Chat

Chat allows you, your students, and your teaching assistants to have real-time conversations. There are four general purpose chat rooms and one general forum for the course. There is also a general chat room for all courses, which is a room shared by everybody from all courses on the same server. Conversations in the four general purpose rooms are recorded. Students do not have access to these records.

For users who are new to WebCT, we recommend that you use the Chat Wizard. The wizard guides you, step-by-step, through the following tasks:

• customizing page colors
• adding/editing upper textblock
• changing chat room names

To access the wizard, click Use Chat Wizard. For more information about wizards, see Course Design Center. Note: Depending on administrator settings, this feature may not be available to you.

What do you want to do? | Top

• enter a Chat room
• send a message to everyone in the room
• send a private message to someone in the room
• activate the entry chime
• modify Chat room names
• view Chat room logs
• customize Chat
  • customize page colors
  • add or modify a background image
  • add or modify a banner
  • add or modify an upper textblock
  • add or modify a lower textblock

Entering a chat room | Top

1. From the Course Menu, click Chat. The Chat screen appears.
2. From the Chat screen, click the room that you want to enter. The Chat window appears. It contains three main areas:
   • The Output Interaction Box displays all messages sent and received.
   • The Users Logged In box shows the users presently in the room.
   • The Enter your message below box where you enter your messages.
3. You can either:
   • send a message to everyone in the room
   • send a private message to someone in the room
   • activate the entry chime
   • close Chat. Click Quit.

Sending a message to everyone in the room | Top

1. From the Chat screen, click the room that you want to enter. The Chat window appears.
2. In the Enter your message below text box, enter your message.
3. To send the message, press ENTER. Your message appears in the Output Interaction Box.

Sending a private message to someone in the room | Top

1. From the Chat screen, click the room that you want to enter. The Chat window appears.
2. Under Users Logged In, select the recipient of the message. Tip: To select more than one recipient, hold the CTRL key (Windows), or Apple key (Macintosh) while selecting the names.
3. In the Enter your message below text box, enter your message.
4. To send the message, press ENTER. Your message appears in the Output Interaction Box of the selected recipient(s).

1. From the Chat screen, click any chat room. The Chat window appears.
2. Select Entry Chime. The chime sounds whenever a new person enters any chat room. You will hear the chime both in Chat and when you are working elsewhere in your course.

You can only modify the names of the four general purpose rooms.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Options, click Modify chat room names. The Edit Room Names screen appears.
3. Modify the room name(s) and click Update. The Chat screen appears.

Note: If you change a room name, the log file name does not change . For example, if Room 1 has been renamed Lounge 1, the log file name remains room1.txt.

View room logs | Top

You can only view the log files (conversation records) of the four general purpose rooms.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. From the View Room Log drop-down list, select a room, and then click Go. The Chat Log screen appears.
3. You may:
   • copy and paste the log into a file.
   • clear the log. Click Clear Log. Note: If you clear the log, the log file is deleted in Manage Files. A new log file is created as soon as a message is sent from the Chat room.
   • edit or download the files using Manage Files. Chat room log files are in My-Files, in the Chat folder. File names are in the format roomname.txt. Note: If you change a room name, the log file name does not change . For example, if Room 1 has been renamed Lounge 1, the log file name remains room1.txt.

Customizing Chat | Top

You can:

• customize page colors
• add or modify a background image
• add or modify a banner
• add or modify an upper textblock
• add or modify a lower textblock

Customizing page colors | Top

You can choose the color for text, links, visited links, and background for Chat. You can either choose from predefined color schemes or create a custom color scheme. Note: Depending on administrator settings, the high contrast color scheme may be the default and you will not be able to change page colors.

Choosing a predefined color scheme | Top

You can choose one of the predefined color schemes for Chat. Note: Depending on administrator settings, this feature may not be available. The high contrast color scheme may be the default.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected .
2. Under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears, displaying the predefined color schemes.
3. In the Color Set column, choose one of the predefined color schemes by selecting the radio button for the appropriate set.
4. Click Update. The chosen color scheme is applied.

