Class: How to Create and Schedule Sessions
Class is a powerful online meeting tool that facilitates synchronous virtual collaboration between faculty and students, but did you know that it can be used for more than just pre-scheduled lectures?
With its large variety of robust content sharing features, its an excellent platform for any virtual meetings you might need to host. Depending on your specific needs, there are two distinct methods to access this tool, each offering unique benefits and features:
Through Blackboard or through the Single Sign-In Portal.
Option 1: Blackboard
(Best for Course Specific Sessions)
When you access the virtual meeting tool through Blackboard, you're creating a classroom experience that's fully integrated with your course. This approach is ideal for:
- Weekly scheduled lectures
- Formal class sessions
- Student group presentations
- Structured learning activities
Key Benefits:
- Automatically tracks student attendance
- Monitors participation metrics
- Synchronizes with your class roster
- Maintains all session data within your course environment
- Provides detailed reporting on student engagement
Option 2: Single Sign-In Portal
(Best for General Purpose Sessions)
Alternatively, you can access the same tool through our university's single sign-in portal. This creates virtual meeting rooms that operate independently from any specific course. This approach works best for:
- Non-course specific Faculty office hours
- Ad-hoc student consultations
- Cross-course collaboration sessions
- Guest speaker presentations
Key Benefits:
- Create flexible meeting spaces not tied to a particular course
- Share access via simple links that can be sent to anyone
- Allow participants to join as guests without course enrollment
- Set up recurring meeting rooms that persist across semesters
- Quickly establish meeting spaces without course administration
Once you are in Class, the process of creating and editing scheduled sessions is the same, regardless of how you have accessed the platform.
The can help guide you through that process.
With this access method, your specific student roster is synced to the Class meeting, allowing you to take attendance and utilize pre-assigned groups. Only one Class can exist per single course, but you can still manage multiple meeting sessions.
To Access Class:- Navigate to the Details & Actions sidebar
- Scroll to the bottom and select Launch Class
From here, you can schedule or edit sessions by selecting Settings & Schedule on the right side of the top navigation.
With this access method, you can create a multitude of different Classes with different Class ID's, Descriptions, and stored content. However, you will have to manually invite participants.
- To access Class: go to .
- To create a new Class: press the Create a New Class button on the top right of the window.
- To view Classes that already exist: select the Schedule tab on the top left of the window.
Need more help?
Class Resources