CHAT TOOL
The Chat Tool allows you and your students to converse with each other in real time, meaning communication is received the moment it was sent. Your communication occurs through type-written messages that appear in a Chat Room, or an internet browser window that displays conversations. Your WebCT course contains four multi-purpose chat rooms and one general course chat room which may be accessed only by students from your course. Another general chat room for all WebCT courses at UNR is also available in your course, which may be accessed by anyone enrolled in any WebCT course at UNR. Any number of students in your course may log into any number of chat rooms at one time. The conversation in your four general chat rooms will be recorded for your records only.
With the Chat Tool, you can:
Enter a Chat Room
On the home page for your WebCT course, click on the Chat icon to bring up the WebCT Chat page with the list of Chat Rooms. You should have links to the following chat rooms:
Click the name of the room that you would like to enter. The Chat window for that chat room appears.
Three main areas are available to you in the Chat window:
- The Output Interaction Box
, which displays all messages which have been sent and received.
- The Users Logged In box
, displaying all users currently logged in to that chat room.
- The Enter your message below text box
, where you may type your messages.
You may close the window by either clicking [Quit] or clicking the red box in the upper corner of the window.
Send a Message to Everyone in a Chat Room
The vast majority of communication within a Chat Room usually involves sending messages to everyone in the chat room. To send a message to everyone in a chat room, type your message in the text box entitled Enter your message below.
When you are finished typing, press the [Enter] or [Return] key on your keyboard. The message appears in the Output Interaction Box for all logged-on users to view.
Tip: if you have a longer message, you may want to post it in smaller chunks, separating each portion with an ellipse.
Send a Private Message to One or More People in a Chat Room
You may also post chat messages that only selected users may view. Private messages are not recorded in your chat room records. To send a private message, select the user's name from the Users Logged In list.
To select multiple names, hold the [CTRL] key on your keyboard while selecting multiple names. (If you are using a Macintosh computer, hold the "Apple" key instead of the [CTRL] key). After selecting names, type your message in the Enter your message below text box and press the [Enter] key on your keyboard.
Refer to Best Practices Tips and Tricks for tips about when to send private messages.
Activate the Entry Chime
If a Chat Room is open, you may activate an entry chime to sound whenever a new person enters the chat room. To activate the chime, select the Entry Chime check box
on the chat room's window. The chat room must remain open for the chime to sound, but you will not to stay in Chat to be alerted. As long as a chat room is open, you may be working elsewhere in your WebCT course and still be alerted when someone enters the room. The entry chime is particularly helpful if you keep a chat room open for students to "drop by" during your office hours, but you wish to work on other material when no students are present.
Change the Names of Chat Rooms
You may change the names for only the first four Chat Rooms. Be aware, however, that the log files for these rooms in the Chat Log will not change. The logs will always be recorded as room1.txt, room2.txt, room3.txt, and room4.txt.
To change a Chat Room's name:
- From the WebCT Chat screen, ensure that the Designer Options tab
is selected. - On the right side of the screen under Options, click [Modify chat room names]. A screen entitled Edit Room Names appears.
- Modify the names in the text boxes as desired and click [Update]. You will be brought back to the WebCT Chat screen with your updated names.
View Recordings of Chat Room Conversations
The recordings of Chat Room conversations are known as Log Files. Only the conversations for the first four chat rooms are recorded.
To view recordings of chat room conversations:
- Ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, select the View Room Log drop-down list and select a room from the list.
- Click [Go]. The Chat Log screen appears with the log of chat room conversations.
- In the Chat Log screen, you may:
- Select, copy and paste selections of the log into another file (e.g. Microsoft Word document).
- Clear the log by clicking [Clear Log]. All conversation records will be deleted and a new log will begin the next time someone enters a Chat Room.
You may also edit the content of a chat room log or download the log. To edit or download log files, you must first access the files under Manage Files, which is available from the Control Panel. The Chat folder may be found under Manage Files within My-Files. Remember that the first four rooms always retain the default name within the Chat folder, e.g. room1.txt, room2.txt, room3.txt, and room4.txt.
Customize Chat: Customize Page Colors
You may adjust the colors for text, links, visited links, and background. You may choose from predefined color schemes, a high contrast color scheme, or you may create your own custom color scheme.
To choose predefined color schemes or a high contrast color scheme:
- From the WebCT Chat screen, ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.
- In the Color Set column, select the predefined color scheme that you wish to apply. Color schemes are demonstrated in the Color Preview column.
- The High contrast color scheme complies with the US Rehabilitation Act, Section 508, allowing WebCT users who have difficulty distinguishing colors to more easily read your WebCT interface.
- Click [Update]. *Note: you may also select the [Course Default] option to apply the WebCT default color settings.
When you create your own custom color scheme for the Chat Tool, you will adjust the colors for text, links, visited links, and background.
To adjust the custom color scheme:
- Ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.
- Under the Color Set column, select Custom.
- Under Color Preview, select one of the following buttons:
- For any of these options, a color palette appears.
- Click on a colored square to preview the color in the larger frame to the right.
- You may also type an HTML hexadecimal color code in the Color value box and click [Preview].
- Click [Update]. You will be brought back to the Customize Page Colors screen.
- Repeat the above steps for any screen element you wish to modify.
- When finished adjusting all elements, click [Update].
Add an Image for the Background
To use an image as the background for the WebCT Chat page, the image must be save as a .gif or .jpg image file within WebCT-Files or in your My-Files folder.
To add an image as your background:
- From the WebCT Chat screen, ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click [Modify/Add background image]. A new Modify/Add Background Image for Page screen appears.
- Select Use file. You may also select Use course default for the default background color or None for no background. The default background image is specified in Course Settings.
- Enter the path and file name for the image in the Filename text box.
- If you do not know the exact name or path to the file, select [Browse] for the WebCT File Browser window. On the WebCT File Browser window, select the radio button
next to the file name and click [Add Selected]. You will be brought back to the Modify/Add Background Image for Page screen with the name and path already entered in the Filename text box.
- Click [Update].
Add or Modify a Banner
You may modify the banner that appears at the top of your WebCT Chat. The banner may be a .gif or .jpg image file that is saved in WebCT-Files or in your My-Files folder.
To use an image for the banner:
- From the WebCT Chat screen, ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click [Modify/Add banner image]. A new Modify/Add Banner Image for Page screen appears.
- Select Use file. You may also select the default option for the banner or select none for no banner.
- Enter the path and file name for the image in the Filename text box.
- If you do the exact name or path to the file, select [Browse] for the WebCT File Browser window. On the WebCT File Browser window, select the radio button next to the file name and click [Add Selected]. You will be brought back to the Modify/Add Banner Image for Page screen with the name and path already entered in the Filename text box.
- Click [Update].
If you want to edit the banner's text:
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click [Modify/Add banner image]. A new Modify/Add Banner Image for Page screen appears.
- Select Use text.
- Enter your banner's text in the Text Box.
- Click [Update]. You will be brought back to the Chat screen.
Add or Modify the Textblocks
The Textblocks appear both at the top of the WebCT Chat screen and at the bottom of the WebCT Chat screen. To add or modify a textblock:
- From the WebCT Chat screen, ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
- On the right side of the screen, under Customize, click [Edit/Add upper textblock] or [Edit/Add lower textblock]. A new Edit/Add Upper Textblock screen appears.
- Enter or modify your text in the Edit textblock box. If desired, you may use HTML tags to format the text.
- Click [Update]. You will be brought back to the WebCT Chat screen.