Lightweight Chat

In the Lightweight Chat, the right pane of the window is dedicated to group information. The large pane toward the upper right is used to display messages and login information (and depending on how you have configured your options (see the "Changing Your Viewing Options for Private Messages" directions for more information) may include private messages as well. The right pane of the Lightweight Chat window has all messages sent to the group. When you join a chat, you will see a message saying that you have joined the session with the time you joined displayed next to your name.

Entering a Collaboration Session

From the Control Panel:

1. Click the Collaboration link in the Course Tools section.
2. You will see a list of all collaboration sessions in alphabetical order by session name if you have not yet created a collaboration session, read the documents on Creating and Managing Collaboration for more details.
3. Find the collaboration session you wish to join.
4. Click the Join button to the right of the collaboration session name.
5. You will see a page that says "Chat Loading." Depending on your connection speed, it may take a few minutes for everything necessary for the chat to run to download.
6. A new window will appear. This is the Lightweight Chat Tool.

Note: The Lightweight Chat window has two major panes. On the left, you are shown a list of all users currently in the chat room. On the right, you see all messages sent to the group.

Changing Your Viewing Options for Private Messages

You can set your chat window to display private messages either inline (with the other messages you send and receive) or in a separate frame (which creates a new pane in the Lightweight Chat window which contains only private messages).

1. Click the View button.
2. A new window, labeled Session Options will appear.
3. Select the radio button next to Show in-line or Show in separate frame.
4. Click the OK button.

Sending and Receiving Messages

1. Click in the field just to the right of the Compose button.
2. Type your message and click the Send button (or press return).
3. In the window above the text field, you should see your name (or your username, depending on your privacy settings) and your message, followed by a date and timestamp. Messages that other users send will appear in the same pane.

Sending Longer Messages

You may occasionally wish to send a longer message than will fit in the compose field. If you'd like to send a longer message, you can do it by using the Compose button.

1. Click the Compose button.
2. A window labeled Compose Message will appear. Type your message here. While typing, pressing Enter or Return will insert line breaks; however, these line breaks will not appear when the final message is sent.
3. Click the Send button.

Sending a Private Message

1. Click on the name (or User ID) of the participant you wish to sent a private message to in the left pane.
2. The user's name, role, and status should be highlighted.
3. Click the Private Message button.
4. A new window, labeled Compose Private Message, will appear.
5. Type your message into the text field of the Compose Private Message window.
6. Click the Send button.

Clearing Your Display

1. Click on the Clear button.
2. Your chat window will clear.

Viewing Participants

• The left pane will show you a list of all current participants in the chat.
• The number of current participants appears at the top of the list (in parentheses, after the word "Participants").
• Users who have set their name to publicly available in their Privacy Settings will have their first and last names appear here. Users who have not set their name to publicly available will have their user ID displayed.
• Next to each participantís name, an icon displaying the userís role will be displayed:
  • Users who are Moderators of the chat have a Globe icon.
  • Users who are Active Users have a face in profile icon.
  • Users who are Passive Users have the same face icon, but it is grayed out.

Sorting the Participant List

You can sort participants by name, role, or order in which they raised their hands

1. Click on the Participants tab, to sort participants in alphabetical order by last name.
2. Click on Role to sort users by role (moderators, active users, and passive users).
3. Click on the Hand icon to sort users by whether they have their hand raised, and if they do, by the order in which they raised their hands.
4. Click on a sort button a second time to reverse the order of the sort.

Changing a User's Status

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Click on the name (or User ID) of the participant whose status you wish to change. The user's name, role, and status should highlight in purple. If you need to select more than one user, you can shift click or control click on the additional users you need to select.
2. Immediately to the right of the Private Message button, you will see a button with the Active User icon (which looks like a profile of a person) and another button with the Passive User icon.
3. If you wish to change the user or users to Active Users click the Active User button.
4. If you wish to change the user or users to Passive Users click the Passive User button.
5. You can also change the role of a single user by double-clicking on the Role icon next to their name in the participant list.

Calling on Passive Users (those with a raised hand)

If you have passive users in your lightweight chat session, they have the option to raise their hand by pressing a button that appears (only for passive users) below the participant list. You will see a hand icon appear next to their name, next to a number. This indicates the order in which students raised their hands.

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Find the user you wish to call on in the list of participants.
2. Double click on the Hand icon next to the userís name.
3. To change the user back to Passive once they have finished talking or asking their question, follow the directions for Changing a User's Status above.

Expelling a User

If a user is being disruptive, as the moderator, you have the option to expel them from the collaboration session. You can't block them from re-entering, however, unless you remove them from your course completely.

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Click on the name (or User ID) of the participant whose info you wish to view. The user's name, role, and status should highlight in purple.
2. Press the User Info button.
3. In the User Information window that appears, press the Expel User button.
4. The Expel User window will appear.
5. Click the OK button.
6. The user will be expelled from the chat.

Recording an Archive

Archives let you record what people say in a chat session. Once you have recorded an archive for a particular chat session, you can review, sort, modify, and remove archives - for more information on this, please see the section on Managing Archives.

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Press the Record button in the upper right corner.
2. The Name Archive window will appear.
3. Enter the name for the chat archive. The default is the current date and time.
4. Click the OK button.
5. A message will appear that indicates that you have started archiving. A similar message will appear for all users that indicates that Archiving is in progess.
6. While recording is in progress, you can press the Pause button to stop recording without having to start a new archive.
7. When you have finished recording your archive, press the Stop button. You can leave the virtual classroom without stopping the archive, it will continue recording.

Inserting a Bookmark into an Archive

If someone makes a particularly salient point that you think you'll want to return to while you are recording an archive (or if you have a long-running archive and want to mark a particular time) you can insert a bookmark. This will create a place in the archive that users can jump to when viewing the archive.

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Press the Insert Bookmark button to the right of the Record, Pause and Stop buttons.
2. The Create Bookmark in Archive window will appear.
3. Enter a name for the bookmark in the text field.
4. Click the OK button.

Ending a Collaboration Session

From the Lightweight Chat Tool:

1. Press the End button.
2. The End Session window will appear.
3. Click the OK button.
4. All users will be expelled from the collaboration session and the session will be over.

More Information:

Question: I recorded an archive, but students tell me they can't see it!
Answer:   Archives are created as unavailable by default. See the section on Managing Archives for more information.

Question: I expelled a student from the Lightweight Chat tool, but he/she keeps returning. How can I expel them permanently?
Answer:   You can't. You could remove them from your class entirely, but there's no way to block someone from entering a collaboration session.