Connect Pro and Blackboard Integration FAQ

  
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Introduction

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro 7 provides a more integrated workflow for common tasks with Blackboard 7.3 and 8. The integration provides a means for Instructors, Teaching Assistants and Course Builders to easily install the ADOBE LMS INTEGRATION FOR BLACKBOARD; allows teachers to create Adobe Acrobat Connect Meetings as part of their course offering; and allows students to see upcoming Adobe Acrobat Connect Meetings.

This document will cover basic FAQ and links to other articles for installing and using the ADOBE LMS INTEGRATION FOR BLACKBOARD.

Online Links

• Adobe LMS Integration For Blackboard Install Guide
• Adobe LMS Integration For Blackboard Users Guide
• Adobe LMS Integration For Blackboard Walkthrough: Create a Meeting
• Adobe LMS Integration For Blackboard Walkthrough: Offline Recordings

Installation

Q. How do I download the ADOBE LMS INTEGRATION FOR BLACKBOARD component?
A. View the on-line version of the ADOBE LMS INTEGRATION FOR BLACKBOARD Install Guide and click the ADOBE LMS INTEGRATION FOR BLACKBOARD (Building Block file) link from the Requirements section

Module

Q. How do I enable the Adobe Connect Pro Meeting Dashboard?
A. To enable the module on the 'My Institution' page click on the 'Modify Content' button and browse through the page to select 'My Adobe Connect Meetings'. After confirming a module would appear on the page displaying the list of meetings lined up ahead. Also the layout (position) of the module can be changed by clicking on the 'Modify Layout' button and selecting the desired layout.

Q. How many meetings will be displayed on the dashboard (module on the 'My Institution' page)?
A. All the meetings that are scheduled for today would be displayed and if these meetings are less than 5, then upcoming meetings would be displayed such that the total number of meeting displayed is 5.

Q. Can I launch the meeting directly from the dashboard?
A. Yes, clicking on the Meeting link would directly launch the meeting.

Q. What kind of meetings would be displayed on the dashboard?
A. Under the 'today's meetings' section, all the meetings that are scheduled for that day (from the time of viewing) would be displayed. In the 'upcoming meetings' section, all the meetings scheduled to occur in the future are displayed following the rule in Q.2.

Q. On enabling the Adobe Connect Pro Meeting Module on the 'My Institution Page' other Blackboard modules take time to load. Is there a way to resolve this?
A. Go to Modify Layout and shift the Adobe Connect Pro Module to the bottom of the Right Column. This way the Adobe Connect Pro Module will load at the end after all the other modules have loaded.
Course/Organization

Q. Who can create course/org specific meetings?
A. Instructors/Leaders, Course Builder/Organization Builder and Teaching Assistant/Assistant in Courses/Organizations can create meetings for the course/organization they are part of.

Q. How to add students/participants to a meeting?
A. If the students/participants already have an entry in the mapping, then they would be directly added to the meeting if selected in the participant list while creating the meeting. If they do not have an entry then a new account would be created based on the option selected by the Admin and then added to the meeting.

Q. How are the accounts created?
A. The accounts are created for each participant who is selected while creating a meeting and whose mapping isn't available. They are created by taking the E-mail address from BlackBoard user details if it exists otherwise an E-mail address would be generated by using the BlackBoard username and the suffix entered by the Admin in the properties page (while configuring the plug-in). The BlackBoard username would be used as the login ID incase Adobe Connect Pro is configured to use a login ID instead of an E-mail address. If successful an entry would be made in the mapping file which would be used in all further calls.

Q. How to invite participants if the 'Create new accounts if not already present in Adobe Connect Pro' is not set?
A. If the option is not set by the Admin, then asking for a mapping file from the Admin would solve the issue. (The file would contain the mapping between a user's BlackBoard username and the Adobe Connect Pro Login ID.) If a mapping file cannot be provided, then adding the participants through the Adobe Connect Pro web application (by logging into Adobe Connect Pro) is the only option.

Adobe Connect Pro Tab

Q. How to enable the tab?
A. Click on 'Tabs' under 'BlackBoard community System - Management' category and then click on 'Tool tab' and enter a value for the 'Title' and 'Reference Name' fields and select the tool as 'Adobe Connect Pro'. Select the other options in 'Availability' as required and click on 'Submit'. The Adobe Connect Pro tab now would now be visible and meetings would be listed if the LDAP server is configured correctly or if the entered credentials are valid.

Q. What meetings would be listed here?
A. All the meeting that the logged in user is part of would be displayed here. These include course specific, organization specific and any general meetings that the user may be a part of.

Q. Who can create a meeting under the tab?
A. Any user who has logged in can create a meeting. This would be a general meeting and would not be part of any course or organization.

Q. How to invite participants while creating a meeting under the tab?
A. Right now there is no mechanism using which the user can invite participants. But depending on the option set (registered users and accepted guests can enter the meeting or anyone who has the URL can enter the meeting), the user can pass on the URL of the created meeting.

Properties page

Q. What are the 'Participant Account Creation' options?
A. These fields are required to create a user account if the mapping of the user isn't available i.e. if the Adobe Connect Pro account of a user is not available. These credentials would be used to log in as an administrator on that Adobe Connect Pro server and create accounts. The account credentials entered should be an 'Administrator' in Adobe Connect Pro else account creation would not be successful. The E-mail suffix would be used to generate an E-mail address which would be used to create an account of the user. This would come into picture only if the E-mail address field in BlackBoard user details is not filled. This suffix would be appended to the BlackBoard username and an E-mail address is created.

Q. What are the LDAP options?
A. The checkboxes should be appropriately selected depending on the configuration of the servers both BlackBoard and Adobe Connect Pro. If BlackBoard is configured with LDAP, then the mapping attribute should also be entered. This is the value entered against 'auth.type.ldap.user_tag' in the BlackBoard configuration file. This would later be used in the SSO (Single Sign On) process.

Q. How to give specific organizations access to the Adobe Connect Pro module?
A. The admin has the facility to select the list of all organizations that can have access to the plug-in. All the organizations in the system would be listed in the Organization list in the properties page and only the selected organizations would be granted permission to the Adobe Connect Pro Building Block. So any user who tries to use the entry points would first be validated based on the Organization he is a part of and only if the organization is allowed access to the Building Block would he be able to proceed.

Q. Why should the 'Shared Secret' be set?
A. The 'Shared Secret' should be set so that the Building Block can use the SSO APIs that Adobe Connect Pro provides. This secret should be obtained from the Adobe Connect Pro system administrator and should be entered in the 'global config' file in the config folder on the BlackBoard server.

Q. Will the 'Shared Secret' be visible in plain text?
A. The 'Shared Secret' would be encrypted in the global config file.

Q. What are the attributes that need to be set in the 'global config' file?
A. Most of the attributes in the 'global config' file would be set from the UI (Properties page) like Server URL, Admin Credentials etc. But there are a few fields that can be set manually like Debug Mode (can be done to debug the application) and Shared Secret (should be done for SSO to work).
To turn on the Debug Mode: debug=on
To set the Shared Secret: sharedSecret=xxxxxxx