1. +
Delivering on-line classes using
BigBlueButton
Fred Dixon Jesus Federico
BigBlueButton Developer BigBlueButton Moodle Integration
ffdixon@bigbluebutton.org jesus@123it.ca

2. Overview
• BigBlueButton Overview
• Moodle Integration
• BigBlueButton 0.81 (upcoming release)
• Product Road Map
– HTML5 Client
• Q&A
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 2

3. • BigBlueButton is an open source web
conferencing system for on-line learning
• Goal: Provide remote students a high quality
learning experience
• Pain: Cost, low adoption, inability to integrate

4. Use Cases
• Virtual Office Hours
• Small Group Collaboration
• Remote Teaching (< 25 students)

5. Interface
Desktop Sharing Audio Chat
Slides Video

6. Screen shot

7. We use it every day

8. On the Shoulders of Giants
• red5 • ghostscript
• FreeSWITCH • ImageMagick
• swftools • OpenOffice
• tomcat6 • grails
• redis • scala
• nginx • popcorn.js
• ffmpeg • FlexLib
8

9. BigBlueButton Project
• 1300+ members on developer mailing list
• Activity: 14k+ messages
• GSOC 2010
• Forked over 900 times on GitHUB
• Localized into 35 languages
• Mozilla WebFWD 2011 Graduate
• Install in 30 minutes (or your money back!)
9

10. 61,000 + installs
(June 2011 – June 2012)
14%
27%
8%
6%
5%
5%
5%
http://www.bigbluebutton.org/2012/07/06/bigbluebutton-is-a-global-project/

11. We’re Definitely Global

12. • How did BigBlueButton get started?

13. Why
$$$
$
Before After
• Global trend towards distance education
• 150 Commercial systems 1
• Open Source Business Model
• Let’s go for it!
[1] http://thinkofit.com/webconf/realtime.htm

14. Chat
Video
Packaging
Slides
VM Desktop VoIP
Voice Sharing Refactoring
0.32 0.4 0.5 0.60 0.61
Sept-08 Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09

15. Desktop
Sharing III
VoIP II
Desktop Larger
Sharing II API Meetings
Dev VM Localization RPM Whiteboard
0.62 0.63 0.64 0.70
Nov-09 Jan-10 Apr-10 July-10

16. Refactored
Improved VoIP II
VoIP
Record
Real-time Refactored and
translation VoIP Playback Video Dock
0.71 0.71a 0.8-beta1 0.8-beta2
Nov-10 Jan-11 Sept-11 Oct-11

17. Audio Fit-to-width
Settings Now working on 0.81
(our eleventh release)
0.8-beta3 0.8-beta4 0.80
Nov-11 Mar-12 June-12

18. Observation
We treat each release like product release. We
make stability and quality part of our brand.

20. Case Study
• University of
West Scotland
• Darren Rickets
• From successful trial
to production deployment
• See: http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=881
• “Very Successful Trial” – Darren Rickets

21. “… Fortunately, with BigBlueButton, the
world finally has a powerful and clean
open source solution that works great and
integrates seamlessly with Moodle … We
use BigBlueButton ourselves for our Moodle
developer meetings! Congrats on the 0.80
release, guys - keep it up!"
-- Martin Dougiamas, creator of Moodle.

22. • Moodle Integration

23. Typical Setup
+
Asynchronous Synchronous
(non-real time) (real-time)
LMS Slides
Gradebook Audio
Portfolio Video
etc. Desktop
Chat
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 23

24. Dedicated Server for BigBlueButton
• Requirements
– Ubuntu 10.04 32-bit or 64-bit server
– 4+ cores, +2GHZ, +4G memory
• Instructions
– http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/
• Install in 30 minutes
sudo apt-get install bigbluebutton
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 24

