The Virtual Classroom homepage
Virtual Classroom is a program that has been integrated in Brightspace which can be used to teach classes online. During the Virtual Classroom you can share PowerPoint slides, Word and PDF documents and use a webcam. It is also possible to use different functionalities, such as creating polls or writing/drawing notes during the class. In addition, students are able to ask questions during the session via the chat box or the microphone.
- Virtual Classroom does not operate well in Safari, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Bongo (the company behind Virtual Classroom) recommends using Virtual Classroom in Google Chrome. In other browsers you will only be able to play the recording, instead of being able to actually engage in a session.
- Use headphones to minimize echo effects.
- Navigate to Activities in the navbar of your course.
- Click Virtual Classroom.
The first time you use Virtual Classroom, you will get a notification that YouSeeU (which is now Bongo, but still displays as YouSeeU) requests data from you. You need to accept this request.
Unlike lecturers, students will not find the Virtual Classroom below Activities. If you create a meeting it will appear in the Calendar. You can also add the meeting in Content. Read the manual How do I add a planned meeting or a recording to Content? for more information.
- Under Active Meetings active and scheduled meetings are displayed (seminars, lectures, meetings, etc.):
- Under Scheduled at you will see the accompanying date and time.
- Click the three dots under Actions to open the drop-down menu:
- With Launch you can open the Meeting Lobby in a new tab, in which you can start the meeting.
- With Manage Invites Settings you are able to invite people to take part in the meeting.
- With Edit you can adjust the settings of a meeting.
- With Cancel you can delete the scheduled meeting.
- Under Recorded Meetings you will find all completed and recorded meetings.
Schedule a meeting
- Click the pink button in the lower-right corner of your screen.
- Add a title for Title. Make sure you have a clear topic that shows students what the meeting is about (for example: Question hour for class 1).
- At Meeting Date fill in the date of the meeting. When you click this field a calendar will appear.
- At Meeting Time fill in the time slot of the meeting. When you click this field a clock will appear. Select the hours or the minutes and move the clock's hand. Please note: be aware of am/pm.
- Click Now if you want the meeting to start immediately.
- Use Max duration to determine a maximum duration for this meeting.
- With Repeat Weekly for you can choose whether the meeting should be repeated weekly for a certain period.
- Select Start record automatically if you want the recording to start automatically as soon as the meeting commences. Please note: If you do not select this option, and you do want the meeting to be recorded, you will have to start the recording manually.
- Select Publish recorded meeting when you want to display a download link as soon as the recording is finished. Students can download a file of the recording to their own computer. If you do not select this option, then lecturers will be the only ones who can access the recording. It is also possible to add a link to the recording to your Course Content later on.
- Select Allow external participants when students outside of your course should also be able to access the recording.
- Select Invite entire class to add everyone in the course to the meeting.
- Click Save to save the settings for the meeting.
We do not recommend using Start record automatically! If you handle the recording manually, you can make sure you are ready to start the meeting before you start recording with the record button at the top of the screen.
Please be advised that at most 150 students can attend a Virtual Classroom session simultaneously. Take this into consideration when you have a course with more than 150 students. If you invite them all, they will not be able to watch it live at the same time.
An activity will be created in the Calendar of your Brightspace course for each meeting.
Edit meeting settings
- From the list of Active Meetings, click the dotted sign under Actions behind the meeting you want to edit.
- Click Edit. You will return to the same screen where you schedule a new meeting (with the same options).
Once the start time and date of the meeting has arrived, you are no longer able to edit or delete the meeting. It does not matter if you actually start the meeting or not at that point.