Announcements
How
to make announcements and use the chat room/discussion boards on your ERes page
With each ERes course page,
a live chat room and a discussion board are automatically created. In addition,
course page owners can instantly make course page announcements that appear
at the top of the page in a red box (html can be used for emphasis) - the announcements
can be changed, rewritten, overwritten or deleted in a few short steps.
A chat room might be used
when you'd like to communicate online with a group of students simultaneously
- as participants type and hit enter, their words appear instantly on the screens
of everyone else who has entered the chat room. Once students leave, however,
the chat room session is over and the session is not saved. If you'd like students
to read or respond or post comments, and to be able to come back later and follow
the threads of discussion, you would use the discussion board, which stays alive
throughout the semester unless the course page owner decides to delete any of
the threads. As course page owner, you can create new topics or use the default,
which is a topic called 'general discussion.'
Making announcements
From the Page Management
screen, click on Course Page Announcement.
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You can insert any
text that you'd like. If you had already posted an announcement, this
text would be in the box. You could delete that text or add to it with
new information. Click on the Continue button when you are done.
You could also use
html tags if you'd like (for example, if you wanted to insert a web link
here rather than in your document list).
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| As always,
ERes lets you know that your announcement has been posted! |
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| Your announcement
will appear in red at the top of your ERes course page, in a box that provides
the date posted. While you can't have 2 announcements onscreen at once,
you can add to a current announcement at any time. |
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Using the chat room
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The chat room does
not require any special login as it can be accessed directly from the
right side of the ERes course page. (If you'd like to limit access to
the chat room, that is easily done by requiring a password for your course
page.) Begin by clicking on the Chat Room link.
You'll be taken to
a new window with a text box for your name.
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Users
insert their name and click on Join the chat! |
| All current
online users are listed on the right - as text is entered, all users see
all the text. |
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In order to leave the chat
room, there is a link on the bottom of the screen called Close this window.
By clicking on the link, users will exit the chat room. There is no record kept
of conversations that take place in the chat room.
Using the discussion board
The discussion board serves
a different purpose - it allows people to post comments which stay alive on the
discussion board screen. At some later point, people can access these posts, read
them, respond to them, or post new threads. All of the posts stay on the screen
until the course page owner deletes the thread. Begin using the discussion board
the same way you began the chat room - click on the link in the upper right hand
corner of the course page. There is no need to log on at this point because the
board is open to everyone who views the course page.
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As
course page owner, you can create any topic for your discussion board. Students
would click on the topic that interests them or that you have assigned. |
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In order to read
a message, students would click on the link. If they wanted to post a
new message entirely, they could click on that link.
If students do click
on a message, they'll be able to read the message and respond to it, and
their response will be tallied in the Replies column here.
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Students use a similar
form if they are posting a new message.
The message edit
password prevents other users from maliciously editing someone's message.
While students have
to use a name and email, there is nothing to specifically prevent them
from using a ficticious name.
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As always,
ERes lets you know that you've done things correctly! |
To create or delete any message
topics or individual messages (for example, in the case of an improper personal
message or flame), you should log in under Page Management and select Discussion
Board functions. You'll be allowed to Create a new discussion topic, Delete
a topic or message, or Delete all topics or messages. If you choose
to delete a topic or message, you'll be given a screen with all of the topics
and messages listed.
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Be sure to note the
message that deleting a topic will also delete all of the messages. As
you can see, it is easy to select the message or topic that you'd like
to delete.
Click on Continue
button and you'll be returned to the Success screen with options to return
to Page Management or Discussion Board Functions.
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| It's
always good to get a confirmation! |
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That should cover using the
Discussion Board, the Chat Room, and Announcements. As you explore each of these
features, you'll likely come across some additional options. Feel free to poke
around - these pages only cover some of the more commonly used features for ERes
account holders, so there are additional features that you might find useful!
Page maintained by Bud
Hiller.
Last updated 9/25/02
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