Chat & Whiteboard

Topics in this Article

Overview
Access Chat Rooms
Use Chat Tools
Troubleshooting

Overview

Chat room tools provide "real-time" text-based communication for a group of users. A chat room tool requires individuals to be online and in the chat room tool at a set time. Chat rooms are different than a discussion group. A message may be posted to a discussion at anytime and read by the others in a class at their leisure. With a chat room, everyone participating must go to the chat room and read the text messages displayed there at the same time.

Access Chat Rooms

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To access the chat tool, click on Chat from the left menu.
Open the chat room by click on the title of the room.

Use Chat Tools

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About Chat:

Upon entering the chat room, you will see the Participant List within the Chat Room. This is a list of the people that are logged into this particular chat room. You will also see the Whiteboard and Chat areas.
Messages are entered via the Enter Text Here box. Type your message there and press return (or the Send button) to publish the message to the chat screen so everyone can see it.
The Chat box displays all the previously published messages.

About Whiteboard:

In the white space provided, you may insert graphs, equations, text, etc. In turn, other users can add to the whiteboard area and you see their changes as they make them. This software simulates a single whiteboard in a classroom in which all of the members of the class can view and make changes. Other users may add to the whiteboard or remove items from it as well in "real-time".

Toolbar:

	Select tool		Move tool
	Pencil tool		Line tool
	Oval tool		Rectangle tool
	Reshape tool		Duplicate tool
	Zoom Out tool		Zoom In tool
	Text tool		Delete Selected tool
	Undo tool		Clear All tool

To add images or other graphics to the whiteboard area:

Click Load File. See File Upload for more information on how to upload. Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ).

Some things to remember while you are chatting:

Be patient—you can only "talk" as fast as you type. It is hard to type and read responses at the same time so take your time. Strive to make your communication in the chat room short and focused. Wait for a response to a question before you ask another.
Try not to worry about spelling. Make your statements as brief as possible. Your goal is to make the others in the room understand what you are trying to say with just a few words. This is not a publication—it is just a conversation. If you take too long trying to post the perfect response, the conversation will have proceeded past the point you were trying to make and your posting may no longer be relevant.
During a session, there can be many people in a chat room; however, a good rule of thumb is the smaller the group, the better the chat. Smaller chats tend to be more focused and easier to communicate effectively in.

Troubleshooting

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If you are experiencing problems with the chat tool, ensure that you are using an approved Web browser. The Chat does not work correctly in Safari for Windows, for example. See Browser Tune-Up page for additional help on selecting a Web browser.

Blackboard Chat requires an outbound connection to port 2304 for communication with its chat server. If you are experiencing problems with the chat tool, make sure that your Internet connection service, modem, firewall, etc. are not blocking outbound traffic for port 2304.

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