Get familiar with the Webex Education Connector and how to use it. The Webex Education Connector allows for a smooth integration with a variety of platforms, including Sakai, Blackboard, Moodle, Brightspace by D2L, and Canvas by Instructure.
Set up
Set up the Webex Education Connector
Adjust the preferences for the Webex Education Connector to fit the needs of your class.
1. First, pick the Setup page after logging in to your Webex Education Connector account.
2. Select which of the following features you would want to make use of, and then click the Apply button.
- Classroom Collaboration
- Virtual Meetings
- Office Hours
Each option for a feature that you select has its own tab that appears. If you do not see any of the options, it is because the LMS administrator at your institution has chosen not to activate them.
3. Choose the time zone you use, then click the Save button.
4. In the box labeled “Authorize with LMS,” input the credentials that you employed while signing into the LMS, and then follow the on-screen prompts to complete the authorization process.
When you authorize the Webex Education Connector, it will sync with your LMS, which will then make it possible for any events that are planned in Virtual Meetings to also appear on the calendar of the LMS. Authorization is necessary in order to use the tools that allow for classroom collaboration and grading.
5. (Optional) Go to Webex Meetings Attendance Grading and select Turn on if you wish to automatically assign participation points to students whenever they attend a meeting or class. This will allow you to keep track of who has attended and who hasn’t.
Before you are able to enable grading, you are need to first authorize the Webex Education Connector with your LMS.
6. (Optional) To have the Reminder Bot send messages in the Webex space for a class or meeting before the meeting begins, navigate to the Reminder Bot menu option and click Turn on.
Classroom collaboration
Launch classroom collaboration
The Webex Education Connector needs to be authorized with your LMS before you can make use of the Classroom Collaboration feature. Check if the Webex Education Connector has been permitted, or give yourself permission to authorize it.
1 . Navigate to the Authorize with LMS section by clicking the Setup tab and going there.
2 .If the button is blue and says Authorize, click it, and then follow the instructions that appear on the screen to sync the Webex Education Connector with your LMS.
3.You can sign in to your Webex account by going to the Classroom Collaboration option in the Webex Education Connector that is included in your class and clicking on it.
After you have successfully logged in, a group specifically for your class will be formed for you. Every single student who signs up for your class immediately becomes a member of the team and is added to the General space by default.
Create a space
When you use the Webex app, your teams will assist you in maintaining order by grouping together multiple spaces under a single overarching topic. Once you have opened Classroom Collaboration for the first time and signed in, a group dedicated to your class will be immediately created for you. Everyone who is signed up for your class is automatically assigned to the team and given access to the General space that the team has.
You have the option of establishing other study areas in your curriculum, in addition to the one designated for the entire class as a whole.
1. You should check to see if you are required to sign in before proceeding to the Classroom Collaboration tab in your course.
2. Select the “Create New Space” option.
3. After providing a name for the area, click the Create Space button.
The Webex app for desktop computers, mobile devices, and the web all display the spaces that you have created in your LMS. However, in order for it to show up in your learning management system (LMS), you will first need to create a space using the Webex Education Connector.
Send a message
When you communicate with another user on Webex for the very first time by sending them a message, you initiate a private conversation between the two of you. When you send a message to that person again, the dialogue continues exactly where you left off before you sent the message. When you send a message to a place that contains more than one person, that message will be visible to all of the members of that space.
1. Within the Webex Education Connector, navigate to the tab labeled “Classroom Collaboration.”
2. Choose the location or the person to whom you wish to address your message.
3. Simply enter your message, choose the text input field, and then hit the Enter key to send it.
A message can also be sent in a space from any location where the sender has access to the space. Both the Webex app and the Classroom Collaboration page in the Webex Education Connector will allow you to view any messages that have been sent.
Invite members to a space
When you first start Classroom Collaboration, all of the users who are currently enrolled in the course are automatically added as members of the default General space that is created at that time. You are need to manually add members to newly created places after creating those areas.
