BigBlueButton
Developer(s)BigBlueButton Inc.[1]
Stable release
2.7.3[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 9 November 2023 (9 November 2023)
Repositorygithub.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton
Written inJava, Grails/Groovy, Scala (back-end), JavaScript/React (web framework) (front-end client),
Operating systemLinux
TypeCollaborative software, Web conferencing
LicenseLGPL[3]
Websitebigbluebutton.org

BigBlueButton is a virtual classroom software program designed for online education. It is accessed through Learning Management Systems, the application provides engagement tools and analytics for educators to interact with their students remotely. It is open source, except for some versions of its database software.

History

The project was started at Carleton University in 2007 by the Technology Innovation Management program.[4] The first version was written by Richard Alam (it was initially called the Blindside project) under the supervision of Tony Bailetti.[5] BigBlueButton is an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative.[6] The BigBlueButton name comes from the initial concept that starting a web conference should be as simple as pressing a metaphorical big blue button.[7]

In 2009 Richard Alam, Denis Zgonjanin, and Fred Dixon uploaded the BigBlueButton source code to Google Code and formed Blindside Networks, a company pursuing the traditional open source business model of providing paid support and services to the BigBlueButton community.[8]

In 2010 the core developers added a whiteboard for annotating the uploaded presentation. Jeremy Thomerson added an application programming interface (API) which the BigBlueButton community subsequently used to integrate with Sakai,[9] WordPress,[10] Moodle 1.9,[11][12] Moodle 2.0,[12] Joomla,[13] Redmine,[14] Drupal,[15] Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware,[16] Foswiki,[17] and LAMS.[18] Google accepted BigBlueButton into the 2010 Google Summer of Code program.[19] To encourage contributions from others, the core developers moved the source code from Google Code to GitHub.[20] The project indicated its intent to create an independent, not-for-profit BigBlueButton Foundation to oversee future development.[21]

In 2011, the core developers announced they were adding record and playback capabilities to BigBlueButton 0.80.[22]

In 2020, the project released BigBlueButton 2.2, a full rewrite of the client and server to support HTML5.[23]

In March 2020, BigBlueButton 2.2 was awarded by the President of the ENTD,[24] Pasquale Aiello, as the best web conferencing system and used in the project UNIOPEN[25] approved by the European Commission for Digital Skills and Job Coalition[26] action plan.

In 2021, version 2.3 was released. BigBlueButton continued to depend on MongoDB, which became proprietary in version 3.6 and later, released in 2018. BigBlueButton 2.3 is the first which recommends using a proprietary MongoDB version, but remains compatible with the free software 3.4 MongoDB.

In 2022, BigBlueButton was directly embedded into the Moodle 4.0 core, the largest Learning Management System. It also released two new updates that included BigBlueButton 2.4 in January, and BigBlueButton 2.5 in late September. BigBlueButton continues to be used by organizations including the Ministry of National Education (France), the Air Education and Training Command, not-for-profits such as School on Wheels, and schools throughout the world for remote learning and teaching.

Version Release date
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.4 12 June 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.5 21 July 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.60 12 August 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.70 15 July 2010[27]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.8-beta1 12 September 2011[28]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.90-beta 15 October 2014[29]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0-beta 6 October 2015[30]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1 25 May 2017
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2 11 March 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3 30 April 2021
Older version, yet still maintained: 2.4 20 December 2021[31]
Current stable version: 2.5 09 June 2022[32]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Features

BigBlueButton provides educators with a variety of tools for management, relationships, engagement and assessment. Educators can share audio, webcams, slides, and screen sharing between themselves and their students. It allows educators to use multi-user whiteboards (meaning students can use it simultaneously), breakout rooms, chat (public and private), polling, shared notes, random user selector, and emojis. Version 2.4[33] provides instructors with a live dashboard of student attendance, engagement, and learning, based on responses to polls. The analytics tools track presence, participation and learning rates of the students. BigBlueButton 2.5 provides further enhancements to its feature-set such as its breakout room (message broadcasting, ease of set-up and modification), whiteboard (anti social-conformity measures that hide students' mouse cursors so they have more agency in their responses), polling (allowing for multiple responses) and more.

