Instructors:
Conferences are an integrated tool in Canvas that are primarily used for online student group work and study circles. Read more about them here: What are Conferences (for instructors)?
Note that you can create repeated Conferences - for example, these can serve as virtual office hours: How to create long-running Conferences
Students:
Conferences enable you to conduct real-time discussions with your course peers, in a platform similar to Adobe Connect and Zoom. Students can create their own "groups" in a Canvas course, or an instructor can create the groups.
For more information, visit: How do I create a group as a student? and What are Conferences (for students)?
If you'd like to record a Conference to make it available after the event, make sure to select the "recording" option when creating the Conference:
For further guidance, visit: Recording Conferences.
- Recorded Conferences undergo a period of processing time before being published in Canvas (longer recordings incur longer processing times).
Additional resources for all users:
- Joining a Conference
- Using Conferences as a moderator
- Sharing your desktop as a presenter
- Using Conferences as a participant
- View videos on using Conferences (Big Blue Button is the current provider of this tool)
Common issue:
1. When joining a Conference, be sure to follow the on-screen prompts to connect to audio (microphone).
First prompt (middle of screen): Select "Microphone"
Second prompt (top left of screen): Select "Allow"
If you get stuck, just click the headset icon in the top left of the Conference:
2. PowerPoint files with animations, transitions, or unrecognized characters may not work as expected. A simple workaround is to export this type of presentation as a PDF, and share the PDF file instead.