Communicating with students

In order to provide academic support to students, the eddy platform offers a message centre for the lecturers to communicate with the students, students to engage with their peers and also their lecturers. The below video provides an overview of the message centre and its functions.

 

 

 

In addition to messaging students on an individual basis, there is also the ability to send messages to all or multiple students at a time.

Messaging all or multiple students 

You are able to message more than one student at a time outside of the message centre by following the steps below. Despite these messages being sent as a group, they will appear as a 1-to-1 message within their message centre. For additional information about creating group Chats, please see 'Creating student groups' below.

Take the following steps to message, multiple students, at a time:

• Step 1: Select 'Enrolled Users' from your profile menu
• Step 2: 
  • Message All: Use the filter at the top of the screen to filter to the group you want to message (e.g Role: Student) then click on 'Select All'
  • Message Some: Manually select the students by clicking on the box 
• Step3: Open the drop-down menu 'With selected users' and choose 'Send a message'
• Step 4: Type your message into the text box and click on the 'Send message to X people' button
  • Important to note - you can click and drag on the bottom right corner of the textbook to increase its size

 

Should you need to message students on a  regular basis, it is recommended to use the message centre 'Group Messages' function.

Creating student groups

Students will automatically be assigned to groups based on their intake and this will inform what they see on the platform (forum posts and assessment deadlines). It is possible for students to be allocated to more than 1 group at a time and this will enable the group messaging function within the message centre of the platform.

Take the following steps to create groups:

• Step 1:   Select 'Enrolled Users' from your profile menu
• Step 2:  Click on cog at the top right of the page and select 'Groups' from the drop down
• Step 3:  Click on the 'Create group' button 
• Step 4:  Enter the name of the group in the 'Group name' field, add details about the group in the text box and change 'Group messaging' from 'No' to 'Yes' then click on the 'Save changes' button
  • Important Note - Leave the following fields blank 'Group ID number' and 'Enrolment key'.
  • Additional Information - You can also add a profile picture for the group 
• Step 5:  Click on the 'Add/remove users' button
• Step 6:  Choose the students you would like to add to the group and click on the 'Add' button
  • Important Note - Use the search function if there are too many students in the list
• Step 7:  When all students are listed as members click on 'Back to groups'
• Step 8:  When you return to the learning screen, open the message centre to see the groups listed under 'Group Messages'
• Step 9:  Type the message you would like to send to all group members and click on the plane icon
  • Additional Information - You can expand the text box by clicking and dragging the bottom right corner
• Step 10: This function creates a group chat and replies will be seen by all members

 

For ICHM Online, each subject contains the following forums:

• Subject Forums - These have been developed for Learning Activities prescribed within each subject 
• Assessment Q&A - These have been developed for students and facilitators to discuss questions relating to each assessment within a given subject
• Assessment Forum - Only appears where an assessment within a subject requires forum based activities

 

The following videos outline the different features of each Subject.

Create a new thread

To create a new thread, follow the steps below:

• Step 1:  Click on the forum in the navigation bar where you would like to create a new post
• Step 2:  Click on 'New thread' on the top right of the screen
• Step 3:  Enter the name of the thread into the Subject box
• Step 4:  Type your post into the text box (use the toolbar to adjust the text) 
• Step 5:  Click on the 'Post to forum' button 

Embedding media in threads

By using the toolbar you are able to utilise different media types within each post:

Scheduling a post

To create a scheduled post simply follow Steps 1 to X of 'Create a new post' followed by the following:

• Step 1: At the bottom of the text box click on 'Advanced'
• Step 2:  Click on the 'Enable' box next to 'Display Start' if you would like to schedule the post to appear in the future, then adjust the date and time for it to appear (this will configure based on the users timezone)
• Step 3:  Click on the 'Enable' box next to 'Display End' if you would like to schedule the post to disappear in the future, then adjust the date and time for it to appear (this will configure based on the users timezone)

Replies

By clicking on the relevant thread you are able to see all replies relevant to the original post.

You can like replies to a post by clicking on the heart and can also reply directly by clicking on 'Reply'

Moderating posts

In the instance that there are particular comments that are not suitable for the student discussion it is possible to either Delete or Edit the student post by clicking on 'Delete' or 'Edit'.

It is important to refer to the ICHM policies and procedures regarding the expectations of deleting student comments.

Edit 

By clicking the 'Edit' button against a student's post you can make amendments to the author's post (this will show that it was edited by you and when).

You are also able to stop additional comments by selecting 'Yes' from the 'Replies Disabled' dropdown. 

Ordering threads

You are able to choose the order in which Threads appear within a forum. Next to each thread, appears the following [Order: 1]. The number next to each thread indicates in which order it will be displayed (the lowest number will always appear at the top of the list). If all threads contain a 0 next to the order it means no order has been applied to this thread. 

Take the following steps to order (or change the order) of the threads:

• Step 1: Click on [Order] 
• Step 2: Type the corresponding number with the order in which you would like this thread to sit (lowest always appears at the top)
• Step3: Click on OK
• Step 4: Click on OK 
• Step 5: Refresh the page 
  • Important to note - you can order as many threads as you wish prior to refreshing

 

 

Creating new subject forums

1.  

In addition to creating new threads within an existing subject forum, there is also the ability to create new subject forums. It is important to note however that you should refer to your provider's guidelines in relation to creating new forums. If encouraged, the follow the steps outlined below to create a new subject forum:

• Step 1 - Click on the 'Course Editor' toggle at the bottom of the navigation bar

• Step 2: Click on  '+ Forum' at the bottom of the relevant subject

• Step 3: Enter the name of the forum into the 'Forum Name' field
  • Important note: to have the Forum Name appear in the navigation select the 'Use Name field as the navigation label' (if this is not completed the navigation will simply read as Forum)
  • Important note: there are also a number of configuration setting that can be selected

• Step 4: Click on the 'Save and display' button at the bottom of the page

• Step 5: Click on 'Create new thread' to create your first post'
  • Important note - review 'Create a new thread' and 'Ordering threads' once you have created a new forum

As part of their learning journey, students will have access to a Journal for each subject throughout their enrolment. Within the content, and in some cases assessment, students will be directed to reflect on their learning by completing Journal entries. 

Students can journal about their subject in different ways:

 

To publish click on the 'Save changes' button located at the bottom of the page.

Welcome to your learning tasks for this topic. Please ensure you complete these prior to moving on to your next topic.

Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your learning tasks.