Faculty Guides and Documentation

Sharing your Screen or Applications

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This guide will demonstrate how to share your desktop or applications with other users during a Collaborate session.

If you are using MacOS 10.15 Catalina or higher, and you are having difficulty with accessing desktop sharing, you may need to allow permissions for this in System Preferences>Privacy and Security. Click on the Privacy Tab and  locate Screen Sharing on the left. Check the checkbox to allow Google Chrome or Firefox to share your screen. More information about this issue can be found at this link. You may need to reload your Collaborate session for the change to take effect.

Image of the security and privacy window in MacOS with the Screen Recording section open.

Accessing the Collaborate Panel

Image of the Blackboard Collaborate interface with an arrow pointing to the Collaborate Panel button.

To share an application or desktop, you will need to open the Collaborate Panel. To open the Collaborate Panel, click on the purple button in the bottom right corner.

Starting Application Sharing

image of the Collaborate panel showing the following items: 1.In the Collaborate Panel, click on the Share Content tab.2.Select Application Sharing from the menu.
  1. In the Collaborate Panel, click on the Share Content tab.
  2. Select Share Application/Screen from the menu.

Selecting Content to Share

Image of the application sharing dialog box

If you are using Chrome, you will see a dialog box similar to the screen above entitled Choose what to share. You can select to share a Chrome Tab, a Window, or your Entire Screen.

If you wish to share audio/video from websites, you will need to use Chrome as your web browser for hosting Collaborate sessions.

Sharing a Chrome Tab

Image of the Choose What to Share dialog box with the following items: 1. Chrome tab option 2. list of tabs to share on the left. 3. preview of selected tab. 4. share tab audio checkbox 5. Share button

To share content from a Chrome tab:

  1. Select Chrome Tab from the list of options at the top.
  2. Select which tab you wish to share from the list on the left.
  3. A preview of the selected tab will appear on the right.
  4. Share tab audio: Check this checkbox to share audio from the selected tab.
  5. Click the Share button to start sharing.
Image of a tab being shared with an arrow pointing to the stop sharing button

You will now be sharing the selected tab. To stop sharing the tab, click the blue Stop Sharing button at the top of the page.

Sharing an Application or Window

image of the choose what to share dialog box with the following items: 1. Window option 2. window preview and selection 3. Share button

From the Choose what to share dialog box:

  1. Select the Window option
  2. Select which application or window you wish to share.
  3. Click the Share button at the bottom.
image of a window being shared with an arrow pointing to the stop sharing button.

You will now be sharing the selected window. To stop sharing, click the Stop Sharing button at the bottom of your screen or click the circle with the square in it in the upper right corner of the collaborate window.

Sharing a Full Desktop

Image of the share desktop dialog box with an arrow pointing to the share button

From the Choose what to share dialog box:

image of Sharing a Full Desktop with arrows pointing to the stop sharing button

You will now be sharing your desktop. To stop sharing, click the Stop Sharing button at the bottom of your screen or click the circle with the square in it in the upper right corner of the collaborate window.

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