From Dokeos

Help: Chat

The Chat tool allows you to discuss live with your students.

This chat is not similar to usual ones, like MSN® or Yahoo Messenger® because it is web based. The disadvantage is that it refreshes only after 10 seconds and not immediately. The advantage is that it is integrated in your course,it archives your discussions into the Documents tool and it doesn't require from your students any plugin to download.

If users send their pictures in 'My e-portfolio' (top banner), then this picture will appear in the discussion to help identify who is speaking.

Only the teacher is allowed to delete the discussion when he/she finds it relevant.

Pedagogical relevance

Adding a chat to your course is not necessarily a good idea. However, if this participates to your scenario, the chat can help. You can imagine, for instance, to hide the chat always except at a certain time when you have a dedicated meeting with your students to answer their questions live. It is less a 'free' dicsussion tool this way, but you give students a guarantee that they will benefit from this live meeting.

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