BigBlueButton

A full fledged video communication environment which integrates well

Comments: Very, very good. Easy to interact with, usable, stable.

Pros:

Quality and easy of use are foremost. You integrates it seamlessly with your environment

Cons:

the application is demanding on performance and requires a real implementation more than a virtual one

Perfect tool for video Conferencing and Online Discussions

Comments: Throughout my experiences using BigBlueButton i noticed the software works best with computers of RAM starting from 4GB anything below tends to slow down the video real time signal and it freeze

Pros:

The best thing I like about BigBlueButton is its integration with the Learning Management Systems. This saves a lot of time and effort since all the necessary tools are available to aid learning sessions. Another thing is also it's customization for example choosing own colors and designs for the online classroom, enabling or disabling features based on your demands

Cons:

I think have no issue with BigBlueButton and still hoping to discover more interesting features

Easy to use software with few drawbacks

Pros:

You can organize breakout rooms and flexibly decide to extend or not the time participants spend in the breakout rooms; you can organize quizzes/surveys;

Cons:

screensharing sometimes is not working or it interrupts, so you better upload your presentation directly on BigBlueButton;

A free Conferencing system with a lot of features!

Comments: It was very easy to install. I had a great conference everytime I used Bigbluebutton. Just when I had clients using mac. I needed to consider another software having multiple os supporting feature.

Pros:

I love how stable the video and audio quality is! And a lot of features and functionality it provides like hand raising, file sharing, whiteboard, polls, presentation tools, presentation streaming, screensharing, recording and more. And all of these are so stable and smooth working. I am really very satisfied with Bigbluebutton.

Cons:

There are some cons but they're so less comparing to the pros. It's only available in Linux and Windows. Mobile and mac users can't use it. Community support lacks a bit.

A thought on BigBlueButton

Comments: I have personally enjoyed using BigBlueButton, the experience has been okay, except for the fact that when the system seems to be overwhelmed with traffic, it immediately crashes down, I would I definitely recommend

Pros:

One of the BigBlueButton’s pros is it’s pricing compared to other options out there I believe it wins the pricing battle

Cons:

The only con with BigBlueButton is that whenever there’s a high traffic onto the system it tends crash down and also the fact that there’s no remote control feature but, as long as all other features are concerned it is great

Like black coffee: Plain and it always works!

Comments: Overall, BigBlueButton is spotless and covers the standard use cases for online meeting and online teaching. I would choose BigBlueButton over any alternative product because of its simplicity in use and service delivery.

Pros:

BigBlueButton has become a daily companion for me. It is nothing more and nothing less than a simple service for online communication, without attracting attention with desktop applications or data integrity concerns. In the field of academic work, where it is also important that meetings between researchers can be realized worldwide and quickly, BigBlueButton is simple and highly functional. BigBlueButton is simple and to the point in its basic functionality. What makes BigBlueButton particularly elegant is that it can be installed on your own infra structures via Docker and scaled according to capacity. Especially in the field of online teaching and research, it is particularly appealing that BigBlueButton can be used on one's own systems without sharing information with third parties.

Cons:

It is often noticeable that BigBlueButton has problems with audio connection. Especially if the browsers used are not Chrome, Firefox or the InternetExplorer it can be that BigBlueButton does not allow a connection to headphones. Often this can cause delays in meetings.

Bigbluebutton, Is it worth?

Comments: I have integrated Bigbluebutton for many reputed IT companies in our country and in overall it was very good customer satisfaction than other most expensive products.Hence this is open source and can be customized per companies like their own platform.Also, it was really easy to use and they had only a good experience with this.

Pros:

With compare of the other products,such as zoom,google meet; Bigbluebutton is free and open source software with same as payable product features. Also with compare of the other open source products like jitsi, Bigbluebutton has most reliable and feature base product for me.

Cons:

As of this product has limitations of the users per meeting in a sessions. As compare with the zoom, this has limitations per session with more than 250+ users. Currently this limitation improved with using mediasoup , but it need more improvement of this limitations per session with lots of users with video and audio on per session. Also it's better to have the remote desktop feature for this product.

good software ... but!

Comments: overall bbb is good software to manage video conference if develop process continue as it is maybe in 3 years we will have golden product

Pros:

bbb is very easy to set , implement and lunch and has very simple view help anyone to manage it , beside it is large community and devloping proccess

Cons:

i think the position of developing cycle is wrong i mean bbb need more develop for customer and end user who is not technical i mean for all our teacher how hard it was to manage and customize and that is first; second bbb has weak error view system for example sometimes internet connection is too bad for sharing and bbb loading for ever it will be greate to show error msg "hi your connection is bad" that so simple but i think end user ( no technical user ) is not calculated here.

