Virtual Classroom and Video Assignment Documentation and Resources
Bongo partners with D2L to deliver their tools - Virtual Classroom and Video Assignments. The following documentation and resources will assist you in getting the most out of these tools.
Release Notes
Please make sure to Follow the Current Release Notes section of the Bongo Knowledge Base to be notified of any new Release updates. By following this article you will be notified by email regarding any updates or changes made.
- Based on customer feedback, Bongo's development team is consistently working to improve the user experience.
- Access the entire Release Notes section of the Bongo Knowledge Base for more information.
Virtual Classroom
To learn more about Virtual Classroom, check out the links below:
Currently available regional phone #s available to customers using dial-in services for Virtual Classroom sessions:
- Canada (+1): Ontario, Quebec, BC
- US (+1): State specific # that rotates each meeting
- South America: Brasil, different states rolling
- Europe: UK, AUS, Ireland
- Australia: Rotating Australia specific #
- Singapore: Rotating Singapore specific #
Video Assignments
Video Assignments are a strong complement to Virtual Classroom to increase student engagement and the ability for instructors to assess students' progress. To learn more about our Video Assignments, check out the links below:
General Requirements and Troubleshooting
When a user is experiencing an issue, the first check should be to verify that their system/device is compatible with Bongo
If after verifying that the user’s system is compatible with ours, and it meets our basic system requirements, we have outlined common troubleshooting suggestions in the articles below:
The following are other issues that may be experienced, their causes, and how to resolve them:
Configuration
Symptom(s): Nav Bar or Quicklink Icons for Virtual Classroom or Video Assignment are not visible
Error(s):
Cause(s): The Icon URL used in the configuration of the Remote Plugin for the NavBar or Quicklink entry is invalid and needs to be updated.
Resolution / Workaround: Follow the steps below to update the Icon URL for each Bongo Remote Plugin:
- Log into the Brightspace environment with an Administrator-level role
- Click the Admin Gear in the top right corner
- Select Remote Plugins
- Select a Bongo plugin from the available list to edit it
- Locate the Icon URL field (Note: Quicklinks have fields for small and large icons. The same icon URL value will be used for both fields)
- Replace any existing text in the field with the appropriate URL based on the tool the remote plugin is for:
- Virtual Classroom -
- Video Assignment -
- Click Save
- Repeat steps 4 - 7 for each Bongo Remote Plugin
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Symptom(s): Virtual Classroom or Video Assignment have been added to the Nav Bar, but are not visible when accessing the course
Error(s):
Cause(s): There are a few possible causes of this issue:
Resolution / Workaround: Based on the likely cause of the issue, either enable the tool that has been disabled or remove the incorrectly configured entries at the Org Unit level
Creating a Virtual Classroom Session
Symptom(s): When creating or canceling a Virtual Classroom session, you receive an error.
Error(s): Error occurred during processing your request. Please try again later. If the error is repeated, contact the administrator.
Cause(s): The user creating/canceling the Virtual Classroom session does not have the necessary Brightspace Role permissions.
Resolution / Workaround: Enable the following permissions at the Course Offering level for the role of the user creating the Virtual Classroom session:
Calendar
- Access to Calendar tool
- Manage Org Unit Events
- Manage Group/Sections Events
- Import Events
- Add/Remove Content
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Symptom(s): When attempting to invite users to a Virtual Classroom session and clicking the "Roster Sync" button, some users on the Classlist will not appear in the "Available" area of the Manage Meeting Invites window.
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): The user creating/canceling the Virtual Classroom session does not have the necessary Brightspace Role permissions.
Resolution / Workaround: Enable the following Role Permissions at the Organization and Course Offering level for the roles the user creating the Virtual Classroom session needs to invite:
Joining and During a Virtual Classroom Session
Symptom(s): When in a Virtual Classroom session, a user is suddenly can no longer see video or hear audio
Error(s): Error: 1001 Websocket disconnected
Cause(s): The WebSocket had connected successfully, but has now disconnected.
