your meeting and invite others to participate, the password you give them will determine their privileges within the meeting (ie, Moderators can mute/unmute other participants)

If you are logged in as a Student, you will not be able to allow guests into your meeting or to record the meeting. Otherwise, these options will appear as checkboxes beneath the other fields.

• Allow Guests will allow guest access, so that users without Seneca authentication may participate in your meeting with Viewer privileges.
• Recordable will generate a recording of the Presentation and Chat windows of the meeting, as well as of the audio channel. This recording can be accessed later for review purposes.

Manage Meetings

This page is where you'll see the Meetings and Lectures you have created, with the following information displayed:

• Type (Lecture or Meeting)
• Name
• Moderator Password
• Viewer Password
• Guests (whether guests are allowed or not)
• Recorded (whether the meeting is recordable or not)
• Date Last Edited

Above the table, there is also a drop-down list of Actions. When you click on a meeting in the table, the following actions are available to you:

• Start
  • Begins the selected meeting. The BigBlueButton client will open your meeting in a new browser tab, and your meeting will appear in the drop-down list on the Join page.
  • If the meeting is recordable, you will be prompted to provide a description. This is to differentiate one recording of that meeting from another on the Manage Recordings page.
• Edit
  • Opens a form similar to the "Create Meetings" form, where you can edit the Moderator and Viewer passwords. If you are not logged in as a Student, you can also toggle "Allow Guests?" and "Recorded?", to the same effect as in "Create Meetings".
• Delete
  • Prompts you to confirm if you want to delete the meeting, and then deletes it. If you have existing recordings of this meeting, they will survive the meeting being deleted.
• Guest URL
  • Supplies you with the Guest URL for the meeting. If you have not allowed guest access for this meeting, anyone visiting the URL will simply be told that you have not allowed guest access, and denied entry to the meeting.

The Meetings table can be sorted by any of the displayed fields in ascending or descending order.

Manage Recordings

This page is where you will see any recordings you have made of past meetings, with the following information displayed:

• Course (Meeting title)
• Type (Lecture or Meeting)
• Description
• Date Recorded
• Length (in minutes)

Also shown is a "Playback" column; click "View" for the recording you wish to display.

As with the Manage Meetings table, there is an "Actions" drop-down list. The only action available is to delete the selected recording; you will be prompted for confirmation before deleting.

Administrator Help

Coming soon