Kaltura – Virtual Classroom
North Island College instructors and students have access to Kaltura Virtual Classroom (also called Kaltura Meetings) as part of our Kaltura licensing with the video streaming and storage solution. Kaltura Virtual Classroom is a web conferencing platform focused on teaching and learning first.
BEFORE YOU JOIN
- Students and Instructors: Do a “Quick Tech Check” and confirm “System Requirements” before you join. Chrome is recommended browser. | Kaltura Getting Started webpage
- Students and Instructors: If you get “Access Denied” error – this is your browser needing to be set up to allow Kaltura to connect items. See this page for solutions.
- Students: Watch this Video | Skim this Getting Started Handout (not Brightspace login – but rest is accurate)
- Students: So you’ve been invited to a Kaltura Virtual Classroom meeting – now what? | Webpage
Joining Via Brightspace
- Instructors: In your course via blue navigational bar > Tools > Kaltura Media Gallery > Start Meeting (there is no app, this is a browser-based tool)
- Students: In your course via blue navigational bar > Tools > Kaltura Media Gallery > Join Meeting OR via a URL your instructor sends you (there is no app, this is a browser-based tool). If your instructor has not yet opened your ‘room’ you will be put in a waiting room mode and will automatically join the room when it is opened.
- Both: When you join you will be presented with a window to confirm your camera, microphone and speakers along with the chance to ‘blur’ your background. Please check all these connections to ensure you can hear, see etc. YOU MUST CLICK CONFIRM (if you don’t see scroll down) to be able to enter the classroom to use your devices.
Joining via AN INVITE LINK
- Instructors: You can go into your meeting rooms (in Brightspace or the MediaSpace ones) and under the INVITE tab you will see the URL you can send to people (people will have to sign in with name and email)
- Students: You may be sent a URL to a class and you’d click on that URL to access the online space
Instructor Resources
- Kaltura Instructor Videos | scroll below
- Kaltura Virtual Classroom/Meetings – Video Support Resources Web page
- Kaltura Knowledge Centre Dashboard | Web page
- Read more about Kaltura Virtual Classroom: Link to PDF Handout | Link to Web Page Overview
- All Kaltura Classroom Dashboard (open up one of your rooms and in same browser in another tab paste this link): https://cap-smart.newrow.com/#/
- The following video gives you an overview of Kaltura Virtual Classroom and what is new and how to access your rooms.
Kaltura Virtual Classroom Features
Preparation
- Persistent virtual class (it never goes away, or you have to set up again – it is always ready for teaching) saving your files or set up from previous class
- Up to 50 participants per a class but only 25 show on the stage – instructor is able to click on “LIVE” button in participant list to enable a student to the webcam tray/stage
- Prepare ahead of time (you can prepare your content, pre-upload, link in videos) in your playlist, set up videos in advance etc.
- Play videos with excellent HD video, audio and streaming quality (because this is Kaltura – video is their speciality)
Joining
- Students join from within Brightspace (no links required) or you can create a room for meetings outside of Brightspace via https://video.nic.bc.ca (NIC MediaSpace)
- Students and instructors join without any apps to download (users the browser)
- Raise hand feature in Participant List
- Assign temporary moderator role to anyone in the class if required (moderators cannot start or end a class/meeting)
- Can blur the background (no virtual background images)
Recording
- Can record and have recording automatically go into your Kaltura My Media Gallery for access by students
Tools
- Instructors can use whiteboards, quizzes, polling and Q+A chat stream engage learners
- Polling can be anonymous or not
- Quizzing (set up ahead of time) can be multiple choice, multiple answer, or open question – results displayed to class
- Chat can have up to four streams (Questions and Answers, Group Chat, Private Chat and Moderators’ Chat)
Breakout Rooms
- Create breakout rooms (up to 30), add students (drag and drop) and upload documents for students to use while in breakout session
- Can import a list and pre-assign students to a breakout room via a list
- Can set a time limit on the breakout rooms
- In breakout rooms students can chat, upload shared files, add YouTube videos, share screen, record the session, write notes, collaborate on whiteboard and even switch rooms if you allow
- You can change room membership during the session
- Participants can also summon the moderator if they need help while in a breakout room
- Students can collaborate in the class notes tool
- Moderator can broadcast a message to all students while in breakout rooms
Not included: Virtual backgrounds, live machine captioning (but there will be closed captions on all recorded classes 30 + mins after recording is done), weatherperson mode.
Short Videos (select ones from Kaltura Support Resources Pages)
How to Join/Start Via Brightspace – via Kaltura Media Gallery in a course
This video shows you how to go into the LMS (Brightspace in our case) and navigate to a course and then within that course look for Kaltura Media Gallery. For NIC (not shown in video) go to the TOOLS tab in Brightspace navigation blue banner > Kaltura Media Gallery and find the JOIN MEETING button (for students) or the START MEETING button (for instructors)
How to Set Virtual Classroom Mode
This video shows you how to set your Kaltura meeting to be “virtual classroom” mode.
How to Set default Permissions
This video shows how to set up your virtual classroom in terms of what you will allow or disallow your learners to access.
How to ManAge Chat Sessions
How to Add Files to your Virtual Classroom
How to Annotate Shared Files
How to Prepare Your Playlist
How to End Your Virtual Classroom Session
How to Manage Participants (Learners)
This video shows you how to add people to the stage, manage video and audio, give permissions etc. More info about the LIVE button here.
More information on managing participants here.