The most likely cause of this error is a lost or unstable internet connection.
Resolution / Workaround: Once a stable internet connection can be established, the user can re-connect to the audio or video stream by clicking the appropriate icons.
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Symptom(s):
Error(s): Error: 1002 Could not make a WebSocket Connection
Cause(s): The most likely cause is a Firewall blocking the WebSocket protocol.
Resolution / Workaround: If this is a consistent issue, the most likey cause is a Firewall blocking the websocket protocol. Removing any firewall rules blocking websocket activity should resolve these errors.
If this only occurs intermittently, this could indicate an unreliable network/internet connection. To help confirm this, press Alt + I (if possible) while in a Virtual Classroom session. This will bring up a Diagnostic screen showing you ping results. Pings are small packets of data sent from your device, to Bongo servers, and back. Ping results are the measurements of time (in milliseconds) it takes for each ping to complete. Pings in the 50ms - 250ms range are ideal. If the ping is consistently over 500ms, network connectivity or bandwidth issues are likely causing performance issues with Virtual Classroom.
You can also access error logs on the same screen, which will highlight any errors bring thrown during your Virtual Classroom session.
The best ways to resolve these issues are usually to move closer to your WiFi router and ensure that other intensive activities aren't consuming resources and bandwidth (multiple/large downloads, streaming videos, etc.)
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Symptom(s): A user's device is unable to successfully connect to the audio portion of a Virtual Classroom session
Error(s): Error 1004: failure on call
Cause(s): There are a few potential causes for this:
- This error most commonly means that something went wrong connecting the user's device to the audio conference.
- iOS/iPadOS 13.4+ device is being used
- a lack of available audio ports on Bongo meeting servers
- Note: This was resolved through a Service Patch release on April 30, 2020.
Resolution / Workaround: In a recent update from Bongo, the following has been added to assist users who are impacted by the iOS/iPadOS 13.4 issue:
- Updated the Virtual Classroom Lobby Page to show a banner to a users, notifying them that they will need to dial-in for audio
- A new message prompting the user to dial-in for audio is displayed to the user when joining a Virtual Classroom meeting, instead of the Audio test screen that other users would see.
- Fixed an issue that prevented users from receiving video and screen shares, as well as sharing their own video
If a user is not impacted by the iOS/iPadOS 13.4 issue, the user should check to make sure their browser has access to audio by following the pre-checks listed here.
If a user receives this error after successfully connecting to audio, attempting to reconnect is usually successful.
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Symptom(s): When attempting to connect to audio in a Virtual Classroom, the connection fails with an error
Error(s): Error 1007: ICE negotiation failed
Cause(s): There are a few potential causes of this error:
- The most common causes are user-side Network, Firewall, or VPN issues. Bongo technology relies on WebRTC to make the necessary connections, and if those connections cannot be established, this error can be the result.
- User's device is running an older version of ChromeOS that doesn't support WebRTC.
- In some cases, a poor network connection to either the local WiFi or the internet can cause this kind of error.
Resolution / Workaround: Please follow the numbered resolution to the suspected cause above:
- For Network, Firewall, or Internet connection issues, please follow this Bongo KB article regarding the Network Ports used by Virtual Classroom.
If utilizing a VPN, try connecting to Virtual Classroom without the VPN, if possible.
You may need to get your organization's network/firewall support team involved to troubleshoot why the WebRTC clients are not able to connect audio to Virtual Classroom servers.
Turning on your browser's Developer tools while in a Virtual Classroom session to watch the connection attempts may help you troubleshoot issues.
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Symptom(s): When attempting to join a Virtual Classroom session you experience one or more of the following symptoms:
Error(s): Authentication is required
Cause(s): The following are known causes of the symptoms above:
Resolution / Workaround: Bongo uses browser cookies for authentication, and the "authentication is required" message is usually caused by Bongo cookies being blocked. This Browser Cookie Settings KB article will walk you through the settings for each browser.
