Participant sharing update monitor
Active monitor showing sharing update status
What is it for?
The Participant sharing update monitor is used to indicate to a facilitator that the VFE is checking for participant sharing updates. The bar moves from bottom to top while waiting for the next update. When it reaches the top of the bar, a large dot appears indicating that an update is being attempted. If it is successful, the dot turns green, and the cycle repeats. A successful update does not necessarily mean that any new shared participant data has been retrieved (as nothing may have been shared), but it signals that a successful connection was made. A red dot means that something went wrong on that update and nothing would have been retrieved.
Click for instant update
To cause the VFE to immediately grab a fresh update, just click anywhere on the progress bar.
What if it stops?
The VFE is designed to run in the background on your computer, even when the VFE window is not the currently active window. This seeks to ensure that any shared updates from participants will appear on the VFE. However, in some situations, it is possible that this process will not occur and the progress bar will stop moving. This means no updates are being retrieved. Usually all that is necessary is for the facilitator to click back on the VFE to make it the active window, and the bar (and updates) will recommence.
TIP: Occasionally you may find yourself facilitating a session and your participants are telling you that they have sent updates and, after a few moments, they are not showing up — check to make sure the Update Monitor is active. If it’s not, click back inside the VFE window and/or click directly on the Update Monitor itself to trigger an immediate update.
If the Update Monitor seems to be working properly, but updates are still not coming through, try Ending the Session and immediately Resuming. In almost all circumstances this will retrieve all the latest participant updates.