We (the core developers of BigBlueButton) are pleased announce the availability of BigBlueButton 0.81-beta-2.
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system for on-line learning. The goal of the project is to provide remote students a high-quality learning experience.
We expect to have a release candidate for 0.81 shortly, followed by a final release. Most of the work now is on finishing the localization strings.
We invite you to try out 0.81-beta-2. Here's what's new in this release:
Simplified Interface – BigBlueButton now has a consolidated Users window for easier session management and a more consistent user interface (including updated skin and icons) to help new users get started quickly.
Layout Manager – BigBlueButton now enables users to choose from a number of preset layouts to quickly adapt to different modes of learning.
Recording – BigBlueButton now records for playback all during a session (including desktop sharing).
Text tool for Whiteboard – Presenters can now annotate their slides with text.
New APIs – The BigBlueButton API now includes the ability to dynamically configure each client on a per-user bases, thus enabling developers to configure the skin, layout, modules, etc. for each user. There is also a JavaScript interface to control the client.
Accessibility – BigBlueButton now supports screen readers JAWS (version 11+) and NVDA. A list of keyboard shortcuts have been added to make it easier to navigate through the interface using the keyboard.
LTI Support – BigBlueButton is IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.0 compliant. This means any LTI consumer can integrate with BigBlueButton without requiring custom plug-ins.
Mozilla Persona – The API demos now include examples of how to sign into a BigBlueButton session using Mozilla Persona.
Support for LibreOffice 4.0 – BigBlueButton now uses LibreOffice 4.0 for conversion of of MS Office documents (upload of PDF is still recommend to provide best results).
This release has been in development/testing for over thirteen months. In particular, we've done a lot of work to further simplify the interface.
For videos that demonstrate how to use BigBlueButton as a moderator/presenter and as a viewer, see
http://www.bigbluebutton.org/videos/
We know that archiving is important to many teachers. For a sample BigBlueButton recording, click the link below (use FireFox or Chrome to view)
For integrating BigBlueButton with Moodle, see
https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=2
For more information on this release, including instructions on how to install (or upgrade from the previous release), see the release notes
https://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/ReleaseNotes
and visit our project web site
We've been working on BigBlueButton now for over four years. When the final version this release ships, it will mark the eleventh release of the product.
Our goal is to provide remote students a high-quality on-line learning experience. If you are a teacher and want to provide your students with a synchronous learning environment, then we are building BigBlueButton for you.
Regards,... Fred
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BigBlueButton Developer