Chatrooms
Home > Online Programs > Chatrooms The DBU Online courses offer
chatrooms for synchronous communication. Some instructors
hold office hours in the chatroom while others may encourage
students to use the chatroom for group communication. The
following are directions for use of the Lecture Hall (includes
whiteboard) and Office Hours (text only chat).
The Lecture Hall combines
real-time chat with a course map, group browser, and white
board to provide multimedia interaction between professor
and students. To enter the Lecture Hall area of the Virtual
Classroom, click the 
button. The Lecture Hall will pop up in a new window. This
window is divided into four sections: the Classroom Tool section,
the Display section, the Participants section, and the Chat
section.
Classroom
Tool
The Classroom Tool has five options listed:
Course Map, Whiteboard, Group Browser, Ask Question, and Question
Inbox.
**NOTE: Your professor may choose to disable
some or all of the Classroom Tool options. You will see the
following message if an option is disabled: "You do not
have permission to use this tool."
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The Course Map allows you
to display different parts of your course while in the
Virtual Classroom. When you click on Course Map, a navigational
tree will appear that shows the Course Information, Faculty
Information, Course Material, and Web Sites areas of your
course. Once you have found the specific page you want
to display, you may use the pull-down menu located beneath
the navigational tree to either display that page to the
entire class, preview that page on your own screen in
a new window, or you can refresh the navigational tree. |
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The Whiteboard function allows
you to draw pictures and/or diagrams for the other students,
much like you would use the dry-erase board in a classroom.
Use the tools menu to draw in the Display section to the
right of the Classroom Tool. |
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The Group Browser functions
lets you access web sites and display them for the entire
class. When you click on Group Browser, a blank address
bar will appear. You may type the web address in the blank
and, using the pull-down menu, you can display that site
to the entire class or preview it on your own screen. |
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The Ask Question function lets you send
a question to a specific person in your course who is
currently participating in the Lecture Hall. Click on
Ask Question, then type your question in the blank provided.
Underneath the message blank, you will see the Participants
section of the Lecture Hall and the name of everyone
currently participating in the Lecture Hall. Click on
the name of the person you want to send your question
to, then click the Send button at the lower right-hand
corner of the question blank. This will send your question
to that person.
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The
Question Inbox works hand in hand with the Ask Question
feature, as it is where you will receive questions from
other participants in the Lecture Hall. The number in
parenthesis next to the Question Inbox will tell you
how many questions have been sent to you. When you click
on the Question Inbox, you will see the name of each
person who has sent you a question. Click on the name
to bring up that person's question to you. You will
then see the question in the blank below.
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Display
The Display section of the Lecture Hall is the large, white
area that is found to the right of the Classroom Tool section.
It is the largest section of the Lecture Hall. This is the
place where you draw pictures and diagrams using the Whiteboard
function, and any pages you display for the entire class using
the Course Map and/or Group Browser functions will be shown
here. When displaying Course Map or Group Browser pages, the
Display section acts as a simple frame with no navigational
or editing capabilities. When using the Whiteboard function,
however, a limited editing menu appears at the top of the
Display section to allow greater use of the Whiteboard function.
The screen shot below shows the Display section as it appears
when it is used as the Whiteboard.
Participants
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The Participants section
simply displays which users are currently participating
in the Lecture Hall. When you click on the name of a particular
participant, you will see two buttons below the list of
names. The first button is the User Info button. When
you click this button, a new window will pop up showing
you more information about that person. The second button
is the Private Message button. You can click this button
to send a private message to that person. |
Chat
The Chat section
is where most of the interaction in the Lecture Hall will
take place. This section functions as an instant message system,
allowing real-time interaction between participants. There
are two basic components of the Chat section. The first component
is the chat display. This white, rectangular box will record
all dialog between participants, show when participants join
and leave the chat session, and show the URL of any Course
Map or Group Browser page that is displayed to the entire
class. The second component of the Chat section is the Compose
blank. This blank is where you will type your messages when
you chat with other participants. Simply click the mouse in
the blank one time, type your message, and hit Enter on the
keyboard to send the message. You will immediately see your
message in the chat display box directly above the Compose
blank.
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