Lightweight Chat

The Lightweight Chat tool allows youto communicate in real-time or "synchronously" with your class. Participants enter a "chat room" and by typing messages can communicate immediately to the instructor or the entire class. This feature can be used to hold class discussions, meet with teams, or visit with a guest speaker. Instructors may choose to hold "virtual office hours" using the Lightweight Chat. Chat transcripts are saved and can be visited later by anyone in the class, whether or not they participated in the actual chat session.

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 Your Course:

Click into the content area where Collaboration sessions are kept (this varies from course to course, but is usually the Communication area).
Click the Collaboration link.
You will see a list of all collaboration sessions in alphabetical order by session name.
Find the collaboration session you wish to join.
Click the Join button to the right of the chat collaboration session name.
You will see a page that says Chat Loading. Depending on your connection speed, it may take a few minutes for the chat window to load.
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).

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

Sending and Receiving Messages

Click in the field just to the right of the Compose button.
Type your message and click the Send button (or press return).
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 time stamp. 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 so by using the Compose button.

Click the Compose button.
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.
Click the Send button.

Sending a Private Message

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

Note: Your message will appear in your chat window and in the window of the user you've sent it to, but will not appear in any other user's chat window. Private messages will not show up in the archives for the chat.

Clearing Your Display

Click on the Clear button.
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 participant's name, an icon displaying the user's 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

Click on the Participants tab, to sort participants in alphabetical order by last name.
Click on Role to sort users by role (moderators, active users, and passive users).
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.
Click on a sort button a second time to reverse the order of the sort.

Viewing User Info

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.
Press the User Info button.
A new window will appear with all information from the user's profile that is publicly available (this depends on the user's privacy settings, but may include name and email).

Active vs. Passive Users

Depending on how your instructor has set up the Lightweight Chat Tool, you may not have access to all the features mentioned above. Sometimes, instructors will set users to Passive mode, which will not give you access to all the tools. If you have been set as a Passive user, and you'd like access to more options, you can Raise your Hand and wait to be called on by your instructor.

Click the Hand icon. The hand icon is located in the bottom right of the left pane to the right of the Private Message button.
A hand with a number will appear in the user information pane, to the right of your name. This indicates to your teacher that you have requested Active User status. When your teacher calls on you, the hand will disappear and you will have Active User status. Usually, this means you will have access to the chat pane and can send messages.

More Information

Q. I want to send a message/send a private message, but those tools are grayed out! What's up?

A. Your teacher may have turned off access to these tools for all users, or set you as a Passive User . Contact your instructor to see how they want you to use the Lightweight Chat tool.

Q. What are the system requirements for using the Lightweight Chat tool?

A. You must have a java-enabled browser with a recent version of Java. If you have problems loading the chat, you can follow the link on the page that appears in Blackboard when you click the Join button to download the Java Plug-In .