Chat

From CLEW Wiki

You can use the Chat tool for real-time, unstructured conversations among site participants who are signed on to the site at the same time.

Instructors can easily create an "Online Office Hours" chat room for student questions and answers. Dispersed collaboration groups can use Chat as a space to have conversations across distances or catch up with conversations that they may have missed.

Contents 1 Key concepts 1.1 Multiple rooms 1.2 Default room 1.3 Display 2 Read, Post, or Delete Messages 2.1 Reading Chat Messages 2.2 Posting Chat messages 2.3 Deleting Chat messages 3 Add, Edit, or Delete a Chat Room 3.1 Adding a Room 3.2 Editing a room 3.3 Deleting a room 4 Things to consider 5 Related Articles

Key concepts

Multiple rooms

Site leaders can use Options to add rooms to accommodate more than one discussion. Participants can click Change Room to access other discussions.

Default room

Site leaders can use Options to specify which room is visible by default to participants accessing the tool.

Display

Changes you make in Options also apply to how the Chat features appear to site participants.

Read, Post, or Delete Messages

Reading Chat Messages

To read messages in Chat, do the following:

• In the left menu, click Chat. You will enter the default room (as specified by the site leader). To change rooms, click Change Room at the top, and select the room to which you would like to change.
• To see who is presently in the room, look under "Users in Chat" on the right side of the screen.
• Messages appear in chronological order, with the most recent at the bottom. Messages will always identify the sender.
• To hide or display the date or time messages were posted, select the appropriate option from the "View" drop-down list: Time Only, Date and Time, Date Only, or Neither Date or Time.
• To limit the list to messages from only the past three days, click Past 3 Days. To return to a view listing all messages, click All Messages.

Posting Chat messages

To post a message, follow these steps:

1. In the left menu, click Chat.
2. In the text box at the bottom of the window, type your message, and then click Add message.
   Note: No one can see your message until you click Add message, but once you do, only an instructor or a participant with special permission can delete your message.
3. To discard a message that you haven't sent yet, click Clear.

Deleting Chat messages

To delete a Chat message that you have sufficient permission to delete, simply click the trash can icon next to the posting, and then click Delete.

Note: If you don't see a trash can icon, you don't have permission to delete the message.

To permanently delete all messages from a chat room, click Options, and then click Clear History. Click Delete to confirm.

Add, Edit, or Delete a Chat Room

Adding a Room

To add a room, follow these steps:

1. In the left menu, click Chat.
2. Click Options.
3. Click Add Room.
4. Enter the chat room title and description in the text boxes.
5. Under Recent Chat Display, use the radio buttons to select how many previous messages to display:
   • Show No Message History displays no previous messages.
   • Show all messages displays all previous messages.
   • Show the last 3 messages displays the last three messages by default, but you can change the number of messages.
   • Show messages from the past 3 days displays all messages from the past three days by default, but you can change the number of days.
   • You may also choose whether to allow site participants to change display settings for their own chat windows.
     Note: No matter how many messages you choose to display, all messages are archived automatically, and are kept until you choose to clear the chat room's history. To do so, under the chat room's title, click Clear History, and then Delete. The Clear History option appears only when a chat room has messages in its archive.
6. Click Update Options. Your new room will now appear under Manage Rooms in the list of available chat rooms. To make your new room appear by default when participants click Chat Room, click Set as Default.

Editing a room

To edit a room's title, description, or number of messages displayed, follow these steps:

1. In the left menu, click Chat.
2. Click Options.
3. Under the name of the room you wish to edit, click Edit.
4. Change the chat room title or description, or use the radio buttons to select how many previous messages to display.
5. When you are finished, click Update Options.

Note: To change the room that loads by default when participants click Chat Room, in Options, under "Manage Rooms", find the room and click Set as Default.

Deleting a room

To delete a room, follow these steps:

1. In the left menu, click Chat.
2. Click Options.
3. Under the name of the room you wish to delete, click Delete.
4. Under "Deleting chat room", to confirm the deletion, click Delete. To keep the room, click Cancel.

Things to consider

• The Chat tool alerts users to other participants who have entered the same chat room. This way, users know who is available to talk.
• Site leaders can specify how many chat messages are archived and for how long, or they can allow participants to configure their own archive settings.
• Chat content does not get removed when users exit the chat room.
• The Chat tool does not provide a way to chat privately. By default, all messages are visible to all participants. However, you can remove read access for a particular role, and thereby for all participants with that role, by modifying the Chat permissions.

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