What is the Webex Education Connector?

The Webex Education Connector is a Blackboard LTI that allows faculty and students to virtually attend class sessions, participate in class discussions, access recorded class sessions, and schedule office hours.

Table of Contents

• Navigate to Blackboard
• Add Education Connector in Blackboard
• Setup the Education Connector / Webex LTI Legacy
• Setup Virtual Meetings
• Set up Virtual Office Hours
• Start a Meeting from the Education Connector

Navigate to Blackboard

To add the Webex Education Connector LTI in your Blackboard course:

1. Navigate to Blackboard. Log in using your YSU credentials.

2. Select Courses in the navigation pane.

Add Education Connector in Blackboard Ultra 

To add the Webex tool to the desired course in Blackboard.

1. In the left navigation menu, select View course & institution tools.

2. Select the "+"  icon to add the Webex tool to the Ultra course.

3. A Webex folder will appear in the course content section. Click the ellipses next to tool. Select Edit.

4. Configure the Webex folder, if desired.
   1. To edit the folder's name, hover over "Webex" and select the pencil icon. 
   2. Configure the visibility.
      1. Visibility to students allows all students to view and access the Webex folder. 
      2. Hidden From Students hides the Webex folder from all students.
      3. Release Conditions limits access to the Webex folder based on the set conditions.
   3. Add a description (optional).
   4. Select Save.

5. Select the Webex folder in the course's content section.

Setup Webex Education Connector / Webex LTI Legacy

1. Toggle on Meetings and/or Office Hours to use the features in your course.  Items toggled on will result in a new tab appearing at the top of the Webex tool.

a. Click the toggle button so that it becomes blue (on) or gray (off) on your selection.

Set Up Virtual Meetings

Virtual Meetings schedules virtual meetings for faculty and students to join during specified class times with configured meeting links. If recorded, the recordings can be accessed from the Meetings tab. To configure virtual meetings:

1. On the Meetings Setup tab, click the black Schedule Meeting button located on the right.  

2. Once the Virtual Meetings tab appears in the ribbon, select it.

3. Enter information to schedule a recurring or one-time meeting.
4. Configure the meeting schedule:
   1. Enter the Meeting name of the Meeting Name field. 
   2. In the Date and Time drop down, select the first day of the course. Configure the course's starting Time and Duration.
   3. Click the Recurrence radio button to schedule a recurring meeting. The image above displays setting for recurring meetings.
   4. Choose Weekly for the Recurrence type. 
   5. Additional configuration options should appear. 
      1. Recurrence pattern options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
      2. For Every 1 week, select the day(s) your course meets. 
      3. Note: If your course has different meeting times on the scheduled days, configure each day seperately. For example, if your course meets Monday 1:00pm-1:50pm and Wednesday 1:00pm-2:15pm, configure Monday's meeting pattern by completing steps 3 - 4. Then, configure Wednesday's meeting pattern seperately beginning from Step 3.
   6. Select the Ends radio button. In the drop down menu, select the last date your course meets or add the number of meetings in the After #count meetings.

4. Set Security, Audio Connections and Advanced options.
   1. In Security section, select They can join the meeting. This allows students to join the Webex meeting using a personal email address. Select They wait in the lobby until they're admitted allows guest accounts to wait in a virtual lobby area until the host grants them access to the Webex meeting. If you prefer students to only join using their YSU email addresses, select They can't join the meeting. When selecting this option, instruct students to log into Webex using their YSU credentials.
   2. Configure an Auto Lock , if desired, to close your meeting after it starts.  You may indicate a time preference after selecting the checkbox. This is useful for faculty who track and grade attendance.
   3. In Audio connection options, choose your preferred Entry and exit tone and Mute attendees preference. Both options may be selected.  Our recommendation is to Always mute attendees when they join the meeting to avoid any distractions at the start of your meeting.
   4. In Advanced option, select Automatically start recording when the meeting starts to produce recordings of each meeting for students to revisit. 
5. Click Schedule to save your settings. 

For more information about starting a meeting from the Education Connector, refer to Start a Meeting from Education Connector. To start a meeting inside a Webex Classroom, refer to Webex Classroom: Present from the Webex Education Connector in Blackboard.

Set up Virtual Office Hours

Office Hours allows students to schedule and manage virtual meetings during the faculty's specified office hours. To configure virtual office hours:

1. On the Setup tab, toggle on the Office Hours check box.  Doing so will result in an Office Hours tab at the top of the Webex tool.

2. Click the Office Hours tab to setup meeting preferences.
3. Configure the standard schedule for office hour availability.
   1. Select the Meeting duration.
   2. Select a Meeting buffer. This will add time before and after each appointment.

4. Set availability by Time Zone, day of week and time of day.  
5. Configure the date range for office hours.
   1. Set weekly hours when students can schedule virtual office hour appointmets. To add multiple time ranges for a single day, select + Add availability below the desired day (as shown below for Thursday).
6. Select Save.

Set Up Classroom Collaboration

Classroom Collaboration generates a general space/team for your course that adds all enrolled students. Faculty can create additional spaces that include specified students where students can send messages, meet, and share files. To view more information about configuring and using the Classroom Collaboration feature, please refer to The Webex Education Connector for Teachers on the Webex Help Center.

Start a Meeting from the Education Connector

Faculty should use the Education Connector tool to start all virtual meetings. For more information about starting a meeting from the Education Connector, refer to Start a Meeting from Education Connector. To start a meeting inside a Webex Classroom, refer to Webex Classroom: Present from the Webex Education Connector in Blackboard.