Using Conferences as a Instructor
What are Canvas Conferences?
Learning online can be hard. Students often feel isolated and alone in their learning. Instructors can make an online course more interactive by adding activities where students can get to know one another and communicate online. Live meetings can accomplish this goal in a course. Live online meetings in Canvas are called Conferences. Canvas is integrated with a program called Big Blue Button Links to an external site. (BBB). Instructure developed a partnership with Blindside Networks Inc. to provide free access to BigBlueButton. Blindside Networks Inc. is a company that provides hosting and support for people who want to use BigBlueButton. The free access allows us to create as many conferences as we wish. The sessions can be recorded; however, recordings are automatically deleted 14 days after this session ends so they are not permanent. View the tabbed menu for more information on Conferences.
Video Tutorial
View the student Conference tutorial for details on using Big Blue Button.
529 - Conferences Overview Links to an external site. from Canvas LMS Links to an external site. on Vimeo Links to an external site..
Conference Tips
Below are list of activities you can do in Conferences.
- Present a lecture- BBB allows you to upload a PowerPoint presentation. You can also share your webcam video and text chat publicly or privately with students during the conference. Important!Conferences can be recorded but are only saved for 15 days.
- Hold open online office hours or consult with a student privately- Could be used in conjunction with the calendar scheduler so students can sign-up for a time to meet with you.
- Collaborate with students using the video and text chat- Make your presentations more interactive.
- Live tutorials using the screen share option- For example, display your screen to show students how to create a chart in excel for the data collection they did for an assignment. Important!Java must be updated on the computer to use the screen sharing option.
- Group projects- Each group gets its own pages, discussion, collaboration & conference tools
Important Notes
In the April 20, 2019 release Links to an external site. Conferences got a big update. In Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox the new HTML format will be used to deliver the conference. See What's New in Conferences.
Canvas Guides
Note: These guides are maintained by the Canvas Documentation Team and are available on the Canvas Community site Links to an external site.. Some of the information in these guides may not apply to the Lake Land College instance of Canvas. If you have a question about a feature mentioned in these guides, please review Getting Help page for details on who to contact at Lake Land College.
- How do I use the Conferences Index Page? Links to an external site.
- How do I create a conference in a course? Links to an external site.
- How do I delete a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I edit a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I record a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I start a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I join a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I conclude a conference? Links to an external site.
- How do I use the Conferences interface as a moderator or presenter? Links to an external site.