Collaborate Ultra New Features

• Breakout groups integration with Bb Course Groups: When creating breakout rooms in Collaborate Ultra, instructors can now use existing course groups to create breakout groups in advance and save time.
  • Please Note: This integration only supports the use of Group Sets in the Blackboard course. Individually created groups will not be selectable when choosing breakout groups.
• Adjust Recording Playback Speed: Users can now choose from a range of playback speeds when watching recorded videos.
• Gallery View: Gallery View is now available for instructors to select while in a Collaborate Ultra session. This allows the instructor to see up to 25 users at a time, as well as access the Attendee Menu (change role, private chat, mute, etc.) from the gallery view.
  • Please Note: This feature is currently only available to moderators. Future releases will allow participants or presenters to have access to this role.
  • Please Note: This feature is not available on Safari browsers, iOS or iPadOS currently. If you are using an Apple phone or tablet, you will not be able to access this. If you are using a Mac, you will only be able to access Gallery View via Firefox or Chrome.
• Support Chatbot: The Support Chatbot is now available. The chatbot allows users to receive support for Collaborate Ultra. It will appear on both the Settings tab and Report an Issue tab of the Collaborate Session menu, as well as on error pages.
• Automatic Disconnect for Sessions over 12 hours: Sessions that are over 12 hours will now be automatically disconnected. If you are still in need of the room after 12 hours, you are able to re-join.
• Recording Availability: When looking at the list of recordings, users are now able to see whether the recording of a session is available to anyone (public) or is available to your course (course members only).
• Recording Deletion Grace Period: When a user marks a recording for deletion, it will be deleted 30 days later. During those 30 days, users will be able to restore the deleted recording.
• New Whiteboard Features: Users can now enjoy new features within the whiteboard, including: better formatting of pencil and annotation tools; easy copy/paste options from annotations; sharing the whiteboard and annotations to breakout groups; and annotations that are saved in the session, even after you move to the next slide.
  • Pointer feature: There is now a pointer feature available in the Whiteboard. This allows the presenter to point at a specific place on the slide and that pointer is visible to all participants.
• Browser Not Supported warning: Users are now warned when they join a Collaborate Ultra session from an unsupported browser. They will be provided with a screen that allows them to either download an updated version of their browser or continue to the session.
• New Insights during sessions and recordings: During a session, the moderator can see insights on the participant engagement through interactions such as raising your hand and using the chat feature. You can also see how many users have downloaded or viewed the recording of the session.
• Automatic Captions for Recorded Sessions: Moderators can now turn on speech-to-text captioning while viewing a recorded session.
• Download Whiteboard and Annotated Documents: Session attendees can now download the full shared document, including added annotations during the session. This is also available for the whiteboard.
• Poll Updates: When a user is disconnected from a session, their poll answers will be saved in the poll report. If a poll question or response is updated, the poll will included the updated text, not the original text.

Collaborate Ultra Known Issues