Texas Tech University

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Instructor Information

Instructors wishing to use Collaborate Ultra need to request a separate account. To make that request, please send your full name and email address to blackboard@ttu.edu. This request can take several days and you will receive login information when it is complete. Once you have an Ultra account, you can access the Collaborate Ultra Session Scheduler.

The following how-to guides contain step-by-step instructions including screenshots for Collaborate Ultra. If you have questions about using Collaborate Ultra at Texas Tech, please contact Worldwide eLearning Blackboard Support at blackboard@ttu.edu or call 806-742-7227.

  • How to Schedule and Modify a Collaborate Ultra Session Outside of Blackboard
    You can create, edit, delete and search for sessions and recordings in the Collaborate Ultra Scheduler, and send an invitation to your participants to join the session. You can also view your session attendance reports, and update your account information.
  • General Overview of the Ultra Session 
    There are three main areas in a Collaborate Ultra session which are media space, session menu, and collaborate panel. They all have different types of tools to make your Ultra experience better and interactive, and allow you to modify your session.
  • How to Change Settings during a Collaborate Ultra Session 
    Session settings can be changed before a session begins as well as while the session is active. You can allow participants to share their audio and video, post chat messages, and draw on whiteboards and files. Also, you can change your profile picture and status, your audio and video settings, and notification settings, and report an issue if you have a problem.
  • How to Set up Audio and Video in a Collaborate Ultra Session 
    When you first join the session, your audio and video are disabled by default. By clicking share audio and share video icons in the media space, you can share your audio and video.
  • How to Use Chat in a Collaborate Ultra Session 
    Chat tool provides users with text-based communication during Collaborate Ultra sessions. Additionally, some students feel comfortable with text-based communication because they may hesitate to speak up. Besides being able to chat with everybody in the session, this tool also allows you to have a private chat with other moderators or participants. Users can also use emoji.
  • How to Manage Your Participants in a Collaborate Ultra Session 
    There are several ways to manage your participants during Collaborate Ultra session. You can mute all participants at the same time or mute individually, manage the Raise Hands option, promote participants as moderator, presenter, participant, or captioner, and remove them from the session.
  • How to Share Content
    Collaborate Ultra allows you to share content by clicking the share content icon on the collaborate panel.
    • You can share whiteboard and collaborate with participants. You can allow all your participants to use the whiteboard tools for collaboration during the session, too.
    • You can share your entire desktop or just an application such as MS Word document, SPSS, etc., to teach your participants about a topic. When sharing applications, use Chrome of Firefox version 49+ versions.
    • Finally, you can share files such as PDF and Power Point (60 MB or less). You can decide that your participants can mark up the files, too.
  • How to Create and Manage Polling in a Collaborate Ultra Session
    Polls are great tools to engage your participants in your session, and make your session more interactive. You can ask questions to see how well they understood the topic, and give participants opportunities to participate. The answers are anonymous so they feel comfortable to answer the questions. You can create polls, monitor them, show responses to your participants, and stop polling. There are yes/no and multiple choice (with 2-3-4-5 options) questions in Collaborate Ultra polling.
  • How to Create and Manage Breakout Groups in a Collaborate Ultra Session 
    Breakout groups are tools to facilitate group collaboration. You can create breakout groups, assign participants to the groups randomly or custom, move them to another group, allow them to switch groups by themselves, join the groups to monitor them, and end the groups. Breakout groups have their own private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat. They are independent of the main room and other groups' rooms. Thus, they cannot be captured in recordings. Breakout groups requires Chrome 52+ or Firefox 49+ versions.