Chapter 10 Moderator Presenter Guest

Raise Hand

The raise hand feature lets participants signal to the moderator that they would like to speak or have a question. It is separate from emoji reactions and has its own notification system, making it the preferred method for requesting the floor in structured discussions.

Raising and Lowering Your Hand

BigBlueButton provides a dedicated button for raising your hand, located in the bottom-right area of the presentation view. This feature is designed specifically for signaling that you want to contribute to the discussion.

  1. Click the raise hand button in the bottom toolbar of the presentation area.
  2. A hand icon appears next to your name in the participants list, visible to all participants.
  3. To lower your hand, click the same button again.

Remember to lower your hand after you have spoken, so the moderator knows you no longer need the floor.

Managing Raised Hands (Moderator)

Moderators have a clear overview of all raised hands in the participants list. BigBlueButton tracks the order in which hands were raised, helping moderators manage the speaking queue fairly.

Action Description
Lower all hands Click the "Lower all hands" button to dismiss all raised hands at once. Useful after a discussion round.
Acknowledge individual hand Click on a specific participant's raised hand icon to acknowledge and clear their hand raise individually.

Hand Raise Notifications

Moderators can configure notifications to be alerted when someone raises their hand. Both audio alerts and popup notifications are available.

  1. Open the settings menu by clicking the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
  2. Go to the Notifications section.
  3. Enable audio alerts and/or popup notifications for raised hands.

Hand raise notifications are disabled by default. Moderators should enable these notifications at the start of a session to avoid missing raised hands, especially in larger meetings.

Raise Hand vs. Reactions vs. Status

BigBlueButton offers three different types of nonverbal communication. Here is how they compare:

Feature Raise Hand Reactions Status
Purpose Request to speak Spontaneous feedback Indicate availability
Duration Until manually lowered Auto-reset after ~35 s Until manually reset
Notifications Dedicated alerts None None

Frequently Asked Questions

Only if the moderator has enabled hand raise notifications in their settings. By default, notifications are disabled, so the moderator must activate them manually.

Yes. Moderators can lower individual hands by clicking on the hand icon, or lower all raised hands at once using the "Lower all hands" button.

Yes, BigBlueButton tracks the order in which participants raised their hands. This helps moderators call on participants in the order they signaled.

BigBlueButton supports keyboard shortcuts for accessibility. Check the keyboard shortcuts chapter for the current key combination to raise and lower your hand.