Architecture

As a web page application, BigBlueButton front end uses React and the back end uses MongoDB and Node.js. It also uses Redis to maintain an internal list of its meetings, attendees, and any other relevant information. As of version 2.5, the server runs on Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit and can be installed either from packages[34] or an install script.[35]

Adoption among non-profits

In 2020, BigBlueButton has been adopted by many FLOSS focused non-profits including Wikimedia Australia, Constant vzw[36] and new FLOSS focused coops like Catalan's The Online Meeting Cooperative.[37] In France it is recommended since May 2020 by the Digital Interministry Direction defining the state's information and communication systems.[38]

Third-party integrations

  • Canvas (Learning management system)
  • Chamilo (Learning management system)
  • DoceboLMS (SaaS/cloud learning management system)
  • Drupal (Content management system)
  • ILIAS (Learning management system)
  • Moodle (Learning management system)
  • Mattermost (Web-based chat service)
  • Nextcloud (Open source cloud solution)
  • OpenOLAT (Learning management system)
  • Sakai Project (Learning management system)
  • Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware (Content management system)
  • Qwerteach (Saas / Tutoring platform)
  • WordPress (Content management system)
  • KampüsProject (Learning management system)
  • CollaboratorLMS (Learning management system)
  • Smartschool (Web-based school platform)

See also

References

  1. ↑ BigBlueButton Foundation, 12 July 2010
  2. ↑ "Release 2.7.3". 9 November 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "Open Source License | Open Source Project | BigBlueButton".
  4. ↑ Nettleton, Rob "BigBlueButton" Archived 2010-08-14 at the Wayback Machine, EDC Blog, June 4, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Lead Projects". TIM Review. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  6. ↑ "OSI Affiliate Membership". Open Source Initiative. 22 May 2012. Archived from the original on 13 June 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  7. ↑ "BigBlueButton : FAQ". BigBlueButton. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  8. ↑ Dixon, Fred "Lessons from an Open Source Business" Archived 2012-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Open Source Business Resource, April 2011.
  9. ↑ "Home – Contrib: bigbluebutton – Confluence". sakaiproject.org. Archived from the original on 22 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  10. ↑ "WordPress Plugin Directory: BigBlueButton". wordpress.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  11. ↑ "Moodle.org: Modules and plugins: BigBlueButton". moodle.org. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  12. 1 2 "BigBlueButton releases activity module integration for Moodle 1.9 & 2.0". lmspulse.com. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
  13. ↑ "BigBlueButton Integration – Joomla! Extensions Directory". joomla.org. Archived from the original on 20 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  14. ↑ "Redmine – PluginBBB – Redmine". redmine.org. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  15. ↑ "BigBlueButton - drupal.org". drupal.org. 8 March 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  16. ↑ "BigBlueButton – Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware". tiki.org. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
  17. ↑ "BigBlueButtonPlugin - foswiki.org". foswiki.org. Archived from the original on 17 November 2010. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  18. ↑ "BigBlueButton integration - lamscommunity.org". lamscommunity.org. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
  19. ↑ "GSoC Organization for BigBlueButton". appspot.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  20. ↑ Dixon, Fred. "Minutes from BigBlueButton committers meeting 2010-04-27 – BigBlueButton-dev – Google Groups". Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  21. ↑ Dixon, Fred "BigBlueButton Foundation", BigBlueButton Blog, July 12, 2010
  22. ↑ Dixon, Fred. "BigBlueButton 0.8-beta-3 released – BigBlueButton-dev – Google Groups". Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  23. ↑ Dixon, Fred (11 March 2020). "BigBlueButton 2.2". Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  24. ↑ ENTDI, Direzione. "Home". ENTD - Ente Nazionale Digitale ed Innovazione (in Italian). Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  25. ↑ "Pledge Viewer | UNIOPEN". pledgeviewer.eu. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  26. ↑ oestean (10 October 2014). "The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition". Shaping Europe’s digital future - European Commission. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  27. ↑ bigbluebutton-0-7-is-released. 16 July 2010.
  28. ↑ bigbluebutton-0-8-beta-released. 12 September 2011.
  29. ↑ BigBlueButton 0.9.0-beta now available. 16 October 2014.
  30. ↑ BigBlueButton 1.0-beta Released. 6 October 2015.
  31. ↑ "Release BigBlueButton 2.4.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton". GitHub.
  32. ↑ "Release BigBlueButton 2.5.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton". GitHub.
  33. ↑ "BigBlueButton 2.4". BigBlueButton. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  34. ↑ "BigBlueButton : Install". docs.bigbluebutton.org. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  35. ↑ "bbb-install". 2 January 2022 – via GitHub.
  36. ↑ "VJ13 live | Prototypes for · pour · voor transmission". Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  37. ↑ "About – The Online Meeting Cooperative". Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  38. ↑ "Socle interministériel de logiciels libres". Retrieved 22 May 2020..
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