About Chat

The Chat tool is a real-time, text-based collaboration tool. You can use the Chat tool to brainstorm ideas, hold a question and answer period, have a debate or discussion, or organize a remote study group. As opposed to other collaboration tools, such as Discussions, Chat conversations occur in real-time. You can set up course specific chat rooms or chat rooms that involve individuals from all over the organization. There are two types of chat:

• General (or Course) chats  General chats are public chats visible to everyone enrolled in the org unit where they are created. General chats allow you to incorporate chat discussions into the teaching of a course since they are automatically open to all users enrolled in the course.
• Personal chats  Personal chats are private and visible only to users who you have added to the chat’s participants list. Personal chats are ideal for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues or for clubs and other groups whose members do not share a single org unit.

Access the Chat tool

Chat rooms are grouped as General (course) chats or Personal chats. You can only access General chats from the appropriate course. You can access Personal chats from anywhere in Learning Environment.

Do one of the following:

• Click Chat on the navbar.
• Click Edit Course on the navbar, click Chat from the Communication section on the Course Administration page.

Chat help topics

• Creating and managing a personal chat room
• Using chat
• Managing chat session archives

Teaching

• Creating and managing a general (course) chat room