The Chat Tool

In January 2024, the Chat tool will be eliminated from the Brightspace environment. For details, please visit the D2L Brightspace Community.

Introduction

The Chat tool is a real-time, text-based collaboration tool. You can use the Chat tool to brainstorm ideas, hold a question and answer period, have a debate or discussion, or organize a remote study group. As opposed to other collaboration tools, such as Discussions, Chat conversations occur in real-time.

Types of Chat

There are two types of chats:

  1. Personal chats – Personal chats are private and visible only to users who you have added to the chat’s participants list. Personal chats are ideal for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues or for clubs and other groups whose members do not share a single org unit. Anyone, including students, can create personal chat rooms.
  2. General (course) chats – General chats are public chats visible to everyone enrolled in the course where they are created. Instructors can create general chat rooms to incorporate chat discussions into the teaching of a course since they are automatically open to all users enrolled in the course.

Create a Chat

To create a General chat in which all class members can participate…

  1. On the navbar, click The chat navbar icon Chat.
  2. On the Chat List page, click New Chat.
  3. Enter a title.
  4. Click General Chat.
  5. Enter a description of the chat.
  6. Click Create.

Personal chat rooms can only be accessed by users who have been added to the personal chat’s Participant List. When users are added, the chat room displays under Personal Chats in their list of chats.To create a Private chat…

  1. On the navbar, click The chat navbar icon Chat.
  2. On the Chat List page, click New Chat.
  3. Enter a title.
  4. Click Personal Chat.
  5. Enter a description of the chat. Give your chat a unique, descriptive name and provide a description for it using the Description field to help users distinguish the chat from other chats they are enrolled in.
  6. Click Create.

Add or Remove Users from a Chat

  1. On the navbar, click The chat navbar icon Chat.
  2. On the Chat List page, from the context menu of the personal chat you want to modify, click The chat members icon View Members.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • To add a member to the chat, click Add Members. To add users from different course offerings click Select Different Course. Select the check box beside the name of users you want to add. Click Add > Done.
    • To add a personal contact, click Add Personal Contact. Select the check box beside the name of users you want to add. Click Add > Done.
    • To delete a member of the chat, on the Chat Members page, select the check box beside the users you want to remove. Click Delete > Done.

More Info?

Looking for more info on this tool? Go to Brightspace Help at this link address https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/chat/learner/chat_intro_1.htm