Click on a question to view answer.
What is Collaborate?
Collaborate is a powerful web-based tool that provides the University community with access to a highly stable virtual classroom, office, and web conferencing facility at no cost to the individual or department.
Collaborate provides synchronous communication and interaction between students and faculty, students and other students, and for any groups who need to work in a flexible web-based platform. This tool eliminates the need to physically be in the same place to learn or collaborate on projects, and provides a more stable, higher quality service than free alternatives such as Skype. The highly flexible virtual classrooms/offices have video and audio capabilities, a whiteboard for sharing presentations and brainstorming, text chatting, breakout rooms, desktop and application sharing tools, web-tours, polling, and even a quizzing module.
Everything that happens in the virtual room can also be recorded so that students and other collaborators can go back and review as needed in a streaming format. Students and instructors can access the virtual classroom and recordings from a link in their CLEW sites, but the software is also flexible enough to be used outside of CLEW for other types of meetings. It also comes with two desktop applications to help instructors plan their lessons using Collaborate, and a simple tool for converting recordings of sessions to other downloadable audio and video formats.
Who can use Collaborate?
Collaborate is available to all faculty, staff, sessional instructors, GAs and TAs, and students at the University of Windsor. It can also be used to facilitate collaboration, presentations, and other meetings with people from outside the University by sharing a link to the Collaborate room you will be using.
What do users require to access Collaborate?
To access Collaborate, users need a computer or mobile device (currently only Apple products are supported) with internet access (it will even work on dial-up connections) and the latest version of Java. For more interactivity, speakers, a microphone, and webcam allow students to interact using video and audio. Collaborate works on Macs (MacOS), PCs (Windows) and Linux-based machines, and with the mobile app (available for download from the Apple App Store. It now also works on iPad 2 and above, iPhone 3 and above, and next generation iPods (4). Android devices are not currently supported, but the application is under development and expected to be released before the end of 2012.
Users access the system from a URL link that is typically placed in CLEW (for classes) or sent to users in an email.
What can Collaborate be used for?
Collaborate is a very flexible tool and it is currently being used on campus for a wide range of purposes, including:
-
Running live distance classes using real-time audio/video;
-
Recording lectures/classes for review or later viewing;
-
As a backup for students and instructors who can’t meet physically for whatever reason;
-
Bringing external experts to campus virtually for classes or other collaborations;
-
Running virtual office hours;
-
Facilitating interaction between distance students and on-campus students;
-
Creating reusable tutorial videos of particular concepts;
-
Facilitating project meetings for students and researchers;
-
Internal and external meetings;
-
Thesis defences or committee meetings;
-
Student presentations;
-
Simulations (such as patient interviews, role plays etc.); and
-
Running webinars or web conferences.
What are the other tools that come with Collaborate?
How do I get my own Collaborate room?
You can request a Collaborate virtual classroom or office by contacting: Terry Collins (email: tcollins@uwindsor.ca; extension 4836).
For technical assistance, please contact the ITS Helpdesk: email helpdesk@uwindsor.ca or call x4440.
Rooms can be requested for a class, or as your own personal virtual office that can be used for collaborating. Rooms can also be set up for particular events such as web conferences. Please contact Terry to discuss your needs.
What are the support hours for Collaborate?
Support for Collaborate is usually available at the CTL from 8:30-4:30 weekdays. Outside of these hours, please contact the ITS Helpdesk (x4440; email: helpdesk@uwindsor.ca).
You will also find self-help resources on the Collaborate support portal. In the case of an emergency outside of normal support hours (for example, if you are an instructor running a live class at 9pm and cannot connect), Blackboard Collaborate has live telephone support or text chat support 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week. This is a limited service and should not be used during the normal support hours as outlined above.
What is the normal maintenance window for Collaborate?
Collaborate is an externally hosted service and as with other IT tools, has regular maintenance windows when important upgrades and fixes are applied. The normal maintenance window is weekly starting on Saturday evenings from 10pm until 2am Sundays.
During this time, users may experience occasional disruptions and at times, the service will not be available during these hours. Information on any known or planned outages will be available on the ITS homepage in HotNews, and on the CTL website in Announcements.
Where can I get more information on Collaborate?
