Home - Student guide to using Elluminate - Tips for Moderators

Tips for Moderators

This page concerns functions specific to Elluminate moderators, that is, Elluminate session participants with moderator status. All of the features being discussed are available only to Elluminate moderators.

This is not a comprehensive list; it consists of some of the more widely-used moderator functions, and focuses more on knowing what to expect and getting the most out of the tools than on how to use them. There is a fair amount of how, but it is not the central point.

Section I includes brief introductions to the moderator features. Section II includes more detail.

Be sure to visit the vendor's Elluminate training and tutorial site. There you will find much more on the available moderator tools and much more detail on their use.

Section I

Recording a session — may be set up to begin automatically; if automatically recorded, cannot be paused or stopped by any participant, including moderator; to manually begin recording click the red dot recording icon in the far lower-left section of the interface OR go to Tools > Recorder > Record; to pause or stop recording click the pause icon next to the red dot record icon in the lower left. More…

Loading a presentation — may be effected by clicking "Load Presentation" tool available for moderators at bottom of whiteboard tools; load Powerpoint and other Microsoft Office presentations; load any type of image file; Keynote and Photoshop presentations must first be converted to image files. More…

Conducting a web tour (or web push) — share web sites with others in the group in real time; open a common browser with web tour, or push the site into user's default browser with web push; all participants have the freedom to browse on their desktops, but automatically are forced to follow moderators when they browse. More…

Granting moderator privileges to others — moderators may "promote" regular participants by selecting the participant's name, right-clicking and selecting "Give Moderator Privilege"; moderators may also take moderator privileges away from participants they promoted. More…

Working with breakout rooms — breakout rooms are convenient for small brainstorming sessions within larger groups; good for private conversations between two or three within any size group; create public or private breakout rooms; private breakout rooms close automatically when everyone has left them; moderators can allow participants to send themselves to rooms; whiteboard activity can be saved from the main room to breakout rooms OR from breakout rooms to the main room. More…

Using simultaneous microphone control — control of the Elluminate microphone can be shared by up to six simultaneous speakers; go to Tools > Audio > Maximum Simultaneous Talkers; reduces lag time in conversation that results from passing mic control back and forth, one at a time; susceptible to reverberation if any participants use internal microphone devices. More…

Using video conferencing — enhances the virtual-meeting experience by making face-to-face interaction possible; go to Tools > Video > Maximum Simultaneous Cameras; works best for those with high-speed internet (cable or better) and adequate RAM. More…

Inviting additional participants from within your session — located at the extreme right of the moderator's toolbar, the participant invitation icon opens a default dialog that can be used to send invitations by email to others outside the meeting; need a desktop email application for this feature to work. More…

Section II

Recording a Session — you have the opportunity when requesting a group meeting that the session be automatically recorded. If you choose this option, then the recording will begin as soon as the first person enters the room and will not stop until the last person leaves. This will be beyond anyone's control. There is no stopping or pausing the recording process.

Otherwise, if you do not select the option to record automatically, anyone with moderator status will be able to start the session recording by clicking the red button in the furthest left lower corner of the Elluminate interface or by going to Tools > Recorder > Record. You can also erase everything recorded up to a given point by selecting Tools > Recorder > Erase Recording…

With the upgrade to version 9.7 moderators will now notice a "recording reminder" when they enter the session prompting you to begin recording right away if you desire. You can either click "Start" to begin recording or "Close" to postpone recording for later.

The recording will load to the recordings display page of the SLIS Elluminate Live! Manager at https://nexus.sjsu.edu/ within 15 minutes of the time the last person leaves the room. Find the meeting name listed for the date corresponding to the live meeting and use the same password. Be sure that everyone properly leaves the session! The recording will not post until they have. [Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! Recordings Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 4 pages]
Loading a Presentation — Anyone with moderator status is able to load presentation materials to the white board area, using the "Load Presentation" tool — this is the little icon that resembles a manila folder at the bottom of the whiteboard tools. Powerpoint presentations are the most common file types loaded, but you may also load StarOffice, OpenOffice and NeoOffice.

