In an ever-increasing digital world, the need to connect with people across the globe through audio and video is constantly growing. Moodle does not provide a video conferencing tool itself, but due to its open-source nature, there are a number of different tools that integrate with Moodle.
Below we have listed our 4 favourites and our reasons why:
Big Blue Button
Big Blue Button is an incredibly popular solution that has been set up on nearly 7000 Moodle sites worldwide, with over 50% of installs happening recently on the latest versions of Moodle (3.5 and above). The Big Blue Button project began way back in 2008, and the first plugin was available on Moodle version 1.9 showing their commitment to the Moodle project.
Part of Big Blue Button’s popularity comes from it sharing a similar core value with Moodle in keeping the software open source. This open-source nature means that Big Blue Button is constantly developing and releasing new features due to their dedicated network of developers. Included with all this are a number of great features such as a live whiteboard, slides and built-in polling.
You can find out more about Big Blue Button here – https://bigbluebutton.org/
OpenMeetings
Our next video conferencing solution is Open Meetings, a completely free solution used on nearly 1000 moodle sites.
What makes OpenMeetings unique on this list is that it is entirely browser-based, but that doesn’t by any means limit its functionality. OpenMeetings allows you to instantly set up meetings, share a whiteboard, and has the ability to record your sessions all within your Moodle platform.
You can find out more about OpenMeeting here – https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=mod_openmeetings
Jitsi Meet
Zoom
Finally, our final recommendation is the Zoom video conferencing software – which we use internally at Titus for performing remote meetings, product demonstrations and team catch-ups – so it certainly has our stamp of approval, and with over 1000 Moodle downloads it has many other peoples as well.
Very simply, Zoom allows you to create online meetings with up to 300 guests, and this comes with a number of great features, including group messaging, simultaneous screen sharing, and virtual backgrounds.
You can find out more about Zoom here – https://zoom.us/
The ability to connect with people around the globe is one of the many great things about the modern world, and this ability grows with the use of a Moodle platform and a good video conferencing software.
For any assistance with setting up Moodle plugins, you can also contact the team at Titus Learning – we’re always happy to help with any Moodle query however big or small.
