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#1 2014-10-20 23:57:48

TheDude

Breakout room disconnects

I have wildly varying experiences with breakout rooms in Connect (over the last 2 years).  Some classes (10-20 students) have very few issues and they go pretty smoothly while others get kicked out of their breakout room and wind up in the main room frequently. Enough so that it is unacceptable.  I've told students to be wired instead of wireless, we only share apps and windows, not desktops and I have everyone use the Add-In and check their bandwidth before class starts.

I contacted support and they said to use the procedure at the link below to get a debug file from the user.  I hate to say it, but that is unreasonable.  Just take a look at the decisions a user has to make in order to get logging turned on, finding and sending me the log files and getting it turned off.

  http://helpx.adobe.com/adobe-connect/kb … ional.html

Adobe must make this SIMPLE.  The user should pick a menu option to enable logging, then be asked to send the log file via their email to me and then I should be given some guidelines on how to do a rough interpretation of the log and then only engage Adobe support as needed.  We want to meet, not spend all our time configuring and collecting data.

Do you agree?

What else should I do for the poor souls who can't stay in a room?

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#2 2014-10-23 07:56:41

DanG-Wezupport

Re: Breakout room disconnects

Dude, do you have more information about the kick-out?

Does it ONLY happens when you are in the breakout rooms, or does it happens for them when you all are in the main meeting. Is it same students that have problems with kick-out or does it seems random.

Does the students use their webcams all the time (both breakout rooms and main meeting or only in breakout rooms)?

This can narrow down what the problem is.

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#3 2015-02-06 15:09:19

TheDude

Re: Breakout room disconnects

It only happens when I start breakout rooms.

No one is using a webcam.

It happens most of the time when someone tries to share their screen. (I took away full desktop sharing in 9.2, but it appears to have come back.)  When I restricted them to a window it or app is happened to fewer people, but if it kicks you out immediately it then you know you are cursed.  No sharing for you!

Most often, you are told there is a network connection issue and then you are sent to the main room and I have to put the student back in the room.  Sometimes, though, Connect crashes and you have to start all over again to join, etc.

Lately I have seen rooms where one person can't hear someone talking, but everyone else in the room can!  (Using the VOIP, not landlines).  That only appears to have started in the last month or so.

I love breakout rooms and the concept gives Connect an edge, BUT they are NOT reliable. I know. I average 18-19 full days a month in classes and it is guaranteed that 1-5 people will not be able to share out of 20 (broken into 5-6 rooms).

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#4 2015-02-06 15:11:56

TheDude

Re: Breakout room disconnects

BTW, I have seen this behavior with up to date OS' (7 or 8), lots of RAM and major bandwidth (20+ Mbps down and 5+ Mbps up), so it isn't always network speed. Wired or wireless.  I WISH we could find a simple common denominator.

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#5 2015-09-19 08:52:56

elearning guy

Re: Breakout room disconnects

Have you found a solution?

We have a similar issue. Users have so much lag and syncing problems that the rooms are basically unusable. In addition, the host experiences very slow system response to basic actions like trying to move between rooms (may take 30 seconds for the move to menu to appear when rolling over a user's name). Adobe also put us through logging hell and then said the logs showed no issues. Spent hours in email and on phone to no avail.

The issue does not seem to be related to bandwidth, connection type (ethernet vs. wifi), operating systems of either hosts or users (we set and verify very high system requirements), use of plugin, etc. It does seem to be connected to the total number of people in the meeting. We have never had issues with classes of 12 or less but always always have issues with classes of 40. We tried altering the steps we take prior to distributing the users into the rooms but it did not seem to help, at least not reliably.

[As an aside related to your issue but not mine, I have found Adobe to crash often when using screen sharing of any type even in just the main room. Mainly when the share originates from a Mac I think.]

We have had all users with webcams on, so I am going to try it with webcams off this weekend. I have read in other threads here or maybe elsewhere that Adobe has greatly overstated the capacity of the system with regard to cams. Most other web conference systems limit total cams to 12. Other hosts have reported that exceeding this number in Adobe usually causes crashes or lag, etc. I had hoped this webcam issue would not apply to breakouts. If we cannot get the breakouts working with audio only and no screen sharing, we will need to redesign our classes for the rest of the term. Unless these issues are resolved permanently and reliably by Adobe within 4 weeks, we will have no choice to find a more reliable system to use for next term.

I used to hate Blackboard Collaborate, but the new version 12 looks better than Adobe in many ways. It has webcam limits of 6 per room (BO or main), but that is enough for us if the system actually works. It is also pure HTML 5. No flash!

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#6 2015-09-28 20:09:10

Anwen

Re: Breakout room disconnects

We are also having issues with students being kicked out of their breakout rooms.

Students are not using webcams or sharing documents. 99% of the time they are using their mics and working in a Google Doc that is linked in the chat window.

There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the students are kicked out. It is usually different students each class. We have had this issue on and off before, but this Fall it has been particularly bad and is becoming disruptive

Our classes are also designed around the breakout room option, so this is becoming problematic.

Is there anywhere else we can post our pleas for help? :)

Last edited by Anwen (2015-09-28 20:09:21)

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#7 2015-09-30 05:31:04

imarilyn

Re: Breakout room disconnects

Any solution, guys? I am having the same issue. Please please inform me the solution..

_________
Marilyn

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#8 2015-12-17 17:05:55

PJPRO

Re: Breakout room disconnects

Anyone got any word from Adobe? I had the same problems - no sharing of screens, just regular break out rooms (students using cam and telephone connection). One section of the course worked perfectly (11 students); in another section (16 students), students were bumped all the time and system sometimes crashed. The only difference was # of students, but a very small difference (breakout rooms had up to 4 students each).
For me it's really unacceptable that Adobe offers this function with this huge bug - either they offer it and it works well or they don't offer it and we look for alternatives. And the resolution of the problem should not fall on users' side - they must address the problem.

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#9 2016-05-27 03:48:37

1030am

Re: Breakout room disconnects

i'm also having issues with students being kicked out of their breakout rooms.

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#10 2016-11-01 20:31:08

patrickgallen

Re: Breakout room disconnects

Has anyone heard anything from Adobe on this issue. I too am experiencing users being booted from breakout rooms and forced back into the main meeting room.

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