Can I turn the chat activity into an audio chat?

At this time using  a third-party add-on (i.e., Big Blue Button or Open Meetings) for this purpose is not advised.  However, you could consider the other options available to you via UPEI. Consider Google Hangouts, Google Phone or BlackBoard Collaborate instead – all of which you have access to through your UPEI account.

How can I enable a guest to participate in a chat?

It can’t be done. Guests have read-only access which means they can access but not participate in a Moodle course. This also means that guests cannot post in forums, edit wiki pages, take quizzes or questionnaire or feedback, submit assignments, add glossary or database activity entries or comments or receive any scores or grades. 

How do I configure how long to save a chat past a chat session?

Turn editing on and go to the section where your chat session is located. Then click ‘Edit’ and then click ‘Edit settings’.

Scroll down the page and click on ‘Chat sessions’ section.

Choose how long to save sessions from the ‘Save past sessions’ drop-down menu.

Chat or Forum, which one should I use?

The chat activity module enables participants to have text-based, real-time synchronous discussions. The chat may be a one-time activity or it may be repeated at the same time each day or each week. Chat sessions are saved and can be made available for everyone to view or restricted to users with the capability to view chat session logs. Chats are especially useful when the group chatting is not able to meet face-to-face, such as:

• Regular meetings of students participating in online courses to enable them to share experiences with others in the same course but in a different location
• A student temporarily unable to attend in person chatting with their teacher to catch up with work
• Students out on work experience getting together to discuss their experiences with each other and their teacher

For a comparison, please refer to the information under Forum in this FAQ.