Conferences

BYU Canvas Info Center Conferences

Canvas has a live event tool called Conferences. It is free, available in all courses, and can be initiated for use by both instructors and students. Conferences is provided in Canvas by Big Blue Button.

Find full documentation for Canvas Conferences here Links to an external site..

Some quick info. about Conferences:

  • Conferences is 'on' and 'available' by default in every course. Teachers who do not wish Conferences to be available to students should drag the 'Conferences' link to the inactive link stack in Course Navigation settings.
  • Conferences does provide event recording. Recordings are kept for two weeks before they are deleted. (There is no recording download option.)
  • Break-out sessions are available.
  • Students may host their own conferences. This is a useful means of providing remote study groups.

Conferences and Zoom: As of March 2020, Zoom licenses are provided to all BYU instructors, responding to the campus shutdown due to the Corona virus pandemic. Conferences and Zoom provide a slightly different set of features. The table below is provided to assist instructors in deciding whether to use Conferences, Zoom, or both in their courses.

Conferences AND Zoom: Live events, in-course scheduling, event recordings, break-out rooms

Conferences Zoom
  • Students can initiate their own events, without teacher involvement
  • White-board feature allows live sketching and annotations
  • Recordings are saved (longer than 2 weeks) and downloadable
  • Events can exist and extend beyond Canvas courses 

 

 

 

 

Conferences Zoom
  • Students can initiate their own events, without teacher involvement
  • White-board feature allows live sketching and annotations