For iOS 12 users, Bongo has specified on their Device Compatibility knowledge article that updating the iOS version to 13, or for Instructors to open the Virtual Classroom or Video Assignment in a new tab, will allow Bongo to launch successfully.
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Symptom(s): When attempting to join a Virtual Classroom session, a user's device hangs the "Echo Test" screen.
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): iOS 13.4 devices have experienced issues connecting to audio and video in Virtual Classroom. The "Echo Test" screen requires a successful audio connection.
Resolution / Workaround: This issue has been resolved by the Bongo 20.2.11 Service Patch
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Symptom(s): The user is experiencing issues receiving webcam feed from others in a meeting
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): There are a few possible causes including: your download speed, network/vpn/firewall issues, and a lack of resources on the device to support all active camera streams.
Resolution / Workaround: Check your download speed with this website's service to ensure it meets the required bandwidth speed for your session. Please refer to this article when calculating the bandwidth needed for a Virtual Classroom meeting.
Try disconnecting any VPN connections, configuring firewalls, and disabling extra browser plugins/extensions.
If your network is not allowing for normal webcam sharing within Virtual Classroom, you have the option to force both the camera traffic to use the TURN server within the Virtual Classroom advanced settings. (Settings > Advanced > Camera -> turn ON Route traffic through TURN server.)
The device may not have the compute resources to support all active camera streams. Recommend that the user turns off the webcams being shared within the data savings settings, or use another device
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Symptom(s): The user is experiencing issues receiving screenshare from others in a meeting
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): There are a few possible causes including: your download speed, network/vpn/firewall issues, and a lack of resources on the device to support the displaying of the screenshare.
Resolution / Workaround: Check your download speed with this website's service to ensure it meets the required bandwidth speed for your session. Please refer to this article when calculating the bandwidth needed for a Virtual Classroom meeting.
Try disconnecting any VPN connections, configuring firewalls, and disabling extra browser plugins/extensions.
If your network is not allowing for normal use of the screenshare function within Virtual Classroom, you have the option to force the screenshare traffic to use the TURN server within the Virtual Classroom advanced settings. (Settings > Advanced > Screenshare -> turn ON Route traffic through TURN server.)
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Symptom(s): Dial-in participants are not able to join the audio of a Virtual Classroom session
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): The moderator of the meeting has not yet joined and started audio. Any attempts to join audio before the moderator are ignored.
Resolution / Workaround: All dial-in participants need to wait for the moderator of the meeting joins and starts the audio component.
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Symptom(s): Participants cannot hear audio from a video being played on the moderator's device in Virtual Classroom (eg. sharing a YouTube video through Screenshare)
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): This functionality is currently not supported, but is on Bongo's roadmap for 2021
Resolution / Workaround: We recommend sending a link to the video in the chat, and asking participants to mute themselves while they watch it.
- For ChromeOS users, ensure that your ChromeOS is up to date.
*Note: Some older Chromebooks may not be able to be updated to a version of ChromeOS that supports WebRTC audio connections in Virtual Classroom
- If you've confirmed that your Internet speed meets or exceeds at least 1 Mbps upload/download, it's possible you're experiencing a network latency problem.
To help confirm this, press Alt + I (if possible) while in a Virtual Classroom session. This will bring up a Diagnostic screen showing you ping results. Pings are small packets of data sent from your device, to Bongo servers, and back. Ping results are the measurements of time (in milliseconds) it takes for each ping to complete. Pings in the 50ms - 250ms range are ideal. If the ping is consistently over 500ms, network connectivity or bandwidth issues are likely causing performance issues with Virtual Classroom.
You can also access error logs on the same screen, which will highlight any errors bring thrown during your Virtual Classroom session.
The best ways to resolve these issues are usually to move closer to your WiFi router and ensure that other intensive activities aren't consuming resources and bandwidth (multiple/large downloads, streaming videos, etc.)
