Web conferencing systems enable synchronized forms of communication even when teaching is done remotely. To this end, JGU supports Skype for Business (SfB), BigBlueButton (BBB), and Microsoft Teams (MST). At their core, all three provide the same basic functions.
Basic functions are:
- Sharing audio and video presentations
- Screen sharing
- Tools for moderating class discussions and chat functions
- Open to up to 100 participants
- Teaching staff can give permission control and speaking right
Depending on the actual counselling or teaching scenario, one application is better suited than the other. For example, options are:
- Integration into a project or learning management system with various activities and forms for exchange (BBB in JGU-LMS; MS Teams)
- Simultaneous video for up to 20 people (BBB > MST > SfB)
- Participation of up to 400 people (SfB > MST > BBB)
- File sharing (all in different forms)
- Collaboration on a whiteboard or in a file (all in different forms)
- Easy splitting into small group discussions (BBB)
- Easy integration of live voting or quizzes (BBB)
- Data is stored on JGU servers (SfB, BBB)
Regardless of the application, from a pedagogical point of view, it is helpful for all participants that the available moderating tools (icon change, mute, dynamic assignment of rights, etc.) are used in a virtual seminar. For moderating a virtual conference it can be helpful to have an assistant keep track of, for example, the participants' requests to speak via the chat function, and assist in making use of the various technical options of the conference applications.
PDF instruction Skype for Business: Skype for Business at a glance (in German)
PDF instruction for teaching : Virtual classroom with Skype for Business (in German)
Technical informationon Skype for Business (in German)
Video tutorial Skype for Business (via Microsoft; in English)
Skype for Business is very well suited for events with JGU authentication and when participants dial in via phone.
It can be installed as an app or used in the browser. Participants can login with their JGU account, through a link, or with a telephone number.
Video and audio conferences can be used for short inputs, consultations, or meetings, and functions such as screen sharing, a whiteboard, file exchange, and the recordings of the presentation are available to help serve this purpose. Integration with MS Outlook enables the easy set up and invitation to Skype for Business conferences, as well as their integration into one’s calendar.
It is technically possible to bring up to 400 people together in a Skype for Business conference call.
The University Medical Center (Faculty 04) currently does not have a Skype for Business license. Teaching staff at the University Medical Center can use MS Teams (see below) to invite students to a video or audio conference.
Just as all other JGU students, the medical students are also activated for Skype for Business.
Q: How do the participants get access to the Skype for Business (SfB) room?
A: The "initiator" of the SfB conference adds a meeting either in Outlook or in the freestanding app. You can adjust meeting settings, include an access code, participant permissions, etc.
Q: How do I create a team-call group?
A: When you set up a team-call group, calls made to you will not only reach you, but also the entire group and all members can answer. This is especially useful if you are all working in the same field and can handle any possible calls. To create a team-call group, members need to add each other to their Skype for Business contact lists. You can find a short explanation here.
Q: What do I need to keep in mind when recording a presentation?
A: Data protection and copyright (also with regard to the materials used) are particularly important when recording a presentation.
Moderators can start and pause recordings. The recordings are then available on the computer on which they were made. They can then, for example, be made available via the JGU video platform.
Q: What are the recommendations for different devices and Internet browsers?
A: To be able to use all SfB features, Windows in combination with Firefox, Chrome, or Edge is the best option. All Apple products can also be used for audio and video conferencing. The chat function can be used in Linux.
Further important questions can be found on the Data Center’s website (in German).For further information please refer to ZDV's FAQ.
PDF instruction BigBlueButton: BigBlueButton at a glance (in German)
PDF presentation: Introduction to BigBlueButton (in German)
PDF instructions: Setting up BigBlueButton in JGU-LMS (in German)| Installing and participating in BBB-in-LMS (in German)
Technical informationon BigBlueButton (in German)
Video tutorialBigBlueButton (via BigBlueButton; in English)
For participants: How to log in etc. via "Digital Studieren"-LMS-Kurs (LMS-Login required, in German)
BigBlueButton is very well suited for meetings with low-threshold access, e.g. with external parties, and for conducting group discussions with up to 300 participants.
It can be used as a stand-alone tool in the browser (https://bbb.rlp.net), or integrated in a JGU LMS course (https://lms.uni-mainz.de) or in a JGU Mattermost project (https://mattermost.gitlab.rlp.net/).
Video and audio conferences can be used for short inputs, consultations, or meetings, and functions such as screen sharing, a whiteboard, polling modules, file exchange, and the recording of the presentation (sharable by link) are available to help serve this purpose. For synchronous work in small groups, “breakout rooms” can be created.
Q: How do participants get access to the BBB room?
A: The "initiator" of the BBB conference adds a room either in LMS or in the freestanding version. You can adjust the meeting settings, include an access code, participant permissions, etc.
Q: I mistakenly joined the conference with “just listen”. Can I still switch within the conference?
A: Yes. Click on the blue headphone icon below the presentation (quit audio) and then click again on the icon that appears afterwards.
Q: Does BBB have the ability to generate completely anonymous votes?
A: No. Currently there is no possibility to generate anonymous votes in BBB. The person who initiated a poll will be shown the individual votes by name. If the results are published in the course room, only the distribution of votes (in percent) is shown.
Q: The conference quality is poor. What can we do to fix this?