1. Select the desired space from the list of available spaces.
2. Navigate to the People tab, then click the +Add People button.
3. To add a person to the space, enter their name or email address and then choose them from the list. This will allow you to add the person to the space.
Share a file
Using Classroom Collaboration, you may easily and quickly share files, such as lecture notes or a project that your group has worked on.
1. You can either click the Attachment button or use the drag-and-drop method to upload your file into the message section.
2. To send your attachment, press the Enter key on your keyboard.
Virtual meetings
Schedule a meeting
You are able to schedule and host a one-time or recurring meeting with your class if you make use of the Virtual Meetings functionality that is included in the Webex Education Connector.
1. Select the Virtual Meetings tab, then select Add New Meeting from the drop-down menu.
If necessary, sign in using the credentials associated with your Webex account.
2. Fill in the blanks with the following information:
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Name—Please give your gathering a name that accurately describes it.
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Meeting Date—Please provide the date and time that you would prefer for the meeting to take place.
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Duration—Determine how long you would like your meeting to go on for.
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Choose session type—Pick one of the following: Meeting, Training, or Event.
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Recurrence—You can decide whether you want your meeting to occur on a daily or weekly basis, for example. Determine when the reoccurring nature of your meeting will come to an end, such as on a particular date or after a predetermined number of gatherings.
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Unlocked Meetings– Instructors have the ability to control whether or not users from Webex organizations other than their own school’s can participate in unlocked meetings. You have the option of allowing guests to directly enter the meeting, requiring them to wait in the lobby and be accepted by the host, or not allowing them to join the meeting at all.
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Automatic lock—Make it so that the meeting room door closes behind you as soon as you start it.
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Automatic recording—You can start your meeting with the recording already in progress if you so choose.
3. Select the “Create Meeting” button.
After you have created a meeting, it will show up in the Upcoming tab of your account, where it will be visible to anybody who is enrolled in the course. You’ll be able to modify or remove individual meetings or a whole recurring meeting series from this screen.
Because there may be more than one instructor for a given class, you will only be able to start, edit, and remove the meetings that you established yourself. You are unable to initiate, make changes to, or cancel meetings that have been planned by other participants in the course.
The Past Meetings option allows you to view any of your previously held meetings.
Sync meetings to your LMS calendar
Authorizing the Webex Education Connector in your learning management system (LMS) will allow you to synchronize meetings with your LMS calendar if you use Canvas, Moodle, D2L/Brightspace, or Schoology.
1. In your learning management system, navigate to the Setup tab.
2. In the section labeled Authorize with LMS, click the Authorize button, and then follow the on-screen instructions.
Once authorization has been given, the Authorize symbol changes color to gray.
Start a meeting
1. Navigate to the tab labeled “Virtual Meetings” inside the Webex Education Connector.
2. Locate your meeting under the Upcoming tab, and then click the Start button.
You’ll be able to start meetings from your LMS Calendar if you’ve authorized the Webex Education Connector with your LMS and are signed in to Webex Meetings via the Virtual Meetings tab. If you’re not signed in, you won’t be able to start meetings from your LMS Calendar.
Record a meeting
You are able to record meetings using Webex Meetings, and then make those recordings accessible to students within the course by using the Webex Education Connector.
You need to plan the meeting in the Webex Education Connector and be signed in to Webex from within the Webex Education Connector when you start the meeting in order for recordings of Virtual Meetings to display in the Webex Education Connector.
Sessions in Webex Meetings are considered dormant after a period of several days. In order to maintain an active session in Webex, it is recommended that you log out of the Webex Education Connector and then log back into it after a few weeks have passed.
1 While you are in the middle of your Webex meeting, click the Record button.
2. After clicking Record, choose the option to Record on the cloud.
3. When it is necessary, select the Record option and then do one of the following:
You may keep a single recording going by clicking the Pause and Resume buttons.
