QMUL History Student Support

Joining Weekly Seminars

In History we are using Collaborate to deliver online Seminars.  This software is specifically designed around teaching.  Before you join your first session you should have a read through the excellent Getting Started Guide that Blackboard have created for participants, here.

You do not need any special software to run Collaborate – it will open in your web browser.  It should work in all modern, up-to-date browsers.  You should ensure that your Operating System and Web Browser are fully up to date.  If you can’t do this, or if you experience any unexplained issues, we have found that using Google Chrome (get it here) can be a quicker work-around than trying to figure out what is wrong in your existing set-up.

Make sure you join the scheduled activity for your seminar group, not the ‘course room’ which may be locked. See below for full instructions.

This guide consists of two parts:

• Instructions on finding and joining your seminar
• Guidance about how virtual seminars will work, including our expectations of behaviour

Finding and Joining the Seminar

The Collaborate link has been added to every module page.  There are two slightly different ways the link appears depending on how your module is set up.

• If you are a first year student on a level 4 module or your module appears as a series of weekly summaries with a “Go >” link alongside them as in the image below, you need first to click into one of the weeks:
• Otherwise, the link will appear at the top of the main course page.

The link looks like this:

When you click through to the link you will see a list of sessions:

By default you will see all the available sessions.  The quickest way to find the session you need is to use the filter.  Alongside Filter by, click All Upcoming Sessions to bring up the menu:

Select ‘Sessions in Range’.  This will by default apply a filter that limits your view to today’s sessions – which will in almost all circumstances be the sessions you want to see.  Click on the session name to expand all the available occurrences (there will only be one).

Make sure you know which session you are timetabled for – you can find out how to access your timetable here.  The slots are named using your seminar tutor’s name and the time.  If there are  seminars led by different tutors at the same time, you will need to make sure you are joining the right one.

Now click on the session for your timetabled class.  A sidebar panel will appear:

Click ‘Join Session’ and you will enter the seminar room.

Seminar Guidance and Standards of Behaviour

Online life is real life: the fundamentals of how to act when you meet in virtual space are no different to those of how you act in physical space.  However, the context is often different – rather than meeting in a dedicated space, participants in virtual meetings are often in their home, and sometimes in their only private room.  We should bear these differences in mind when communicating with people virtually.

• Always conduct yourself towards others with respect.
• Look to your teacher to set the tone – they will let you know what is appropriate.
• Do not say anything in a virtual meeting that you would not say in person.
• Make use of the text chat to send quick messages or raise questions during the seminar (unless your teacher has specifically told you about other arrangements). Most people type more slowly than they speak, so it is usual for conversation in the chat to unfold at a slightly different rate to that in the main meeting.
• Do not write anything in a chat window that you would not be happy to say in person and send in an email.
• Keep conversation on topic.
• You and others will have the fullest experience if you join using both video and audio, but we understand that this might not always be possible or practical.  If there is a good reason that you are not able to join with both video and audio you can join by audio only or text chat only.  It is always up to you how you choose to participate in each session.  Remember that other students may have reasons for not wanting to share video or audio that are personal and private.  No-one should be challenged about their choice of participation mode during the meeting or in front of others.  If you have concerns about any of this, contact your seminar teacher.
• Use the the ‘raise your hand’ function to indicate that you wish to participate in the conversation.  This will avoid people speaking over each other.  Virtual hands remain raised until specifically lowered.  This can be done by the participant or the meeting organiser in the ‘Attendees’ panel.
• All participants in a seminar should recognise that others may not have access to space that is private and quiet and should be respectful and understanding of any interruptions.
• As a general rule, you should mute your connection when you are not speaking.
• The teacher has the ability to mute other participants.  They may do this interference or background noise coming from your connection.  It is good practice to let someone know before muting them, but it may not always be possible.  Do not take it is a criticism if you are muted: it happens to all of us!
• Only you can unmute your connection, so don’t forget to do it before you start speaking!
• Think about the space you are in and what the screen will show if you do enable video. You may want to move things around in your room, take down posters etc. Make sure that you do not have anything in your background that you would be embarrassed by or that may offend other participants – if you wouldn’t bring it to campus don’t have it on your wall.
• Think about how you present yourself and do so appropriately and in a way that shows respect to your fellow participants.  You should dress in the same way as you would to attend class in person.
• Your teacher may make use of breakout rooms.  They will explain that they are going to put you into smaller breakout rooms in advance, but you might not always get advance warning when groups end, so keep an eye on the time.

We may make occasional updates to this guidance to add clarity and detail.