Schoology Conferences provides real-time sharing of audio, video, slides, chat, and screen. You can access Schoology Conferences via the built-in Conferences app while logged into Schoology. Using the Conferences app, Teachers can create, plan, and hold live audio and video conferences with up to 100 participants, enabling schools to deliver a high-quality learning experience to remote students.


Use this article to learn:


Create a Conference

As the course Admin, you can create a new conference after installing Conferences:


  1. Click the Conferences app in the left menu in a course or group where it is installed.
  2. Click + Create New Conference.
  3. Name the conference and set its start time. You can also include an optional end time.
  4. Use the gear  to the right of a specific conference to edit the title, start, and end times or to delete the conference.


The first time you click into Conferences, you will be prompted to authorize access. Your students will see this as well, have them click on Approve.


You can Create as many conferences as you like. Upcoming conferences will appear in the Active tab. A list of past conferences displays in the Completed tab.


ConferenceCreate.gif



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Conduct a Conference

As the Admin for your course or group, you need to click the Start Conference button within the app to begin the video conference.

Even if the Start Time has passed, your conference will not begin until you start the session.

Upon launching or joining a conference, a new tab will open with the Conferences page. Once connected you will be prompted to test your audio and microphone.


During the conference you can:

  • Record the live video conference
  • Upload documents
  • Teach using an interactive whiteboard
  • Make live annotations
  • Chat instantly with all attendees or individuals
  • Moderate the live discussion by muting participants and allowing them to raise their hands
  • Share a YouTube video
  • Collaborate with students in Shared Notes
  • Create breakout rooms for team collaboration


(Note: The list above will be covered more in-depth in the Advanced section)


Students will also be able to:

  • Make live notations on a shared, multi-user whiteboard
  • Collaborate in Shared Notes, and later download them
  • Participate in breakout rooms


Example of live notations on whiteboard


Example of Shared Notes



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Join a Conference

After you begin a conference, Students can join your session by:

  1. Clicking Conferences in the left menu.
  2. Clicking the title of the conference.


  • Once live, if a student does not see the option to join, they may need to refresh their browser page
  • If a student drops from a Conference, but the session is still active, they can rejoin at any time


Few things to consider:

  • Students can only join sessions with a status of In Progress, which indicates that the Admin has started the session

  • The number of participants who can share their webcam depends on the user’s bandwidth

  • Conference presenters may also invite guests into a session via an invite URL, or post a dial-in number to the voice conference bridge (found on the Conference chat section when In Progress).



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End a Conference

To end a conference, the Teacher must select End Conference within Schoology. Participants can exit a conference by closing the browser or browser tab.


Few things to consider:

  • Conferences saves recorded sessions. To view a recorded sessions for 7 days, select the Completed tab within the app and click Play.
  • It may take several minutes after the conference has ended for recordings to appear in the Completed area.
  • To delete an Active or Completed conference, click the gear icon  to the right of the conference and select Delete.



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Advanced: Control your Conferences


The main focus of this section is to understand the controls within Conferences, and the many tools which can be found on the Schoology Conference Main Page (Broken down below):


  • Dial-in audio options: Defaults on the Public Chat area, contains the Phone number for dial-in audio into a Conference
  • Public Chat: Conferences' main chat function for all users, unless the permissions are revoked in the Lock Viewers Settings. Public chat settings are found by clicking  the three dots in the upper right of the Chat box > 

-Save creates a .TXT file and downloads the chat locally

-Copy allows you copy the chat into another program (Word, Notepad, etc.)

-Clear removes all conversations in the chat

  • Shared Notes: Notepad for Conferences. By default it is LOCKED to everybody except the Moderator (Teacher). Individuals can be promote to Moderator to make additions or edits to the Shared Notes.

 > Saving Shared Notes, uses the Export function and is       found in the upper right corner of the Shared Notes column:

     

  • *Breakout Rooms: Creates small-group rooms for students to break out into > More details below.
  • *Lock Viewers Settings > More details below

*Can be found in the Managed Users section ()


  • +Upload Documents/Presentations, Start Poll, Share External Video: All of these options are done in the Actions section (). Polls can be created from the "Start a Poll" option; otherwise, you can add a poll/quiz in a Slideshow and Conferences will allow you to create a poll on the fly (new button appears next to CC, "Quick Poll"). Share External Video allows you to add a URL and load a video directly into the viewing window - goes live to students instantly.
  • *+Closed Caption options: Turning on Closed Caption is found in the Managed Users section (); however in order for the Captions to show, they have to be started after picking the Text color, Background color, Font, and Size.

    

  • Record conferences: Found at the top of the Main Window, next to the conference name. Once clicked it begins recording - even Breakout Rooms! You can pause/un-pause the recording by clicking it again.

Teacher Side - Once recording is turned on a Red circle - showing recording is on appears, plus the timer are added above the viewing window

Student Side - Red circle showing recording is on, plus the timer and a notice pops up alerting students that recording has begun

  • Whiteboard/Live Annotations: Multi-user toggle: On the right side of the screen you will see a toolbar option with tools > Pan, Pencil, Square, Triangle, Ellipses, Line, and Text. The buttons below are Undo, Clear All, and Multi-User Toggle. The latter allows students the ability to draw on the whiteboard as well. 

     

  • Mute/Unmute, Audio Off, Webcam, Screen Share: Found below the Viewing window. Screen share gives options > 



Breakout Rooms

Under Manage Users () > 

Create Breakout Rooms...

Next select how many rooms you want/need, duration, and assign

students - randomly, allow students to choose, or drag and drop.


Once a Breakout Room is created, a new section is created on the left side.

Teachers are able to join ANY/ALL Breakout Rooms and End All rooms anytime.



Breakout rooms open in new browser tabs. Each time a new conference is joined, the mic test/echo test goes through. Which means when you end Breakout Rooms, it may take a minute for students to move back to the original Conference room!


Lock Viewers Settings

During a conference, Admins may lock some conference features to disable members from using them.

Conference features include:

  • Share webcam.
  • Share microphone.
  • Send Public Chat messages.
  • Send Private Chat messages.
  • Edit Shared Notes.
  • See other viewers in the Users list.

To lock conference features for members:

  1. From the Users panel on the left, click the gear gear.jpg on the right.
  2. Select Lock viewers.
    02_Conferences_Lock_Viewers.png
  3. Click the toggle bar next to each feature you wish to lock/unlock for members. 
    Conferences_Lock_Settings.png


Note: Private chat messages and Shared Notes are locked by default.



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