This article reviews how to change the content in the classroom stage panes. For information on how to manage the classroom stage layout, see Changing the Classroom Stage Layout.
Starred participants (e.g. Instructor, Guest Instructor, or Assistant roles) can change and control the content of the stage panes by:
Selecting resources, polls and participants from the directory
Pinning participants
Replacing participants
Shuffling participants
Clearing the stage
Setting a timer
Selecting resources, polls and participants from the directory
Starred participants can manually fill stage panes with participant videos, resources, and polls. They can be moved to different panes as often as you want, but a given resource or student video can not appear in more than one pane at the same time.
Click the Resources icon in the sidebar for a list of resources or the Poll icon in for a list of polls. You can click on a list item to display it in a 1-up on stage, or drag it to a specific pane.
To move a specific participant to the stage, you can drag them from the participant bar or the Directory sidebar. Clicking on a participant in the directory will place them on stage, using the participant replacement rule.
You can also drag a participant from the directory to the participant bar.
Pinning participants
A starred participant may pin a participant to a pane on the stage by clicking the pin icon that appears when hovering over that participant.
Clicking the pin icon will toggle between Unpinned and Pinned.
Pinning a participant to a pane will keep them in that pane on the stage until:
The user is unpinned, which makes them eligible to be removed if someone else speaks
The stage configuration is changed (e.g. by moving to the next activity in the timeline)
Another participant is dragged into the pane currently occupied by the pinned participant
The pinned participant is dragged to a new pane
When a participant is pinned:
They cannot remove themselves from the stage
They will be kept on stage if the Instructor pressed the ‘Shuffle’ button
Sometimes participants are automatically pinned, such as when featuring a breakout group.
Replacing participants
A starred participant may replace a participant on stage with a new participant by clicking the replace icon that appears when hovering over the participant. Alternatively, a starred participant can drag a participant onto the stage.
Shuffling participants
In small classes, the Shuffle Students on Stage button will shuffle general participants on stage (unless pinned). Forum will prioritize picking students based on a variety of factors, such as if a student has low talk time. Students who do not have functional microphones will be deprioritized.
In large classes, the Shuffle Students button will shuffle general participants both in the participant bar and on stage. In these cases, Forum will also prioritize picking students who have not been displayed in the participant bar.
Clearing the stage
To remove everything and everyone from the stage, click the settings menu (gear icon) and then click ‘Clear Main Stage’. You can also accomplish this by pressing the ‘E’ key.
Setting a timer
Add a timer to the classroom by clicking the timer icon or using the keyboard shortcut "i". The default time is 3 minutes and can be adjusted up or down in 30 second increments. Once started, the timer will be visible to all participants. Each participant can also move the timer around the stage by clicking and dragging it to a desired location.
