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Using the Chat
Chat allows you, and your students and teaching assistants to have real-time conversations. There are four general purpose chat rooms and one general forum for the course. There is also a general chat room for all courses, which is a room shared by everybody from all courses on the same server. Conversations in the four general purpose rooms are recorded. You (the instructor) are the only person in the course who can see the records.
Entering a chat room
- Click on the Chat icon.
- From the Chat screen, click the room that you would like to enter.
- The Chat window appears. The Conversation Text Box displays all messages sent and received. The window on the right shows the users presently in the room.
Sending a message to everyone in the room
- From the Chat screen, click the room that you would like to enter. The Chat window appears.
- Type your message in the text box underneath Type your message below.
- To send the message, press ENTER. Your message appears in the Conversation Text Box.
Sending a private message to someone in the room
- From the Chat screen, click the room that you would like to enter. The Chat window appears.
- From the right hand window, select the recipient of the message. To select more than one recipient, hold
the SHIFT key while selecting the names.- Type your message in the text box underneath Type your message below.
- To send the message, press ENTER. Your message appears in the Conversation Text Box of the
selected recipient(s).Modifying Chat room names
You can only modify the names of the four general purpose rooms.
- From the Chat screen, on the Menu Bar, select Designer: Modify Options. The Chat screen appears.
- Under Chat Settings, click Modify. The Room Names screen appears.
- Modfiy the room name(s) and click Update.
Instructional Tips for the Chat Room
- Give the students a rationale for student to student interaction.
- Structure interaction to make it more effective.
- Have students introduce themselves so they feel known in the class.
- If students are having troubles, use the private message feature to help out just one student without embarrassment
- In the first week of class, find out when students can chat weekly and require the chat and structure it using the suggestions above. This is where the social contact of the course happens. OR Let students request chat times.
- Tell students they can use the chat room whenever they want and that they should make appointments with each other. They can use the chat room for projects, assignment teams, bulletin board forums or topics, etc.