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Activity BigBlueButton (BBB)

BigBlueButton (BBB) is a privacy-compliant open-source tool for conducting web meetings, including a whiteboard. With the “BigBlueButton” activity, you can create web conferences.

All participants enrolled in the course can join the meetings directly from Moodle without the need to know the link. Roles with editing right (lecturers, assistants, tutors) in the course are assigned the “Moderator” role, and students are assigned the “Viewer” role in BBB by default. The assigned roles can be adjusted in the settings of the BBB activity as needed.

Please note the following special features of BBB meetings via Moodle:

  • Only course participants can use the meeting. All others, including external participants, do not have access, so sharing the link will not work.
  • The profile name from Moodle is used, and renaming in the meeting is not possible.

Further details about BBB can be found in our tool collection:
https://www.e-learning.tu-darmstadt.de/bigbluebutton

To add a BBB activity to your course, switch your course to edit mode by clicking the “Edit Mode” slider at the top right. Then click on “Add an activity or resource” and select “BigBlueButton”.

Adding a BigBlueButton Activity
Adding a BigBlueButton Activity

Instance type: Should recording be possible for the meeting? Default: “Room with recordings.” Other options: “Room only” or “Recordings only”.

Room name: Title of the BBB activity.

Description: Optional description text which can be displayed on the course page.

Send content change notification: This sends a notification about the newly created or edited activity to all enrolled users who can access the activity.

Adding a BBB-Activity
Adding a BBB-Activity

Room Settings

Welcome message: Here you can replace the default text displayed at the start of the meeting with your own message. It is possible to use placeholders like “%%CONFNAME%%” as well as HTML formatting such as “<b>”.

Wait for moderator: Viewers must wait for a moderator to join before starting the meeting.

The session may be recorded: Set whether recording is possible.

Lock settings: Specify default settings such as “disable webcams” or “disable microphones”.

Room Settings and Lock Settings
Room Settings and Lock Settings

Role assigned during live session

You can determine the assignment of roles or individual participants of the course. By default, course roles with editing rights (lecturers, assistants, tutors) receive the BBB role “Moderator”, and students receive the BBB role “Viewer” (in BBB “Participant”). If you want to assign the moderator role to individual participants directly, select “User” in the first drop-down, then choose the desired person in the second drop-down, click on the add button and then choose the role “Moderator” in the overview within the persons' row.

Predefine Assigned Roles in the Meeting
Predefine Assigned Roles in the Meeting

Starting the BBB Meeting

To participate in the BBB meeting, course participants click on the created BBB activity and then on the “Join session” button. For meetings that have already started, the number of moderators and viewers already participating will also be displayed, e.g.: “The meeting began at 15:34 Moderator 1 Viewer 0”. The meeting opens in a new tab with the title “BigBlueButton – [Activity Name]”. The meeting room remains open until it is either closed from within BBB (“End meeting”) or via the “End session” button in the BBB activity. Authorized persons (depending on the activity setting) can reopen the meeting at any time.

“Join session” button to start the BBB-Meeting
“Join session” button to start the BBB-Meeting