To stop the recording you are currently working on, click the Stop button.
In Virtual Meetings, the recording will be accessible from the Recordings tab once the meeting has concluded or you have stopped recording. It is possible that the recording will not be received in the Webex Education Connector for up to twenty-four hours, depending on the size of the file and the bandwidth.
Grading
Grading overview
When you activate grading, an assignment known as the Webex Meetings Attendance Assignment will appear in the grade book of your LMS. Students’ attendance grades are displayed in the Webex Meetings Attendance Assignment based on the grading parameters that have been defined in the Setup page of the assignment.
In order for their attendance to be properly recorded, students need to join the meeting through the Virtual Meetings page of the Webex Education Connector.
If the name of a student does not appear on the attendance list, either you need to manually sync the students, or the student needs to launch the Webex Education Connector from the course in the LMS at least once. If the name of the student does not appear on the attendance list, the student has not launched the Webex Education Connector from the course at least once.
Turn on grading
Before you begin
Check that the Webex Education Connector has been given permission to access your LMS before continuing.
1 Locate the area under “Webex Meetings Attendance Grading” inside the Webex Education Connector, and then select the Turn on button.
2 Please go over the instructions and then click the Confirm button.
The grading element in your course cannot be disabled after it has been activated by the instructor.
3 Adjust the weightings for the Present and Absent score categories.
4 Make the necessary adjustments to the additional assignment settings.
5 Click Recalculate Course Grade.
Enable grading for a meeting
Enable grading for any meeting in which you intend to assign a grade to the attendees’ presence.
1. Select the Past Meetings option from the Virtual Meetings tab of the menu.
2. Select the Action icon, then select the Enable Grading for Meeting option from the drop-down menu.
Once you activate grading for the meeting, students who attended the meeting or class and joined using the Webex Education Connector appear as present with the time they joined the meeting or class. This is the case once you enable grading for the meeting. Students are counted as absent if they do not show up for class.
Calculate grades
In the same way that you are required to turn on grading for each individual meeting, you are also required to recalculate grades after each meeting for them to count toward the overall assignment score.
The following is the formula that is used to determine each student’s grade:
(Present Score)*(Total number of times student was present)+(Absent Score)*(Total number of times student was absent)/(Total Number of Meetings Held*Present Score)1 Navigate to the Setup tab and look for the area under “Webex Meetings Attendance Grading.”
2 Select the “Recalculate Course Grades” option from the menu.
What to do next
Check the grade book you keep on your LMS to see if the recalculation was completed successfully.
Update the grade book
In order for any adjustments to the attendance for a meeting to take effect, you will need to recalculate the grades after making any necessary changes. This covers modifications such as allowing grading for a meeting, modifying attendance information for a student, or turning off grading entirely.
Once you have finished making any necessary adjustments to the attendance, navigate to the Setup tab and click the button labeled Recalculate Grades.
Recording library
Recording library overview
Through the use of the Recording Library, you are able to create recordings that are not associated with a particular course. Make use of the meeting time to videotape yourself teaching a class or explaining a subject to yourself without having any attendees present. You have the option of publishing your recordings in any one of your classes, making them available for use in subsequent semesters.
Create a new recording
1 Open the Webex Education Connector and navigate to the tab labeled Recording Library.
When prompted, sign in to Webex meetings using the credentials you normally use to access Webex.
2 Select the “Create new recording” option.
3 After going through the steps, select the OK button.
When you click Record in the Webex meeting, make sure that “In the Cloud” is selected as the recording location. 4. Click Start to begin the conference, and your Webex Personal Room will open automatically.
Publish a recording
The recording will be available for you to see in the Recording Library tab as soon as your meeting is over or as soon as you stop recording it. You can then publish the recording to courses. Once you upload a recording to a course, only then will it be accessible to the students enrolled in that course.
Installing the Webex Education Connector inside of a course and opening it at least once are two requirements that need to be met before the course will show up in the Recording Library.