Choosing the high contrast color scheme | Top

In compliance with the US Rehabilitation Act, Section 508, WebCT offers a color scheme that provides high contrast between background and foreground elements. This high contrast color scheme allows users who have difficulty distinguishing colors to use WebCT. Note: Depending on administrator settings, this may be the default color scheme.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected .
2. Under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.
3. In the Color Set column, select High Contrast.
4. Click Update. The high contrast color scheme is applied.

Creating a custom color scheme | Top

You can create a custom color scheme for Chat by selecting the colors for text, links, visited links, and background. Note: Depending on administrator settings, this feature may not be available. The high contrast color scheme may be the default.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected .
2. Under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.
3. In the Color Set column, select Custom.
4. In the Colors column, click one of the following:
   • Set text color
   • Set link color
   • Set visited link color
   • Set background color
   A color palette appears.
   
5. To preview a color, click one of the colored squares. The color appears in the frame to the right of the color palette. Tip: In the Color Value text box, you can also type an HTML hexadecimal color code and click Preview.
6. To choose the color, click Update. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 to select a custom color for another screen element.
8. Click Update. The custom color scheme is applied.

Choosing the course default color scheme | Top

You can choose the course color scheme as specified in Course Settings.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Customize, click Customize page colors. The Customize Page Colors screen appears.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen, and click Course default. The color scheme that is specified in Course Settings is applied.

Adding or modifying a background image | Top

If you choose to display a background image, you must select an image file. Images must be saved as .gif or .jpg. This image may either be selected from the WebCT-Files, or uploaded from your computer to your My-Files folder. For information on uploading files to your My-Files folder, see Manage Files.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Customize, click Modify/Add background image. The Modify/Add Background Image for Page screen appears.
3. Select or modify the background option.
   • To select a background image:
     1. Select Use file.
     2. In the Filename text box, enter the filename of the background image, or to select the file, click Browse. The WebCT Browser appears.
     3. Select the file and click Add selected.
   • To use the course default background image as specified in Course Settings, select Use course default.
   • To use no background image, select None.
4. Click Update. The Chat screen appears.

Adding or modifying a banner | Top

This option allows you to specify a banner to appear at the top of your Chat screen. The banner image can either be selected from the WebCT-Files, or uploaded from your computer to your My-Files folder. Images must be saved as .gif or .jpg. For information on uploading files to your My-Files folder, see Manage Files.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Customize, click Modify/Add banner image. The Modify/Add Banner Image for Page screen appears.
3. Select or change the banner.
   • To select a banner image:
     1. Select Use file.
     2. In the Filename text box, enter the path and filename of the banner image, or to select the file, click Browse. The WebCT Browser appears.
     3. Select the file and click Add selected.
   • To use the WebCT banner with personalized text:
     1. Select Use text.
     2. In the Text box, enter the text to appear in the banner.
   • To use the WebCT banner with the default text WebCT Chat, select Use default text.
   • To use no banner, select None.
4. Click Update. The Chat screen appears.

Adding or modifying an upper textblock | Top

This option allows you to add a textblock as a page header to your Chat screen. It appears below the banner.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Customize, click Edit/Add upper textblock. The Edit/Add Upper Textblock screen appears.
3. In the text box, enter or modify the text. Note: You can use HTML tags to format the text.
4. Click Update. The Chat screen appears.

Adding or modifying a lower textblock | Top

This option allows you to add a textblock as a page footer to your Chat screen.

1. From the Chat screen, click the Designer Options tab if it is not already selected.
2. Under Customize, select Edit/Add lower textblock. The Edit/Add Lower Textblock screen appears.
3. In the text box, enter or modify the text. Note: You can use HTML tags to format the text.
4. Click Update. The Chat screen appears.

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