- Cookie settings are too strict for Bongo to function correctly
- Cookies are not enabled on the browser attempting to run Bongo
- The iOS version of the device being used is iOS 12 or earlier
- You receive an error regarding cookies
- The Bongo application doesn't load
- You are redirected to bongolearn.com instead of your Virtual Classroom or Video Assignment page
- You receive a message: Authentication is required
If these do not seem helpful then users may also try the following workaround. Please note that the following is not a support workaround, but is available for users who need this functionality:
On Windows you can configure your computer so that all audio generated by the computer (such as playing an audio or video file in media player) is captured by a recording device. Most sound cards on Windows computers will include a recording device named "Stereo Mix" in addition to the normal microphone. "Stereo Mix" is disabled by default. When you enable "Stereo Mix" it captures all of the sound generated by programs running on the computer. You can share this computer audio in any program or website which uses a microphone as the input sound device.
You can not use both the microphone and the audio from playing a file at the same time in Virtual Classroom. When you use the "Stereo Mix" device it only includes sounds output by the computer. The microphone is not normally configured to output over the computer speakers. If you output the microphone over the speakers you will get feedback. If you are using a headset for your audio output you will hear yourself talking on the microphone in addition to the audio you are playing. To effectively play audio from a file in Virtual Classroom you should do the following:
- If you are using Firefox for Virtual Classroom you can configure the Stereo Mix Device in advance of joining the Virtual Classroom meeting. Firefox presents you a choice of which microphone to use when joining audio. Chrome just uses the default device. Follow the steps at the end of this document to setup the "Stereo Mix" device on FireFox.
- Join the Virtual Classroom Audio using your microphone.
- When you get to the spot where you want to play the file if you are using Chrome you need to configure windows to use the "Stereo Mix" device" using the instructions at the end of this document. If you are using Firefox you already performed this step prior to joining the meeting.
- Once you have the "Stereo Mix" device configured then leave Audio in Virtual Classroom.
- Rejoin Audio. If using Firefox select the "Stereo Mix" as your microphone. If you are using Chrome it should automatically connect the "Stereo Mix" device.
- Play your file. You can use chat to communincate while you are playing your file. Once you are done playing the file you need to leave audio.
- If you are using Chrome you need to go back into the Sound Control Panel on Windows and disable the "Stereo Mix" device.
- Rejoin Audio in Virtual Classroom. In Firefox select your microphone. In Chrome it will automatically select your microphone because you disabled the "Stereo Mix" device in the previous step.
HOW TO SETUP the STEREO MIX DEVICE IN WINDOWS
In order to use the "Stereo Mix" recording device you need to do the following:
- Open the "Sound" Control panel in Windows
- Verify that you see a device listed in the "Recording" tab named "Stereo Mix" If you do not this device then your sound card does not support this functionality and you can not use these instructions.
- Right click on the "Stereo Mix" device and select "Enable"
- If you are using Crome as your browser you need to set the "Stereo Mix" device as the default recording device instead of the microphone. You do not need to perform this step if you are using Firefox.
Creating / Joining Breakout rooms
Symptom(s): A user is unable to join a breakout room using Chrome browser on an Android device
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): Bongo is aware of this issue and investigating a solution.
Resolution / Workaround: Use a different browser, such as Firefox on the Android device, or connect with a different device.
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Symptom(s): The meeting moderator is unable to assign a dial-in user to a breakout room.
Error(s): N/A
Cause(s): Every new breakout room has its own unique dial-in number, which is visible in the Chat area of the new Breakout room. .
Resolution / Workaround: When a dial-in user uses another device for other meeting functions (laptop (video) + phone (audio)), they can access the chat in the new breakout room to access the dial-in number.
If the user has only joined the audio portion of the meeting on their phone, then someone else from that breakout room will need to send them the dial-in information separately.
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Symptom(s): LTI 105 error for learner
Error(s): LTI Error #105
Cause(s): Occassionally if a learner has not accessed Bongo in the past, users will not be recognized when launching into a Virtual Classroom or Video Assignment.
Resolution / Workaround: When a user receives this error, users need only access any Bongo link from a course that already exists to have an account created. Users may setup a special course to ensure that users can access Bongo tools.