The best software for remote study

Comments: it gave me a very good experience in implementing platforms on my own servers and organizing meetings in a few steps, the role system is very well thought out it is a great platform

Pros:

A complete integration to be able to carry out online classes with an excellent quality of video and sound, a software in constant development that allows integrations with other online education platforms

Cons:

The installation must be done by a person who knows what he is doing, or you can also purchase this service from third parties and thus save all these installation steps.

Great meeting app

Pros:

As a result of my and my teacher's experience , BigBlueButton is the most useful online meeting application. It provides a lot of easiness to users.

Cons:

There are some features could be useful in my opinion, like file sharing by chat etc.

Very solid choice

Comments: We are a nonprofit, and these folks make life easier. They are great to work with and very responsive. Not a common experience with previous vendors we've used.

Pros:

We've been very happy with this product. The Moodle integration is critical for us, and it is solid. It will soon be packaged with Moodle itself, which should only serve to make it even better in the future. The interface is simple enough for anyone to familiarize with it and it checks off the majority of our boxes.

Cons:

I think slide navigation could be better. And currently, hyperlinks don't work on slides. These are things that used to be features on their old client versions before rewriting to remove Flash. So I'm hopeful they'll return at some point.

Very satisfied with BigBlueButton

Comments: I'm going to recommend everyone I know BigBlueButton because it was really easy to use and I had only a good experience with it.

Pros:

I really liked the simple way of registration, options in the virtual classroom, breakout rooms that is not that common to have in other software (they were really useful). Whiteboard is the option that is often used in other software but this one didn't have any interruptions and everything during the class was in real-time.

Cons:

Customer support was really hard to get, but I think this is due to the situation in the world that everyone is going on online courses.

A Light Weight Online Discussion Software for LMS

Comments: I have a problem of being limited to one discussion room but when I kicked off with BigBlueButton, I realized I can host as many discussion rooms as possible at the same time.

Pros:

I really like this software because of the connection it has with learning management systems and the level of feature flexibilities it offers in terms of customization for example using domain name to host discussions.

Cons:

I find the video recordings somehow larger in size.

Free Virtual classroom and Video conferencing

Comments: We have integrated BBB with state school LMS of our region. When only the presenter sharing his video this is running very smoothly. Need more resources to open everyone's video. However this product has amazing features specially for virtual classrooms. For me this is very much better than Flagship products.

Pros:

+Installation is easy +Clarity of video and audio is very high +Presentations can be uploaded and can present online instead of sharing presenter's screen. +Customizable +Can be integrated with major LMS like Moodle, Jenzabar etc

Cons:

+ Resource hungry when multiple users using camera/video + Not all OS/platforms are supported. + Lack of community support.

Best Online Education Platform

Comments: It's a simple and effective educational application that I like.

Pros:

Easy to use and nice interface. It is designed with eye-catching colors and the widgets are nicely positioned. An app with all the necessary features.

Cons:

Unknown software. There may be problems with notifications.

Simple Webconferencing software, but lacking in big name features

Comments: Overall works well, but would prefer other competitors such as Zoom or Google Meets.

Pros:

This software is integrated with Canvas LMS by Instructure, making it easy for schools already using the Canvas LMS to adopt. It has a robust security system to prevent "zoombombing" as only registered people in each course can access the conference they have been invited to with a unique user token. Certain features such as breakout rooms, shared whiteboard and embedded video player would rival other video conferencing software such as Google Meets, and it most definitely has most if not all classroom needs for most schools around the world. The Learning curve is low, and it runs smoothly most of the time. Private chat works very well, and is intuitive to use.

Cons:

The design is a bit outdated, and looks a slightly boring. "Hot" features right now such as virtual backgrounds and full screen tile view is not up to par with competitors, and there are small annoyances such as keyboard shortcuts not working on MACs and the need to do an "echo test" every time I enter a new conference which takes several seconds off my precious time. Additionally, the ability to record a conference after having entered and forgotten to click the "make conference recordable" button while creating the conference results in having to have everyone leave the conference and have a new one created. Lastly, although I like the breakout rooms feature, if you so happen to put a timer for the breakout rooms to be less than needed, there is no option to extend the time without having all the breakout rooms close and reopen - something that happens way too often.

Needs improvement

Comments: It was problematic. It was nice to use a clean and minimal interface but the icons made it difficult to understand which button is for what use and most problematic part was that you cannot undo simplest tasks (i.e. undo something you wrote on whiteboard). PPT upload for presentation takes too long and you lose presentation screen completely, which causes you to lose control of the class and chat during that time.