25. Get URL and Salt
Use `bbb-conf --salt` to get API URL and Salt
(share secret) from the server
$ bbb-conf --salt
URL: http://test-install.blindsidenetworks.com/bigbluebutton/
Salt: 8cd8ef52e8e101574e400365b55e11a6
We’ll use this URL and Salt (shared secret) to
configure the activity link in Moodle
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 25

26. What it supports
• BigBlueButtonBN: Activity Module
– Groups
– Moodle Calendar
– Students wait until Moderator joins
– Record a session
• RecordingsBN: Resource
– Publish/unpublish & delete recordings

27. Top 20 downloaded
#15

28. Moodle Issue Tracker

29. • Overview of Integration

30. Download from Plugins Database
• Full support for Moodle 1.9 and 2.x
• https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=2

31. After Installation
Click ‘Upgrade’
Insert URL and Security Salt for your BigBlueButton
server
URL
Salt
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 31

34. Done!
• Roles automatically assigned
– Students -> Viewers
– Non-students -> Moderators
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 34

35. Interface
Desktop Sharing Audio Chat
Slides Video

36. Playback of Slides + Audio +
Chat

38. • Ongoing Development for 0.81
– This will be our eleventh release

39. Overview of Process
• BigBlueButton 0.81-dev
– Ongoing Current
• BigBlueButton 0.81-beta
– Updated packaging and documentation
– Tested build environment (packaging and VM)
– No major bugs
• BigBlueButton 0.81-RC
– Open bugs: 0
– Final testing with community
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#BigBlueButton_Development_Process

40. Planned for 0.81
• Record and Playback
– Record and playback all activity in the presentation area + webcams
• Accessibility for students with Disabilities
• Text tool for Whiteboard
• Layout Manager
• APIs for 3rd party integration
– Specify default layout
– JavaScript API for the client
• Update of default skin and icons
• Support for LTI

41. Whiteboard
Hand pointer to move around
slides
Triangle
Lines
Text

43. Layout Manager

44. Change Layouts

45. Control the Layout

46. More control

47. HTML5 playback (0.80)

48. Multiple Webcams

49. JavaScript Interface
• Control via JavaScript
– Change the layout
– Javascritp API
• mute all
• lock all “BigBlueButton Toolbox”
• mute me
• share webcam
– Logout
– Will provide API examples

50. Accessibility
• UI is compatible with
Screen Readers
– JAWS
– Implementation by
Seneca College

51. Current UI

52. Updated UI

53. • Road Map

54. Our Priority for Development
• Development Priorities (in order)
1. Stability
2. Usability
3. Features
4. Modularity

55. Looking out beyond 0.81
• Record and Playback
– Full support for playback of all activity
• Additional components
– Synchronized video playback
– Polling
– Shared Notes
– Breakout rooms

56. • HTML5 Client

57. BigBlueButton HTML5 Client
• Phase 1: Viewer client
– One-way: presentation, webcam, hear audio
– Two-way: chat
• Phase 2: Two-way audio/video
– Two-way audio/video using WebRTC
• Phase 3: Full Client
– Full implementation of all capabilities

62. • Prototype

63. http://www.bigbluebutton.org/2012/10/02/progress-on-bigbluebutton-html5-client/

64. HTML5 Presentation vs. Flash

65. Suggestions for Deployment
• Schedule training sessions teachers
– Encourage teachers to watch videos
– Provide training sessions with teachers
– Management of audio is critical
• Educate on various usages
– Share webcams or not
– Virtual office hours
– Student-based collaboration

66. Commercial Support Available
Commercial
+ + Support
http://bigbluebutton.org/support
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 66

67. Summary
We believe every student with a web browser
should have access to a
high-quality on-line learning experience
We intend to make that possible using
BigBlueButton
13/02/2013 BigBlueButton + Moodle Integration 67

68. • bigbluebutton.org
• code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton
• github.com/bigbluebutton
• twitter.com/bigbluebutton
• facebook.com/bigbluebutton
• google.com/+bigbluebutton
• youtube.com/bigbluebuttonshare