A: Sometimes quality can depend on the number of participants in the conference. The maximum number of participants depends on several factors, but especially on the number of activated cameras. For example, the following scenarios are possible:
- Seminars with up to 300 participants, one camera, and one screen sharing
- Plenary sessions with six cameras and 100 listeners
- Sessions with 20 participants, whose cameras are all activated
Note: The decisive factor here is the product of the number of participants, and the number of cameras visible at the same time plus the number of shared screens. The result should be below 600. With the help of the sample calculation given below, you can better plan your next BBB conference:
70 (number of participants) x 4 (3 visible cameras + 1 shared screen) = 280
Please note: A high number of cameras also affects the participants' end devices. Weaker end devices with little computing power or little memory can be overloaded even with 10 visible cameras.
Q: What do I need to keep in mind when recording a presentation?
A: Data protection and copyright (also with regard to the materials used) are particularly important when recording a presentation.
Moderators can start and pause recordings. After the conference is over, BBB will need approximately the same or twice the recording time to process the recording (e.g. recording: 10 minutes input; up to about 20 minutes processing time). Afterwards a link is provided in the initiator’s BBB room. Anyone with this link can access the video directly. We recommend uploading the video in Panopto, where you have stronger restriction possibilities.
Q: What are the recommendations for the different devices and Internet browsers?
A: To make use all of the BBB features, for laptops and computers with Mac, Windows, or Linux you should use Firefox or Chrome. We recommend 'Safari' for iPads or iPhones.
PDF instructions on MS Teams: MS Teams at a glance (in German)
Technical informationon MS Teams (in German)
PDF instruction on how to install MS Teams (Institute of Geography, in German)
Video tutorialMS Teams (Prof. Dr. Erdweg, Institute of Compter Science, in German)
Introduction MS Teams (via Microsoft)
Microsoft Teams is particularly well suited for repetitive work in the same project environment where different Microsoft Office applications are used.
It can be installed as an app or used in a browser. Participants can login with their JGU account or via a link. MS Teams can be used by all JGU members.
MS Teams is a platform for collaborative work. Video and audio conferences can be used for short inputs, consultations, or meetings, including functions such as screen sharing, One-Note whiteboard, etc. In addition to the functionalities for communication, MS Teams helps you to structure your course. For example, you can divide your participants into groups or provide and manage digital documents.
Up to 250 people can participate in an MS Teams video conference. The team size for joint (asynchronous) work is limited to 5,000 people.
Please note that recorded video conferences in MS Teams are currently available online at https://web.microsoftstream.com/. Due to data protection, only the Skype for Business and BigBlueButton platforms should be used for recording video conferences, since these are stored on the ZDV servers.
Q: I have many students and I don't want to add each one individually to the team. What other options do I have?
A: Apart from entering the individual e-mail addresses of students in Teams you can:
- Add a mailing list created in Outlook
- Provide the students with a link for the team. To do this, click on the three dots (...) next to the team name and select "Get link for the team" in the menu that opens up. Copy the link and send it to the students. You can also use a link to invite students to the individual channels in the team.
- Provide a code for the team - to do this, click on the three dots (...) next to the team name, then on "Manage team", then on "Settings" in the bar that opens at the top, and then on "Team code" in the menu that opens. Create, copy, and send it to the students. Guests (people outside the organization) cannot dial in using the code.
In the last two options, students must enter the team themselves. They will not be asked to do so again. However, it is a convenient way to get a large group into a team.
Q: Can breakout rooms be set up in MS Teams?
A: Yes, but you have to be creative with the tool. To set up Breakout Rooms, you can minimize your meeting window during the meeting (click on "Teams" in the left navigation bar) and start a new meeting (with a new title, e.g. Group 1) in the same channel. Then the participants can switch to the other meeting / group. For this purpose, they should be members of your team, so that they can move around in the channel and access the files.
All groups that you create in this way will be visible as thick purple bars in the channel and in the upper left corner
Q: Is it possible to invite people who do not work with Teams to a meeting?
A: Yes, it is. Start a meeting in the channel. To the right (in the display of the participants) click on the symbol with the two chain links next to the invitation button. You will get the info "copied to clipboard". Paste the copied text into an email to the desired participant. The recipients can then click directly on it, however you still have to allow them to do so. These people can then participate in a team meeting without being members of the team.
Q: Can guests (external people) join a meeting scheduled via Outlook?
A: Yes, external people can join a meeting in MS Teams via the link sent out in the invitation. Please note that meetings scheduled via Outlook do not take place within a specific team. Chat messages or meeting notes are therefore stored in the chat function (left column).
Q: Can team members also leave a team independently?
A: In principle this shouldn’t be an issue. The option to leave is listed under the other options (next to the team name "...").
The only exception is the team type "course". Here, members can only be removed from the team by the owner.
Q: What do I need to keep in mind when recording a presentation?
A: Data protection and copyright (also with regard to the materials used) are particularly important when recording a presentation.
Presenters can start and pause recordings. Afterwards a video file is created on the Microsoft Stream video server and sent by e-mail with a link to the video file on the stream server after completion.
Please note that recorded video conferences in MS teams are currently available online at https://web.microsoftstream.com/. These may also be viewed by all other members of the University of Mainz, after registration with the university account. Currently it is not possible to limit this access only to the participants of a certain course etc. Due to data protection, only the platforms Skype for Business and BigBlueButton should be used for recording video conferences, as these are stored on the servers of ZDV.
Q: What are the recommendations for the different devices and Internet browsers?
A: Some browsers, such as Edge, Safari, and Firefox, support the Microsoft Teams Web App, but do not support some of the Teams call and meeting features. As a result, the Request Control feature may not be accessible when sharing the screen. However, it works in Chrome without any difficulties. Different operating systems make no difference.
If you are still undecided which application is best suited for your scenario, answer the questions in the Selection guide: Which conference tool? (in German). The Team for Digital Teaching will then make a recommendation.
JGU services for digital teaching
