Chat Areas

MV Online offers two options to collaborate in real time with other students and/or with your instructor. For a group meeting, you might use the Virtual Classroom tool, which provides text chat as well as graphical tools such as a whiteboard. For a text-only chat, you might use the Lightweight Chat tool.

If your instructor posts Virtual Office Hours, he or she will be available to you during those times for real-time conversation in one of these collaboration areas. Also, your instructor will make every effort to respond to emails sent during that time, in case you have questions or concerns that you'd like to discuss privately rather than in the chat areas, which are public to everyone in your class.

To participate in Virtual Classroom

Note: Your browser must have Java enabled in order for a Lecture Hall session to function.

  1. Access the Virtual Classroom in the Collaboration section (usually in Communications).
  2. Click the Join button to the right of Virtual Classroom.
  3. The Lecture Hall applet will open in a new window (this may take a few minutes).
  4. The screen is divided into four areas. The upper two areas provide a “viewing area?and several tools for using the viewing area. The lower left area lists participants and their roles in the Lecture Hall. The lower right area is a text-based chat area.
  5. To participate in the chat area, click your mouse in the Compose text box, type your message, then hit the enter key on your keyboard or click Send. Your message will appear in the chat area momentarily, along with your name and the time.
  6. To leave the Virtual Classroom, simply close the window.

To participate in Lightweight Chat

Note: Your browser must have Java enabled in order for an Office Hours session to function.

  1. Access the Lightweight Chat in the Collaboration section (usually in Communications).
  2. Click the Join button to the right of any session that has Lightweight Chat listed as the tool.
  3. The Lightweight Chat applet will open in a new window (this may take a few minutes).
  4. The screen is divided into two areas. The left area lists the participants in the chat area; the right area is the text-based chat area where the conversation appears.
  5. To participate in the chat area, click your mouse in the Compose text box, type your message, then hit the enter key on your keyboard or click Send. Your message will appear in the chat area momentarily, along with your name and the time.
  6. To leave the Lightweight Chat, simply close the window.