Pretty much any type of image file may be loaded to the whiteboard as well, which will come in handy if you use presentation software that Elluminate does not support — like Keynote or Photoshop — or if you experience any difficulty with Powerpoint slides. You may convert any presentation slides to individual image slides and load them one at a time.

In fact, it is worth knowing that when presentation files are loaded to the whiteboard, Elluminate converts the slides to static images first, so if your file includes animation or embedded audio, use the application share tool instead. [Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! Loading Presentations Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 3 pages]

Elluminate Live! Whiteboard Tools Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 3 pages]
Conducting a Web Tour (and Web Push) — The web tour tool is a highly useful tool; it can quickly become a favorite for group meetings. You'll notice the appearance of the web tour tool at the top of the interface. It looks like a globe; it's directly to the right of the timer tool (which looks like a timer). You can also go to the menu tools: Tools > Web Tour > Start Web Tour. Type, or cut and paste your target URL in the "Start Web Tour" dialog box.

Launching a site in the web tour tool will open a browser (proprietary to Elluminate) on top of the interface. All participants (whatever their status) will be able to click on any live links and browse around at will that way, but the browsing of any moderator rules. That is to say, if you as a moderator click a given link, all other participants will follow you and the same navigation result will appear on all their desktops.

The application share tool would actually be a better choice in case you need to share a web site and control the content the other participants see at all times. There is no independent browsing when you use application share. The application share tool is also a better choice if the web site you wish to share includes a restricted and/or searchable database. Participants looking at the web tour browser are actually on their own Internet connections on their own desktops and are unable to duplicate your permissions or share in the results of your database queries. On the other hand, the application share tool displays your browser on their desktops and the others will see exactly what you are seeing.

Note: you can also use the web push function, which opens the selected URL in the participant's default browser — but all the above caveats still apply. To use the web push, go to the menu tools: Tools > Web Tour > Go to URL. [Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! Web Tour Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 2 pages]
Granting Moderator Privileges to Others — In the world of Elluminate this action is known as "promoting" participants, so they have the same status you are enjoying. Performing the action is simple: in the participants window, left-click on the participant's name, then right-click to access a menu of options and select "Give Moderator Privilege." A dialog box will appear asking if you really want to grant this privilege; click on "Yes." Everyone will see the change in status in the participants window.

A very similar process is followed to take away moderator privileges — but one moderator can take away privileges only from participants they promoted to moderator.

Here is a type of situation when a moderator might promote and then demote a participant:

Michael is moderating a session that features a number of student presentations. Their presentations have already been loaded to the whiteboard. In order of presentation Michael promotes each student in turn so they may advance through their slides using the presentation navigation arrows as they speak, demoting them after they have finished. Promote one student, watch their presentation, demote that student, and promote the next one. [Return to Top]
Working with Breakout Rooms — Breakout rooms are terrific for breaking up tasks or discussion points into smaller groups within large meetings. They are also useful for private, one-on-one, or one-on-two or three conversations in any size meeting. Nobody in the main room may hear or see the activity in a given breakout room (though everybody in the main room can tell the kind of activity going on by watching the permission activity indicators in the participants window).

Two main distinctions about "private" breakout rooms are that they are typically created "on the fly" and once they have emptied of participants they disappear. As a moderator, you can simply select and then right-click on a participant's name and then select "Send to Private Breakout Room" (or select the name and then go to Tools > Breakout Rooms > Send to Breakout Room > New Private Breakout Room). After that, any other participant, including yourself, may be sent to the same room under the name Private Breakout Room (1) or Private Breakout Room (2) and so on.

Public breakout rooms can be created and named either through the Tools > Breakout Rooms menu or by right clicking anywhere in the participants window and selecting "Create Breakout Room."

