Last Updated on July 10, 2021
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system for online learning. BigBlueButton’s web conferencing platform enables educational institutions to deliver their courses online, with high quality slides, voice, and video collaboration at a fraction of the cost.
BigBlueButton supports sharing of slides (PDF and any document readable by OpenOffice), webcams, whiteboard, chat, voice over IP (using FreeSWITCH), and presenter’s desktop. It can record and playback sessions (slides, audio, and chat), is cross-platform, running on Mac, Unix/Linux, and PC computers, and is supported by a community of developers.
BigBlueButton is built using over fifteen open source projects including Flex SDK, Gralis, Ghostscript, ActiveMQ, Red5, Redis, FreeSWITCH, SWFTools and many others.
Features include:
- Multiple audio and video sharing, presentations with extended whiteboard capabilities.
- Whiteboard controls let you annotate and call out key parts of your presentation for viewer.
- Supports voice over IP (VOIP).
- Records and playback (archives) all activity in the session for playback:
- Mouse movement.
-
- Whiteboard marks.
-
- Pan/Zoom.
- Control the audio of all users and you can make anyone presenter (including yourself).
- Annotate presentations:
- Built-in whiteboard tools allow you to zoom, highlight, draw, and write on your presentation to make your point clear to remote students.
- Share webcams, offering on-line tutoring, small group collaboration, and distance education a personal touch.
- Accessibility features for blind students using screen readers.
- Support for MS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.0. This means any LTI consumer can integrate with BigBlueButton without requiring custom plug-ins.
Website: bigbluebutton.org
Support:
Developer: BigBlueButton Inc
License: GNU LGPL 2.1+
BigBlueButton is written in JavaScript and Java. Learn JavaScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Return to Education Top Picks Home Page
| Popular series | |
|---|---|
 | The largest compilation of the best free and open source software in the universe. Each article is supplied with a legendary ratings chart helping you to make informed decisions. |
 | Hundreds of in-depth reviews offering our unbiased and expert opinion on software. We offer helpful and impartial information. |
 | Replace proprietary software with open source alternatives: Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Autodesk, Oracle, Atlassian, Corel, Cisco, Intuit, and SAS. |
 | Awesome Free Linux Games Tools showcases a series of tools that making gaming on Linux a more pleasurable experience. This is a new series. |
 | Machine Learning explores practical applications of machine learning and deep learning from a Linux perspective. We've written reviews of more than 40 self-hosted apps. All are free and open source. |
 | New to Linux? Read our Linux for Starters series. We start right at the basics and teach you everything you need to know to get started with Linux. |
 | Alternatives to popular CLI tools showcases essential tools that are modern replacements for core Linux utilities. |
 | Essential Linux system tools focuses on small, indispensable utilities, useful for system administrators as well as regular users. |
 | Linux utilities to maximise your productivity. Small, indispensable tools, useful for anyone running a Linux machine. |
 | Surveys popular streaming services from a Linux perspective: Amazon Music Unlimited, Myuzi, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal. |
 | Saving Money with Linux looks at how you can reduce your energy bills running Linux. |
 | Home computers became commonplace in the 1980s. Emulate home computers including the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX81, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. |
 | Now and Then examines how promising open source software fared over the years. It can be a bumpy ride. |
 | Linux at Home looks at a range of home activities where Linux can play its part, making the most of our time at home, keeping active and engaged. |
 | Linux Candy reveals the lighter side of Linux. Have some fun and escape from the daily drudgery. |
 | Getting Started with Docker helps you master Docker, a set of platform as a service products that delivers software in packages called containers. |
 | Best Free Android Apps. We showcase free Android apps that are definitely worth downloading. There's a strict eligibility criteria for inclusion in this series. |
 | These best free books accelerate your learning of every programming language. Learn a new language today! |
 | These free tutorials offer the perfect tonic to our free programming books series. |
 | Linux Around The World showcases usergroups that are relevant to Linux enthusiasts. Great ways to meet up with fellow enthusiasts. |
 | Stars and Stripes is an occasional series looking at the impact of Linux in the USA. |