How to host a live lesson
This article covers what to do on the day of your live lesson (webinar).
To learn how to create and publish a course containing a live lesson, please check out our 'How to publish a live lesson' article.
How to join the live lesson as the presenter
Step 1: Click on the unique link provided in the webinar confirmation email
To host the webinar you must use the unique link sent by email to host the webinar - you cannot currently access this link directly from your ClickLMS Admin/Instructor Dashboard.
The unique webinar hosting link is sent by email to the course creator (the person who originally created the course) and Admin:
- When the course containing the webinar is published
- 30 minutes before the scheduled start date/time of a specific webinar
- When the webinar date/time is modified (attendees will also be sent an email with details of this change)
If your course contains more than one webinar you will receive one unique link per webinar within the same email. So it's important that you use the correct link to host each webinar.
Step 2: Make sure that the link opens in Google Chrome
We recommend that you host the webinar in Google Chrome.
Therefore if your default browser is not Google Chrome you will need to copy and paste the link from the email and paste it into Google Chrome.
IMPORTANT: If Google Chrome is not your default browser, you need to right click the link in the email and select copy, then paste it directly into the Google Chrome browser.
You CANNOT copy the link directly from your default browser across to Google Chrome because it will not direct you to the correct page.
Step 3: Connect to the webinar
When you click the link to host the webinar you will be prompted to choose whether to join with microphone or audio only.
Attendees will not be able to hear you until you officially start the webinar (see step 4). They will see a holding alert until the event starts.
You need to join with ‘Microphone’ and your browser may also trigger an alert asking you if you want to share your microphone with the application, select ‘Yes’ or ‘OK’ as applicable.
If you do choose ‘listen only’ at this stage you are able to turn your microphone on later.
Upon selecting ‘microphone’ you will be prompted to test your microphone settings. You will then be logged in to the webinar.
Step 4: Click 'Start'
At the scheduled start time of the webinar, an alert will appear centre screen asking if you are ready to begin the live lesson. Please note this alert will not appear if you are in full screen mode.
If you are ready, click ‘ Start’ to allow your attendees to connect to the live lesson. Please note it could take a few minutes for all attendees to be connected.
If you are not quite ready to start your webinar, you may click ‘Cancel’ and when you are ready you can click the ‘ Start’ button in the top right corner of your screen.
Step 5: How to end your Webinar
Important: You must click ‘End Webinar’ for the system to correctly update attendees’ records and the even to be correctly closed.
Click ‘ End Webinar’ at the top right of your screen and confirm you wish to end the event by clicking ‘End Webinar’ on the alert you will see in the centre of your screen.
You must exit full screen mode to see the ‘End Webinar’ button.
This will trigger an alert to your attendees to validate their attendance and calculate their verifiable CPD time if applicable.
The attendee has two opportunities to log their attendance formally:
1. At the end of the webinar, they will see the following message centre screen and they can click 'Back to Course'
This webinar event has now finished. To log your verifiable CPD please click 'Back to Course' in the header bar above.
If you are still in full screen, press the blue icon in the bottom right corner to exit first.’
2. Alternatively, if this action is not completed they will see an alert with a 60 second countdown, giving them a second opportunity to log their attendance.
Step 6: Obtain your recording
Your webinar will be automatically recorded from the moment you log in to the event.
A link to the webinar will then be automatically sent to you via email after the event is completed. You will be able to download the recording in mp4 format and trim as required. You can upload this to new courses as a learning resource or send it out to your learners.
Important: Every time you access the link to host the webinar it will trigger a recording. Therefore if you want to test hosting webinars we recommend you do this on our test site https://bigbluebutton.clicklms.com/
General troubleshooting
If your attendees appear to be having issues maintaining a connection to the webinar, please ensure they are following the recommended set up.
Do also verify that they have not been logged out due to being inactive – the patented active learning tracker will remove attendees from the webinar session if they are ‘inactive’ for prolonged periods. To resolve this issue the learner should ensure that periodically they make a mouse or keyboard interaction with the webinar.
To aid with general troubleshooting for all attendees, please refer to the below notes:
- Check they are using the Google Chrome Web browser – Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Samsung Internet are not supported and may cause user experience issues.
- We recommend using a desktop or laptop computer rather than a mobile or tablet devices.
- Ensure they have closed other apps, windows or programs – attending the webinar can use a lot of a device’s memory and could lead to a lag in audio or video playback for the attendee.
- Ensure they have a strong (preferably wired) internet connection – we do not recommend using a mobile connection (3G/4G), using a public Wifi service or accessing the webinar through a VPN.
- If the attendee cannot see the presenter’s teaching materials, ask the attendee to leave the webinar and then rejoin (this is due to the attendees’ browser not allowing ‘autoplay’ of the presenter’s materials.
- As a last resort, ask the attendee to log out of the platform, clear their browser cache and log back in.