BigBlueButton, an open-source web conferencing tool
Description: BigBlueButton is a web conferencing tool specially developed for teachers and educators. It includes built-in features such as an interactive whiteboard, polling, emojis, session recording, real-time broadcasting, screen sharing, virtual classrooms, and breakout rooms. BBB is open-source, completely free to use, and does not require installation. It also provides an official tutorial page for teachers. It was created by the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University's Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization in Ottawa, Canada, in 2007.
Evaluation: BigBlueButton is a practical open-source web conferencing tool. Its built-in functions, such as polling and lecture recording, allow teachers to increase student engagement. Teams and classes can also use the live whiteboard to collaboratively make annotations on screens that can be viewed by participants in real time. BigBlueButton can also integrate without major problems with other learning management systems such as Moodle, Canvas, and Jenzabar. It is overall a valuable, rich, and privacy-friendly web-conferencing tool for educators and teachers. Read more about it here.
Cost: Free.
Respect for privacy 
Privacy evaluations indicate how a tool handles personal data collection, storage, and sharing, including GDPR compliance and security measures, among others. The ICT-REV team provides them for informational purposes, reflecting our best understanding at the time of review, but assumes no legal responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these evaluations and encourages users to conduct their own assessments: Very high. BigBlueButton does not share user data with third parties for advertising purposes. It records sessions for technical purposes. BBB is a not-for-profit open-source software such as Jitsi. In this regard, they are much more privacy-friendly than other more mainstream web conferencing tools such as Google Meets, Skype or Zoom. All content is encrypted and so security standards are very high. BBB operations do not require a privacy policy since it does not gather any user information, hence implicitly complying with the GDPR. See more here.
Type Of Interaction:
Group/pair work - classmates,
Whole class,
Content:
Website/other users supply,
You supply,
Usability and tech notes ▼
Time efficiency Time needed to learn how to use a tool and its time-saving potential: Medium. Somewhat complicated in the beginning, then easy to use.
Interface language(s) The number of languages in which the tool is currently available/adaptable to: Over 50 languages. Easily modifiable in the “Settings” section.
Saving work for future use Can work be saved for future use?: Yes. Recordings can be saved and downloaded.