Wayne State faculty:

Zoom will soon be a part of the online classroom experience for all Wayne State students and faculty. At the conclusion of the spring/summer 2020 semester, Zoom will replace BigBlueButton as the integrated conferencing tool within Canvas. 

C&IT and the Office for Teaching and Learning are working together to make the transition from BigBlueButton to Zoom as smooth as possible. Both live and on-demand training will be available, as well as extensive documentation and support. 

As a BigBlueButton user, you can be assured that Zoom offers a comparable feature set: video and audio interaction, screen sharing presentations, in-meeting chat, breakout rooms, polling, hand raise, and shared whiteboard, to name a few. 

In addition, Zoom offers several improvements over BigBlueButton:

• Maximum number of participants increases from 100 to 300
• Simplifies adding guest speakers to a class
• Better controls for moderating a meeting (muting, blocking, waiting rooms, etc.)
• Native mobile apps (Android, iOS) for better participant performance
• Works better with macOS
• More robust technology for a more stable connection
• Audio transcripts for recorded meetings
• Virtual Backgrounds

Here are key aspects to keep in mind:

• Zoom accounts will be available beginning June 29. Details about establishing your account and the training schedule will be emailed to faculty later this week and also posted online.  
• BigBlueButton will continue to be available within Canvas until the end of the spring/summer 2020 semester. 
• Zoom will be available in Canvas after June 29. Beginning with the fall 2020 semester, Zoom will be the only conferencing tool that is integrated with Canvas. 
• If you are currently using BigBlueButton as part of spring/summer 2020 semester, you do not have to switch to Zoom right away. We do not recommend that you make the transition mid-semester. 
• BigBlueButton recordings will be available for you to download until Oct. 1, 2020.

C&IT and OTL are confident that the change to Zoom will significantly improve the online classroom experience for both students and instructors!

For support with this or any other Wayne State system or service, please contact the C&IT Help Desk at 313-577-4357 or helpdesk@wayne.edu. Find FAQs at tech.wayne.edu/kb and follow us on Twitter @WayneStateCIT for instant updates.