In the 9.7 version of Elluminate, moderators may click on participant names and drag those names from one room to the other. Another new feature is that moderators may grant participants the ability to move themselves into breakout rooms and from one room to another. Go to the menu tools: Tools > Breakout Room > Allow Participants to Move Themselves to Breakout Rooms. This could be a time-saving option for moderators who prefer simply telling people where they should go.

Every participant in multiple breakout rooms can be returned all at once to the main room by selecting any name, right-clicking and selecting "Return Everyone to the Main Room."

Also, whiteboard screens from the main room may be copied to selected breakout rooms, and screens from breakout rooms may conversely be copied out to the main room. Look for the options to do so under Tools > Whiteboard. In a large session, this is a great way to assign groups to brainstorm on given aspects of a project, and share the results in a central location. [Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! Breakout Rooms Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 4 pages]
Using Simultaneous Microphone Control — For some it feels more like natural interaction when more than one person can have access to, or control of, the microphone at once. There is sometimes a sense — especially on occasions when someone finishes speaking but forgets to release the mic — that the flow of conversation suffers from an interruption of rhythm.

A popular corrective for this situation is for moderators to set up multiple speakers at once. Under Tools > Audio > Maximum Simultaneous Talkers you can chose to allow up to six people to use the microphone at once.

Be aware though: this can get almost too natural when, and if, people start talking over one another. Confusing enough when everybody is in the same room — but exacerbated still more when it becomes a clamor of disembodied voices. People tend to start up all at the same time, and then abruptly stop all at once in deference to the others. Without visual cues a stilted stop and start pattern can make things seem as unnatural as the interrupted rhythm of one at a time speak and release.

Also, be aware that if one or more of your simultaneous talkers is using an internal microphone (that is, no headset), there is a tendency for echo and reverberation coming back from that person's computer when they have the mic on and someone else is speaking. If the group decides to go with simultaneous microphone control every user should agree to use headsets — or at least headphones to avoid this terribly annoying complication. [Return to Top]
Using Video Conferencing — The video conferencing tool is an excellent addition to the virtual meeting experience, and can even mitigate somewhat the problem of talking over one another mentioned in the previous section (Using Simultaneous Microphone Control).

Like the simultaneous talkers option you may choose to allow up to six simultaneous video transmissions (all of which will be displayed as participants select the "Transmit" button on the video window after it has been launched). Go to Tools > Video > Maximum Simultaneous Cameras. The video window can be launched using the video window tool in the toolbar. The icon looks like the globular style webcam with an eye just beneath it.

It may go without saying, but only participants with video-transmitting capability (with webcams or internal cameras) will be able to transmit any video; not having that capability will not stop them viewing those who do, however. [Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! Video Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 2 pages]
Inviting Additional Participants from Within Your Session — As a moderator you can send invitations to others to join your meeting from within it, while it is in session. Look for the right-most icon in your toolbar. It looks like a clip-art man with a plus-sign button just beneath him. Clicking this brings up a dialog box with a default message that includes the link to your session and the password. You can customize the message if you wish. Once you are satisfied with the content of the invitation, click "Compose Email."

Clicking "Compose Email" will launch whatever desktop email application your computer uses. This means, of course, that you must have a desktop email application, and it helps if you have used it once or twice so that it is not necessary to configure the application before sending the invitation. Another caveat: you will want to be reasonably confident that the invitee will be checking his or her email while you are still in session. It might help to call ahead if you happen to know their phone number.
[Return to Top]

Elluminate Live! In-Conference Invitation Quick Reference Guide [PDF: 2 pages]
Resources — You should be sure to explore the training and tutorial services available for Elluminate moderators on the vendor's website. The relevant page is titled Services that help you get more from Elluminate . Services include event hosting and online training; you'll find reference guides and tutorials for versions 9.0 and 9.5 (including all of those linked above) for most Elluminate tools. Some of the tutorials are in PDF format, and some are Elluminate session recordings. Much of the information is given in both formats. This is quite a useful collection of resources. Check it out.

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