Chat Room
From e-Learning Documentation
The Chat tool allows for synchronous communication for participants online. We now have the "Meetings" tool, which is much more powerful than Chat. It is recommended that you use Meetings rather than Chat.
In the Chat tool, all participants have the ability to post at any time. There are no controls that allow for instructors to moderate the conversation or block certain users, but the instructor can delete an inappropriate message. Conversations are recorded and can be viewed at a later date by all participants, even those who were not part of the Chat. Simply enter the Chat Room to see all posts that have been made in that room.
When you click on "Chat Room" in the left menu bar, you will be brought to the Main Chat Room that is provided for all users. You will see a list of users who are currently logged into the course.
To enter a message, type your post into the "Enter chat message" at the lower part of the screen. Hit Enter or click Add message to post your comment. All comments appear in the order in which they were posted and identified by the person's name.
Add a Chat Room
You will want to create a new Chat Room for every conversation. Otherwise, the Main Chat Room will just be one long continuous conversation. You would be able to differentiate the comments based on the posting date, but a cleaner presentation would be a different Chat Room for every conversation.
- At the top of the Main Chat Room, click Options
- Click Add Room at the top of the screen.
- "Title" - Enter a title for the Chat Room.
- "Description" - Provide a description if desired
- Select how you want message history to display.
- Click Update Options
The Chat Room is displayed in the list that begins with the Main Chat Room. If you want the new Chat Room to be the one that opens automatically when participants click "Chat Room," click Set as Default.
