We are pleased to announce the release of BigBlueButton 0.81.
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing for on-line learning. Our vision is that every student with a web browser should have access to a high-quality learning experience.
At the time of this writing, according to the download statistics for all Moodle plugins over the past 12 months, the BigBlueButtonBN activity module ranks #15 most downloaded. That's almost 20k downloads over the past year.
Also, earlier this year, InfoWorld selected BigBlueButton as one of the Best Open Source Applications for 2013 (see award announcement). Other winners in the same category this year were nginx, MariaDB, and WordPress.
Good company indeed.
Finally, EpicLearning, a UK-based provider of e-learning technologies, recently published a report on Virtual Classrooms software. It surveyed forty systems and "established a top six products, based on their breadth of virtual classroom capabilities." It placed BigBlueButton amongst the top six and stated:
This is an up-and-coming Open Source tool, which means it is developer friendly, extensible and low cost. It is available as an on-premise installation only. Its main downfall is that it currently lacks the full range of features of the other products in this list, but is definitely one to watch.
There are, in fact, a number companies that provide commercial support and hosting. In any event, it's great to see the coverage.
If you want to try BigBlueButton at your institution, checkout the download and support options above. For more information, visit bigbluebutton.org.
Regards,... Fred Dixon
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BigBlueButton Developer