Click the Publish button, and then choose the classes where you want the tape to be accessible to students.
Students will be able to access the recording once it has been published by clicking the Recordings option that is located within Virtual Meetings.
Delete a recording
In the Recording Library tab, you have the ability to delete recordings that you have generated. If you delete a recording, it will no longer appear in the Recordings tab of the Virtual Meetings section of any courses in which you have previously published it.
1. Within the Webex Education Connector, navigate to the tab labeled Recording Library.
2 Locate the recording you want to remove, and then select the remove option.
The recording can still be found in your Webex site, despite the fact that it is no longer accessible through the Webex Education Connector.
Office hours
Office hours overview
Using the Webex Education Connector, you’ll be able to not only plan but also run office hours. In the “Office Hours” section, you can tell your students when they can meet with you and establish your availability for such meetings. Every course that you teach is bound by the office hours that you decide to make available to students. If there are more than one instructor for a given class, the students have to pick your name from the list of available teachers in order to set up a meeting with you.
Meetings during office hours provide students the opportunity to make appointments directly with you. We suggest that you construct a virtual conference and call it “Office Hours” if you wish to hold office hours for more than one student at a time.
Set office hours
With the Webex Education Connector’s Office Hours function, you may let your students know when you are available to meet with them on a variety of days and times, and they will be able to schedule those meetings.
1. Within the Webex Education Connector, navigate to the tab labeled “Office Hours.”
When prompted, sign in to Webex meetings using the credentials you normally use to access Webex.
2 Under the tab labeled Weekly Hours, make the following adjustments:
Time allotted for meetings – Determine how long each of your meetings will last.
Buffer for meetings – Determine how much time will be allotted for the buffer before and after each meeting.
Date range — Determine the range of dates that students have available to organize meetings inside.
Establish your weekly hours by indicating the days and times of the week during which you will be accessible.
Adjust the time zone so that your meetings take place during office hours. This time zone applies to all of your courses, regardless of whether or not you enable office hours.
3 The Save button can be found further down.
Your pupils can now choose a time to meet with you from the available options. After a student has successfully scheduled time to attend your office hours, that appointment time is not accessible to be scheduled by any other students. You will receive an email containing the meeting link, and you will also be able to view the meeting in the list of Upcoming Meetings on your Webex site.
Update your office hours with date override
Make sure that your office hours are an appropriate reflection of your availability by using the Date Override tool, which allows you to adjust your general availability for certain dates. You have the power to remove time intervals from a date, add new time intervals to a date, or block availability for the entirety of a date.
1 Click the Date Override button that you’ll find under the Office Hours heading.
2 You can update your availability for a certain date by choosing a date and then using one of the following options:
Toggle Are you able to assist me today? turn off to prevent any availability for the date that you chose.
To prevent access to a particular time slot on a certain day, select the time slot in question and then click the garbage can icon that appears next to it.
To create a new time slot for the given date, select the +Add availability option from the drop-down menu.
3 Select the Save option.
What to do next
At any given time, you are limited to setting a maximum of fifty future date overrides. Any meetings during office hours that were planned for a date before you set the date override will continue to take place at the same time and place. You have the ability to reschedule these meetings through Webex, should the need arise.
Set the time zone of your office hours
You should designate a time zone for your office hours so that it is always possible for students to meet with you at a time that is convenient for both of you.
1 In the Webex Education Connector, select the tab labeled “Office Hours.”
2 Select the time zone you want to use and then click the Set weekly hours button.
3 Select the Save option.
Your new time zone is reflected in all of the classes that you are currently enrolled in. Any meetings that were planned in advance will continue to take place at their originally scheduled time.
Analytics
View analytics
On the Analytics tab, you will be able to view the total number of meetings that have been scheduled (including meetings, events, and training sessions), the number of office hours that have been reserved, and the total number of spaces in Webex that have been created by you and your students.
