Chat: Basic

Follow these steps to create and manage Chats in Carmen. For a general overview of options within Chat, see Chat: Overview.

To begin, log in to Carmen and go to a Course Home page.

Add Chat to Navigation Bar

Chat is not a default link for the Course Home page. You can add the Chat link to the Navigation Bar by following these steps:

1. Click Edit Course on Course Home page you want to add Chat to.

2. Click NavBars under Manage Course Offering.

3. Select tab of the area in the Navigation Bar you want to put the Chat button. The choices are: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right.

4. Under Inactive Links is a list of buttons you can add to the your Course Home page. Select Chat and click the > button. This will move Chat from Inactive Links to Current Active Links.

5. Click Save.

Now you can access the Chat tool by clicking the Chat link on the navbar.

Two Types of Chats

The Chat tool enables you to engage in instant text discussions with users and colleagues. There are two types of chats:

General (or Course) chats are public chats visible and open to everyone enrolled in your course. General chats are course-specific; if you create a chat in a specific course then that chat can only be accessed in that course.
Personal chats are private and visible only to users who you have added to the chat’s participant list. Instructors can create personal chats from any course, and these chats can be accessed from all other courses.

The Chat List page shows all general chats you can access from within the current course and all personal chats to which you have access. You always see all personal chats regardless of which course you accessed the Chat tool from.

Create a chat

1. Click Chat in the Navigation Bar. You will be on the Chat List page.

For a General Chat, be sure you are in the course in which you want to create the chat.

2. Click New Chat on the top tool bar.

3. Enter a Title for the chat.

4. Click the Personal Chat or General Chat radio button.

5. Enter a Description of the chat.

6. Click Create.

Everyone enrolled in the course where you create a general chat will have access to the chat once it has been created.

For personal chats, you need to add members to the chat. Personal chats are invisible to anyone who is not on the chat’s participant list. Only the creator of a personal chat can manage the users for that chat.

Add and Remove Personal Chat Participants

On the Chat list page, click the View Members icon next to the Personal Chat to which you want to add or remove members.

Add a Participant

1. Click Add Members and select people enrolled in the current course from the list in the pop-up window. You can also select users from different courses using the Select Different Course link at the top of the pop-up window.

2. Check the box beside the name of users you want to add.

3. Click Add.

4. If you want to add someone who is not enrolled in a course, click Add Personal Contact. Type in the lastname.# of the person you would like to add. Repeat to add other personal contacts. Check the box next to each name. Click Add.

Remove a Participant

1. Select the checkbox beside the users you to remove on the Chat Member page.

2. Click the Delete icon at the top or bottom of the list.

Participate in a Chat

1. To enter a chat, click its name on the Chat List page. Users who are already in the chat appear in the participants list on the left.

2. The chat text appears in the center window.

3. Type your messages in the text entry field at the bottom. Press the Enter key, or click the Send button.

4. Be sure to click Exit Chat when you are done. Clicking elsewhere in your Carmen course without exiting the chat will leave your name in the participant's list.

Other Chat Options

Change Chat Alias

By default, the name associated with your lastname.# appears in the chat participants list. You can change this name (that is, change your alias).

Any change to your alias will appear in all chats (General and Personal) as soon as you have completed the change. You can have only one alias in the Carmen system, though you can change your alias as often as desired.

To change your alias:

1. Click Chat Settings in one of two locations:

On the Chat List page, click Chat Settings on the top tool bar.
Inside a chat, click Chat Settings along the top of the chat window

2. Type a new alias in the Alias field.

3. If you want to change your alias’s appearance, you can select bold, italic and a color.

4. Click Save.

Change Other Chat Settings

You can make several changes to how chat text is displayed on the screen. These settings apply only to your own view of chat (both General and Personal), even if you are the instructor in a general chat or the creator of a personal chat.

1. Click Chat Settings in one of two locations:

On the Chat List page, click Chat Settings on the top tool bar.
Inside a chat, click Chat Settings along the top of the chat window.

2. You can change whether new messages appear before or after existing messages.

3. You can choose to see only new messages. This requires you to manually refresh the screen to see new messages and remove all old ones. You can change back to see all messages, which restores all messages for that session even if they were not visible while New Messages was checked.

4. You can specify whether you will hear sounds when chat events occur.

Chat session archives

Each chat session is recorded in the chat’s archives where it can be viewed by instructors at a later time. The system automatically saves a copy of a chat session after a period of more than 20 minutes of inactivity.

Chat sessions appear in the list of available sessions as soon as they are created (that is, 20 minutes after the last active exchange in the chat window).

1. On the Chat List page, click the Sessions icon next to the chat you want to review.

2. Click the link in the Start Date column.

3. When you are done reviewing the session, click Go Back.

Students cannot see the chat session archives, even for personal chats. If you want students to be able review a chat session, access the session as described above, click-and-drag to highlight the desired sections, copy the text, and paste it into a document. Place the document in the Content area.

Edit an Existing Chat

The Chat Properties page enables you to change a chat’s title and description.

1. On the Chat List page, click the Edit Chat icon beside the chat you want to edit.

2. Make changes to the Title and/or Description fields.

3. Click the Save button.

Delete a Chat Session or Chat

For personal chats, only the chat’s creator can delete sessions or the entire chat.

Delete a Chat Session

1. On the Chat List page, click the Sessions icon next to the chat for which you want to delete one or more sessions.

2. Check the boxes for the sessions you want to delete.

3. Click the Delete icon.

Delete a Chat

When you delete a chat you also delete all the sessions archives for it.

1. In the course in which you created the chat (for General chats) or in any course (for Personal chats), click the Chat link in the Navigation Bar. You will be on the Chat List page.

2. Check the box next to the chat you want to delete. Click the Delete icon at the top or bottom of the Chat list.

3. Click Confirm to complete the delete process.