BigBlueButton – the open source web conferencing tool has been updated to a new version with many exciting features. The BigBlueButton 2.5 version which was released on October 14 includes many features which will make it easir for educators to manage their class and engage the learners.

BigBlueButton is world’s most popular open source virtual classroom. It was originally created in a Canadian university and later integrated into popular LMS’s like Moodle, Canvas, Sakai, D2L, Jenzabar and Schoology. It is available in over 55 language and is used by millions of users around the world.

Here is a gist of all the major features included in BigBlueButton 2.5 version:

• Broadcast Message To Breakout Rooms – You can now send an announcement message to all breakout rooms, whether it’s to let them know how much time is left to collaborate before the rooms will be closed.
• Change Breakout Room Timings – Now, you can update the time for breakout rooms easily.
• Reuse Breakout Room Assignment – BigBlueButton now remembers which student was in each breakout room during your class. Now, you can reuse them to group teams back together.
• Multiple Choice Poll Responses – When you conduct a poll, you can now enable students to respond with multiple choices. For example if you enable multiple choices with an A,B,C,D pool, a student can respond by choosing A and C.
• Visual Assessment using Multi-user Whiteboard
• Improved Assessment – When students are responding to polls, using emojis (such as raising hands), BigBlueButton is aggregating their activity score to show you who in the classroom may require more engagement.
• Download Analytics as CSV file – One of the most requested features was the ability to download the analytics. You can now download the analytics anytime as a CSV file .

In addition, BigBlueButton 2.5 is verified to be WCAG 2.1 Level AA as well as WCAG 2.0 Level AA, with some exceptions. You can try out the new features in BigBlueButton 2.5 on the demo site – https://demo.bigbluebutton.org/.

Check out complete details about the New version release here.