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Integration

In addition to our work on the BigBlueButton core, Blindside Networks develops and supports the following integrations with other open source applications:

BigBlueButton Moodle 2.0/2.1 Activity Module

This activity module is currently available for testing and will soon be released for general use. If you want to help test, please install it using the instructions below and give us your feedback.

The BigBlueButton Moodle 2.0/2.1 Activity Module provides you full access to BigBlueButton's capabilities from within your Moodle interface. Specifically, you can:

  • Create links for multiple virtual classroom within a course
  • Create custom welcome messages
  • Schedule classes in the Moodle Calendar
  • Launch BigBlueButton in its own window
  • Record and playback your lectures (requires BigBlueButton 0.8 or above server)

The following link will download this module.

Click the image below to see a video demonstrating how to install and use this module.

Here are step-by-step install instructions to install the module (they assume your Moodle is installed at /var/www/moodle).

1.  Copy bigbluebutton_blindsidenetworks_activity_module_20-21.zip to /var/www/moodle

2.  Enter the following commands

   cd /var/www/moodle
   sudo unzip bigbluebutton_blindsidenetworks_activity_module_20-21.zip

This will create the directory

./mod/bigbluebuttonbn

and 

./mod/recordingsbn

3.  Login to your moodle site as administrator. Moodle will detect the new module and prompt you to upgrade.

4.  Click the 'Upgrade button.

You'll see the database tables setup.

5.  Click the 'Continue' button.

You'll be prompted to configure the activity module.

6.  Enter the URL and salt (security key) to your BigBlueButton server (or use the default values).

7.  Click the Save Changes button.

At this point, you can enter any course, turn editing on, and add a BigBlueButtonBN activity link to the class.

When a user clicks on the link, the activity module will use the BigBlueButton API (and the security salt) to create a virtual classroom on the BigBlueButton server and join users into that classroom.  Students join as viewers, other Moodle users (such as administrators and teachers) join as moderators.

Click the video link above to see a tutorial of using this module.

BigBlueButton Moodle 1.9 Activity Module

This activity module is currently available for testing and will soon be released for general use. If you want to help test, please install it using the instructions below and give us your feedback.

Click here to download the BigBlueButton Moodle Activity Module (for Moodle 1.9+). This module has been tested with BigBlueButton 0.71.

The following overview video shows how to install and use the BigBlueButton Activity Module for Moodle 1.9+.

These following step-by-step install instructions assume your Moodle 1.9+ server is installed at /var/www/moodle.

1.  Copy bbb_activity_module_moodle19.zip to /var/www/moodle

2.  Enter the following commands

   cd /var/www/moodle
   sudo unzip bbb_activity_module_moodle19.zip

This will create the directory

   ./mod/bigbluebutton

and install the language file in

   ./lang/en_utf8/bigbluebutton.php

3.  Login to your moodle site as administrator

4.  Click notifications.

You'll see the database tables setup.

5.  Click the 'Continue' button.

You'll be prompted to configure the settings for the activity module.

6.  Enter the URL and salt (security key) to your BigBlueButton server (or use the default values).

7.  Click the Save Changes button.

At this point, you can enter any course, turn editing on, and add a BigBlueButton activity link to the class.

When a user clicks on the link, the activity module will use the BigBlueButton API to create a virtual classroom on the BigBlueButton server and join the user into that classroom.  Students join as viewers, other Moodle users (such as administrators and teachers) join as moderators.

BigBlueButton Wordpress Plugin

This plugin integrates BigBlueButton functionality into Wordpress. It allows bloggers to create and manage meetings rooms to interact with their readers.

For installation instructions see the BigBlueButton WordPress plugin page.

Joomla Extension

This extension is available at the moment for testing only and will soon be released for general use. If you want to help test, please try installing it using the instructions below.

This extension integrates BigBlueButton functionality into Joomla. It allows bloggers to create and manage on-line meetings rooms to interact with their readers.

You need to setup a BigBlueButton server to use this extension (we recommend running BigBlueButton on its own dedicated server). To test the extension, you can use this open server to configure and test your setup:


url: http://test-install.blindsidenetworks.com/bigbluebutton/
salt: 8cd8ef52e8e101574e400365b55e11a6

(Note: the above URL links to the API interface, so it doesn't return any page if you try to open it).

The "salt" is the secret key to enable the Joomla extension to authenticate and make API requests with the server. Once you have your own BigBlueButton server running, see the FAQ for information on how to extract the security salt.

To setup the Joomla extension you can refer to the tutorial video or follow the instructions below.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download two files: (1) BigBlueButton Component, and (2) BigBlueButton Module here.
  2. Login into your Joomla Administrator Back-end.
  3. Click on Install/Uninstall under Extensions in the top menu.
  4. Browse to the BigBlueButton Conferencing Component that you uploaded, and click Upload File & Install.
  5. Repeat the step above, but this time browse to the BigBlueButton Conferencing Module.
  6. Click on Module Manager under Extensions in the top menu.
  7. Select BigBlueButton Conferencing in the list of modules.
  8. Make sure that module is enabled by selecting the Yes option, and if you would like modify the title to something shorter, such as BigBlueButton.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Click on Settings under BigBlueButton under the Components in the top menu.
  11. Enter the security salt and URL of your BigBlueButton server
  12. Click Save.
  13. Then click on general, and from here you can begin creating and managing your meetings.

Blindside Networks provides commercial support for BigBlueButton, an open source web conferencing system. BigBlueButton offers integrated voice, video, chat, and desktop sharing to universities and colleges wanting to reduce their cost for web conferencing while offering remote students a high-quality learning experience.

Universities and colleges are creating on-line learning environments that enable students to remotely join classes. The current costs of web-conferencing solutions are prohibitively high, especially when hundreds of students are taking remote courses. BigBlueButton can offer a substantial cost savings, while Blindside Networks can provide support, integration, and training to the education institutions to customize BigBlueButton their needs.

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