- About the Chat Tool
- Create General Chat
- Create Personal (private) Chat
- Enter a Chat room
- Participate in Chat(entering text)
- Change Chat Name
- Exit Chat
- View Chat Archive
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 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
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
Create General Chat
- Click the Chat link in the navigation bar. You will be taken to the Available Chats screen.
- From the available chats screen, select the create chat button located in the top right corner.
- A create chat page will show up, select the General Chat option and click next.
- You will now be taken to a new page where you can title your chatroom and give it a description. Click the create button to finish creating the chat room.
- Your new chat room will be created and listed in the available chats screen. If you have multiple chat rooms create already, new chats will appear at the bottom of the list.
Create Personal (Private) Chat
- Click the Chat link in the navigation bar. You will be taken to the Available Chats screen.
- From the available chats screen, select the create chat button located in the top right corner.
- A create chat page will show up, select the Personal Chat option and click next.
- You will now be taken to a new page where you can title your chatroom and give it a description. Click the next button to begin adding participants to the chat room.
- After hitting next from the previous step, you will now see a participant list screen below the chat descripton. Click the add link to begin adding participants to the chat room.
- You can add participants from the username of someone you know, or choose classmates from your class by selecting the class from the dropdown box. Click box next to the users you wish to add and select the add button when finished selecting participants.
- Your private chat will now be displayed in the Available Chats List under Personal Chats.
- To edit your chat room select the edit chat button located next to your personal chat under options .Here you will be able to add/remove users from your chat room as well as changing the title and description of the chat.
- If you wish to delete your chat room, you can do so by selecting the delete chat button.
Enter a Chat room
- Select the Chat link in the navigation bar.
- From the list of available chats, click the name of the chat room you would like to join.
- 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.
Participate in Chat(entering text)
- Locate the bar at the bottom of the chat window. Click inside the bar and begin typing your message.
- After you have typed your message and are ready to submit the message, hit the add button. Please note that once you press add, you cannot edit your message. Your message will now be displayed in the chat room after hitting add.
Participants have the ability to change chat room identity to accommodate any desire to go by a different name. (Ex: Jonathon Smith changing his name to John Smith)
Note This will not change your D2L login name, the new identity will only appear in the chatroom..
To change your chat identity
1. Enter a chat room
2. Click the Change Chat User Identity button ( ) located next to the pull down window.
3. A popup will now appear with your name, enter the desired chat identity that you wish to go by and click submit.
4. A message will indicate that your chat identity has been successfully changed.
You can change your username appearanec by selecting the color, bold, and/or italic buttons. Click submit when you have selected the appropriate changes.
Exit Chat
- To exit a chat, from within the chat room select the exit chat button located in the top right corner of the chat room.
View Chat Archive
- From the available chats screen, select the archive button ()for the chat room you wish to view.
- You will be taken to a new page where you can view the chat archives. Find the date you wish to view the chat log for and click the link of the date.
- You will now be shown the chat log of all the conversations within the specified period of time and date.
