IM Conference Rooms for Groups in D2L

Introduction to IM Conference Rooms

In D2L the "IM Conference" link takes course participants to a general purpose conference room. This conference room is hosted on the UW-Whitewater instant messaging service, Jabber@UWW (http://jabber.uww.edu). Any person in the D2L course can access the room. Instructors can request for room conversations to be logged.

Your instructor may ask for group rooms. Like a main course room, these rooms are hosted on Jabber@UWW and have been staged for your convenience.

Although course and group rooms are sometimes pre-staged, you also have the ability to create your own rooms using Spark or the Jabber@UWW web client.

Kinds of Group Rooms and Privacy

Non-persistent Rooms - pre-staged rooms without history

Non-persistent rooms are pre-staged rooms without history which are primarily accessible from D2L. Users outside of D2L can only see the room when someone is already in the room. When using a non-persistent room, the room is created automatically "as needed" for your group. When no one is in the room, the room "disappears". All conversation is lost.

Persistent Rooms - pre-staged rooms with history

Pre-staged rooms with history are available at all times from Spark and the Jabber@UWW web client, not just D2L. History remains in the room even after all people leave the room. Upon request of the instructor this room may be restricted to the members of an individual group.

Room Access and Disruptions

Conference rooms hosted on Jabber@UWW are public rooms. Users from outside the class can enter the room. However, it is appropriate for users meeting for class to ask people to leave the conference room if they should not be in the room. In fact, you are encouraged to state that your room is a class discussion and ask for them to leave. You will know who is in the room by the Net-ID or name.

Impropriate use of the IM/conferencing service violates UW-W Network Use Policies and can constitute grounds for disciplinary action. If someone is being disruptive report them to your course's instructor, with a copy of the pertinent in-room conversation.

For more information about UW-Whitewater's Network Use Policy see (http://www.uww.edu/icit/governance/policies/network).

Accessing Your Group's Pre-made IM Conference Room

IMPORTANT: If group rooms have not been pre-staged, and you would like to create your own, see the next section "Create a Group Conference Room".

From D2L - PREFERRED METHOD

Your group's room will not be listed from your courses navigation bar. Group conference links are usually under "Content" in your course, but may vary depending on how your instructor wishes to share the links.

From Spark

Once Spark is installed, login. Then in Spark, change to the Conferences tab and double-click "conference.jabber.uww.edu". A list of rooms will appear. Double-click a room to enter.

For detailed information on how to install and use Spark see "Using Jabber@UWW with Spark", located at (http://jabber.uww.edu/documents).

From the Jabber@UWW Web Client

Go to the Jabber@UWW web site (http://jabber.uww.edu) and select the "Use Jabber Now" link. Then, select the "Launch Jeti" link. Enter your Net-ID and password.

Once logged in, select the "Jeti" button. Then select Groupchat, then "Join/Create".

In the "Chat Server" menu, choose "Public Chatrooms". Then select the room you wish to join.

Creating Your Own Group Conference Room

If your instructor has not requested a room to be created for your group, it is still possible to create a room for only your group members.

From D2L

It is not possible to make your own conference room from D2L.

From Spark

Once Spark is installed, login to D2L. Then in Spark, change to the Conferences tab and double-click "conference.jabber.uww.edu". A list of rooms will appear. Click the "Create or Join Room" button.

Enter an appropriate name for your group room under "Room Name". Enter your group name, and course information for "Room Topic". Select the "Create" button to make the room.

You can now share the name of the room with your fellow group members. To invite users into the room, in the conference room, right-click on the right panel of the room window, where your name is listed. Then choose "Invite Users".

Click the "Roster" button to see a list of users from your course or other people on your contact list.

Press CTRL on the keyboard, and click the name of each person you'd like to invite, then select "OK" to add. Click the "Invite" button.

For detailed information on how to install and use Spark see "Using Jabber@UWW with Spark", located at (http://jabber.uww.edu/documents).

From the Jabber@UWW Web Client

Go to the Jabber@UWW web site (http://jabber.uww.edu) and select the "Use Jabber Now" link. Then, select the "Launch Jeti" link. Enter your Net-ID and password.

Once logged in, select the "Jeti" button. Then select Groupchat, then "Join/Create".

In the "Chat Server" menu, choose "Public Chatrooms". Then, in the "Room" field, enter the name of the room you wish to create. Select "OK" to create the room.

Invite other group members by right-clicking on users in your contact list. Then, choose "Invite to groupchat".

From the "Room" menu, choose the room you wish to invite the user to. Optionally, enter a reason for the invite into the "Reason" field. Lastly select "OK".

Using Your Courses IM/Conference Room for Group Communication

If the information being discussed by your group is not confidential or may be of general course interest, it may not be necessary to create a private room for your group. Instead, use the "IM Conference" link in your courses navigation bar to chat.

For Further Assistance

1.       Direct technical problems to the Learning Technology Center (ltc@uww.edu). Be sure to specify the course and section, any error messages, and what you are trying to do.

2.       If you have questions or concerns with available rooms, or are having problems with room abuse, contact your courses instructor.