Create & Manage Groups - Lock Symbol Preventing Changes
Symptom(s): Unable to move a user from one group to another because of the lock icon next to their name.
Cause(s): The Student has already made contributions to the Assignment.
Resolution / Workaround:
There are three things that can lock a Learner to a group.
1) Assignment content added by the Learner (videos, files, etc)
2) Group chat messages from the Learner
3) Activity Log items from the Learner (scheduled meeting, added video, etc)Walk the user through deleting all the assignment content and chat messages.
Then check the Activity Log:
- If there are no entries from the Learner, then with all three of these items cleared the lock should be removed.
- If there are Activity Log entries by the Learner, then we [Bongo Support] will need to manually remove them in order to remove the lock.
Please attempt to delete all traces of the student's contribution within a group before seeing if the lock icon is present.
Bongo Support would be available as a last resort to manually remove the lock from the learner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Virtual Classroom
Q: What are the differences between the Free and Premium versions of Virtual Classroom?
A: These documents cover the differences for Virtual Classroom, and Video Assignments.
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Q: How many participants can a Virtual Classroom hold?
A: You can have up to 50 participants (free version), or up to 150 participants (Premium version)
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Q: How many webcams can be simultaneously enabled for Virtual Classroom, and break-out rooms?
A: Up to 7 simultaneous webcams can be enabled. There have been rare occurrences of more webcams being shared, but that is not expected behavior.
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Q: When will my recording be available for viewing?
A: After recording a meeting, please wait for 1-2x the meeting duration for the meeting to complete processing, as this is the normal duration. (The wait time for processing could be longer depending on current usage in our system.) After the meeting has finished processing, the user will have access to view the recording. If the processing time has exceeded the 2x meeting duration, provide the following information to D2L Support:
- D2L OrgUnitID
- Name of the Virtual Classroom session
- Name of the person who scheduled the session
- Date/Time of the session
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Q: Is it possible to restore deleted Virtual Classroom recordings?
A: Yes! To restore delete Virtual Classroom sessions, please provide D2L Support the following information:
- D2L OrgUnitID
- Name of the Virtual Classroom session
- Name of the person who scheduled the session
- Date/Time of the session
With this information, the Virtual Classroom session should be restored within 2 business days.
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Q: When a recording is deleted, is the Public URL to that recording still accessible?
A: No. You will receive a "Failed to load media" error message
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Q: Can I manually assign and associate a grade to a video assignment prior to the initial grade sync?
A: Yes. While typically Bongo will automatically create a grade item for you when it receives its first grade sync request, if you prefer to set up the grade book ahead of time, you can create a grade item manually.
- Ensure your course is using the classic content experience. If you are unable to change content experiences, contact your administrator
- Add the video assignment LTI link to a content module in your course
- Click to launch the LTI link
- On the view page for that assignment scroll down below the video assignment screen
- You should see an "Assessment" menu at the bottom-right of the page
- Users can either select an existing grade item from the dropdown or select the "+" button to create a new grade item. If you do not have the correct LTI and grade permissions you may not see the Assessment menu. If so, contact your LMS administrator
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Q: How can I copy a video assignment I already made?
A: You can use Brightspace's native Import/Export/Copy Components tool to copy your video assignments. In context to Brightspace, a video assignment is represented typically as an LTI link inside the content tool. So to create a copy of a video assignment you can either:
- Use the Copy from Another Org Unit option to select the course you want to come from, while inside your new course.
- Create an export package, downloading the ZIP file, and importing it back into the new course
- Ensure that after copying the assignments that the instructor launches the video assignment to have it initialize. A first-time launch is required before learners can access it
In either instance, you must ensure that you select both the content objects and LTI links inside the course. Failure to copy both objects will result in broken links in your new course. We copy the LTI links for the vide assignment itself, and the content topics as the pointer to those assignments.
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Q: How long are deleted recordings kept?
A: a recording is kept for 60 days after being initially deleted. After 60 days has passed, a recording is completely deleted and will no longer be recoverable.
