The chat tool is attached to the communication tools page
generally. Upon opening the webpage the learner will see a list of rooms
displayed. The first four rooms are areas where ‘conversations’ are recorded
with the transcript available to the facilitator. The names of the chat rooms
can be edited and labelled in a much more appropriate manner. The next room is
for the individual course of module but the ‘conversation’ here is not
recorded. There is a further room which is common for all the courses on WebCT,
allowing students from across the university to communicate. This also is a
room where the communication records are not maintained. Both these rooms’
titles cannot be changed.
Learner will click on the name of the room to be visited.
This will open up a chat box. On the right hand side will be the list of names
of people who are in the chat room at the time. At the bottom there is a space
for the individual to type the message. Once the message has been typed, the
learner has to press the enter key on the keyboard and the message will get
displayed on top in the main box.
To send a web page address press the button marked send URL.
This opens up a small box where the URL (web address) is entered and the send
button clicked. Should one wish to send a private message or URL to someone
click on the person's name from the right hand column and do as before. The
learner must remember to unclick the name to return to the main conversation.
The participants cannot change their name from that on the
list (generally full name is displayed with the username id). All text is
displayed in black with the same font. If the discussion needs to be accessed
at a later date the rooms where record is kept have to be used. Even then
during the discussion it is not possible to scroll back for more than a few
minutes of conversation in the open screen. If the individual gets disconnected
from the room, then upon returning, they will only be able to see the
discussion from the point of joining the room again. There are no facilities to
share files and show emotion via use of emoticons.
Facilitator cannot be identified separately except for the
user id next to the name. The facilitator has to set up the focus of the
discussion at the start and as with face to face guide the discussion.
(Williams 2006) Again since the individual can see the discussion from the
point of their entry into it, the focus of discussion might have to be repeated
if all are not present at the time of starting the discussion.
In the newer edition of WebCT ‘Vista’ there is a change to
help with facilitation but it leads to a more facilitator controlled discussion.
The facilitator can enable a tool to ‘raise hands’ as the learners might do in
a face to face situation. Once this tool is enabled the facilitator can allow
access to each participant in turn to put up their message. If the tool is
disabled then the chat box is the same as that in the older edition of the
software.
The facilitator can edit and post the notes of discussion
from the recorded conversations. This allows the learners to revisit the
specific areas of discussion without having to read through the socialising
part of the discussion. This editing of notes is time consuming but identified
as beneficial by the learners as explained by Williams (2006). I have used this
chat option before and have identified the limitations as discussed.
Chat tool in WebCT Vista
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