What is it?

A chat space is a communication tool that allows you and your students to communicate in text form in real time. That is, it is a synchronous form of communication (participants need to be in the chat space at the same time in order to communicate). Chat spaces can be public, consisting of a group of people, or private between two individuals. The Who's Online tool in Flinders Learning Onlne (FLO) is an example of a chat space.

Possible uses

• Consultation times
• Guest lecturer
• Project discussion
• Informal socialising
• Student presentations
• Role-playing
• Debating
• Exercises in communication
• Brainstorming
• Special interest groups.

Strengths

• Allows students at a distance to interact.
• Popular/motivational to majority of students.
• Immediate interactivity and feedback.
• Allows access to group discussions to establish who is doing the work in group projects.

Limitations

• Difficulty in keeping large groups talking on the same topic.
• Typing speed is a limiting factor.
• Allows text based interaction only.
• All students must be able to access the chat space at the same time.
• Difficulty if people are in different time zones.

Tips for use

• When advertising times for meetings, make sure you specify the time zone, and give access to conversion times.
• Be aware of the change in group dynamics. The faster typist who may become the ‘loudest'.

For more information, refer to Moderating a Chat session (PDF 85KB) .

A series of online tutorials are available that provide information on using the tools and features of FLO. You can access the tutorials and use them at your own pace.