Pros:

Minimalist and clean looking interface.

Cons:

not memorable, error correction is almost impossible, icons do not explain themselves and there are different areas on the presentation screen where functions are scattered, hard to find some of them. Some commands are easily confused with each other.

Push the BigBlueButton!

Comments: BigBlueButton has always been a reliable platform for me as a teacher and a student. I love the user friendly details, crisp clear connection, and the organization of the content for the platform!

Pros:

I love that BigBlueButton offers a strong, safe platform for all the users! I love the quick, clear concise connections and content available!

Cons:

There isn't much to not like about BigBlueButton!

A user Friendly Platform for Live Classes

Pros:

BigBlueButton is easy to use platform. From setting up the schedules, screen sharing, and creating break-out sessions, we can do these in a simple and straightforward way. As an instructor, we are also given many authorities in managing students accesses during live classes. BBB also provides many facilities to maintain or strengthen student's engagement such as polling, multi-user whiteboarding, live chatting, and emojis.

Cons:

BigBlueButton is integrated with my university's LMS. Actually, I like BBB as it is simple to use and it offers us many useful features for live classes. However, as more and more lecturers in my university are using this platform, the system is often down impacting the BBB's performance. Also sometimes my camera was locked incidentally: I could see my videos alive from my side, but my students couldn't. In such cases, we have to find other alternatives for live teachings.

Big Blue Button

Comments: My overall experience has been very positive. The integration into Canvas was smooth and the tools are familiar, thus not requiring extensive training or extra cost.

Pros:

This software is easier to integrate into our LMS for online learners. The analytics and feedback tools are easy to use and provide valuable information for course improvement. The technology also feels familiar. The open-source feature makes it available to anyone.

Cons:

There are no drawbacks to that I can report. Big Blue Button is cost-effective and easy to use---even for individuals new to online learning.

Decent virtual classroom

Comments: Not my go-to option

Pros:

Built well for an LMS. A great tool in the pandemic.

Cons:

Turning on mics and videos can be a hassle, you often have to leave the call if you didn't turn them on the first time. Accessing recordings can be a pain. Breakout rooms can sometimes be tricky to set up

Great for Online Tutoring

Pros:

I started using this product when my volunteer tutoring went from in-person to online. It's very interactive so that both the student and tutor can be typing information. You can also upload worksheets to fill in or write on. It also includes other common features like video, shared screen and a whiteboard.

Cons:

Some of the features are a bit clunky. You can type on the screen but you need to create a text box first. Depending on how much text you have and the size of the box, you may not be able to see all of the text. It also makes it hard to continue to add text after you close the box. There's also been technical difficulties where one user can't see what they are typing. There's no flashy things like emoji reactions or noise canceling features.

It Worked

Comments: It worked well. Teachers were able to get everybody in a session, they could share documents or videos or songs, and they could record sessions. It worked well for us.

Pros:

We used this software to have class meetings. I think one of the best features of BigBlueButton was the screen share feature. Teachers could bring documents up seamlessly while talking about a subject. Distance didn't really get in the way, and some cohorts were students from different countries.

Cons:

I don't think there was a lot that people didn't like. A pro/con of the software was that it was only accessible through Canvas which were we using. So you could only use it if you were in our Canvas program. But that was good for students and teachers because their video conferencing software was right at their fingertips.

Unstable product

Comments: I do not recommend it at all, they have to type on it it's a beta project.

Pros:

Join from the browser no need to download any app.

Cons:

1- you can not host more than 100 participants. 2- If 100 participants or lower, keep typing on chat continuously the meeting will lagging so much. 3- Using node js single thread (disaster) 4- Some IOS users won't hear anything if they join in a listen-only mode. 5- Core developers maybe take more that one year to add/fix a single feature. 6- Delay audio and video on recording if you use screen share (in some cases). 7- Very bad UX. 8- Download mp4 not supported you have to use third party fork. 9- No immediate support only ( google community) be ready to ignore your questions.

Big blue button is not the best

Comments: I would say My overall experience with big blue button this poor. like I mentioned, we have to use it daily because there is no other option with my son's distance learning but I would choose another product in a heartbeat if it were an option..

Pros:

I don't really have any pros to say about bigbluebutton. We use it because we don't have another option with my son's distance learning. I would definitely prefer zoom or another video conferencing app.

Cons:

We use bigbluebutton because we don't have another option with my son's distance learning. I would definitely prefer zoom or another video conferencing app. Bigbluebutton proves to be inconsistent with whether it's going to work. It is very glitchy with both the audio and video. Makes distance learning extremely hard.