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Chat Tool for Instructors

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Chat FAQ

About the Chat Tool

Chat tools allow you and your students to communicate via text while online at the same time. Using the D2L Chat tool, students can hold private chats with other students in the course or communicate on group projects. You can also use the Chat tool to hold online office hours.

Ideal uses of the Chat Tool:

  • Virtual office hours
  • Small group discussions
  • Role-play simulations
  • Private discussion
  • Team meetings
  • Question and Answer sessions

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Create General Chat

Instructors may create two types of chats:

  • General Chats are "course level" chats and are open to all students within the course
  • Personal Chats are private and only those who are invited may participate

To create General Chat:

  1. Click the Chat link in the navigation bar. You will be taken to the Chat List.
  2. From the Chat List screen, select the New Chat button.
  3. A New Chat window will appear. For General Chat ensure the radio button next to General Chat has been selected.
  4. Enter a Chat title and a description (if desired) and click Create.

    5. Your new chat room will be created and listed in the Chat List. If you have multiple chat rooms, new chats will appear at the bottom of the list.

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Create Personal (Private) Chat

  1. Click the Chat link in the navigation bar. You will be taken to the Chat List screen.
  2. From the Chat List screen, select the New Chat icon.
  3. You will be taken to a New Chat page, select the Personal Chat option, give the Chat a Title and Description (optional) and click Create.
  4. You will be taken back to the Chat List. To add members to your chat click the Edit icon to the right of your personal chat.
  5. You will be taken to the Chat Properties page where you will click the Members icon.
  6. Click Add Members to add students from the course. Click Add Personal Contact to enter the username of a personal contact. If you choose to add members from your Classlist you will check the box to the left of the student's name(s) and click Add.
    The student will be added to the members list.
  7. You will be taken back to the Chat Members page where you can Enter Chat, return to the Chat List, go to the Chat Properties page or view chat Sessions.
  8. To edit your chat room select the edit chat button located to the right of your chat. Here you will be able to add/remove users from your chat room as well as change the title and description of the chat.You will not be able to edit the type of chat, change from personal to general and vice versa.
  9. If you wish to Delete your chat room, you can do so by selecting the Delete icon.

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Enter a Chat room

  1. Select the Chat link in the navigation bar.
  2. From the Chat List, click the name of the chat room you would like to join.
  3. You will now be taken to the Chat. All participants currently in the Chat are listed on the left side of the page. All Chat text will appear in the large area to the right.

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Participate in Chat(entering text)

  1. Locate the bar at the bottom of the Chat window. Click inside the bar and begin typing your message.
  2. After you have typed your message and are ready to submit the message, click the Send button. Please note that once you press Send, you cannot edit your message. Your message will now be displayed in the chat room.

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Change Chat User Name

You have the ability to change your chatroom identity to accommodate a desire to go by a different name. (Ex: Johnathon Smith changing his name to John Smith)

Note: This will not change your D2L login name, it will only appear differently in the chatroom.

To change your chat identity:

  1. Enter a chatroom
  2. Click the Chat Settings button .
  3. A popup will now appear with your name in the Alias box, enter the chat identity that you wish to go by and click Save.
  4. A message in the Chat box will indicate that you have changed your chat identity (alias).

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Exit Chat

To exit a chatroom, select the Exit Chat button located in the top right corner of the page.

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View Chat Archive

It is possible to read the contents of a previous chat session by visiting the chatroom archives.

To read the chatroom archives:

  1. Select the archive button next to the chatroom you wish to read.
  2. A list of all available Chat Session archives will be shown, newest archives will be listed first.
  3. Click the archive date that you wish to view, and its contents will be displayed.

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