Advanced Chat Tools

When a student clicks your Knock on Door button, a Chat will open for two-way messaging or for starting a Virtual Office meeting on any device. But what if the student’s reason for contacting you does not require a video meeting? How would you document the chat? Or what if you weren’t the person the student needed to connect with? To ensure the student receives the assistance they need, the Chat tools provide staff several options.

View Student Details

During a chat, the staff member can open the Chat Tools and click View Student Details as illustrated in Figure 1, and the Student Lookup / Student Details page will open in a new browser tab.

The Student Lookup / Student Details page as shown in Figure 3 lists any alerts about the student. You can also schedule a meeting for this student. Users with the Faculty/Staff role and above can also access the student’s past meeting notes from this page or from opening any of the Appointment Details in the Appointment History unless those notes have been marked private or the notes have been marked for Group access only, and you are not in the designated Group.

Figure 3

Student Details Page

To create a new alert, click the Add Alert button. A pop-up like the one illustrated in Figure 4 will appear. The student will receive this alert according to the method you select, or they will see the alert in a pop-up when they next login.

Figure 4

Add Alert

The alert will then be listed in the Alert Log box for others to see when they look up the student. Figure 5 provides an example of an Alert Log.

Figure 5

Example Alert Log

Faculty/Staff users can also click the View All Notes button on the Student Details page to view the student’s meeting note history as shown in Figure 6. Users with a Front Desk Agent role do not have access to student meeting notes. This same shortcut to all meeting notes is also accessible on the Appointment Details window of any past meeting.

Figure 6

Meeting Note History

Figure 7

View All Notes from Appointment Details Window

Save Chat to a New Meeting and Save Chat to a New Meeting and Send Survey

When a chat leads to a Virtual Office meeting, that meeting is tracked on the Group’s meeting reports, and the meeting creates Appointment Details on the Group calendar. This is essential to documenting the meeting with notes and reason codes. Sometimes a student’s needs can be addressed in a chat and do not require a meeting. While every chat is archived in the staff’s archives and the student’s archives, in order to report the chat as a meeting, and in order to be able to document reason codes and notes, the chat must be saved as a new meeting.

Figure 8 illustrates that if you click Save Chat to a New Meeting, a meeting will be created on the calendar. Taking this action will end the chat and you will arrive on the Appointment Details page on the calendar where you can add your documentation about the student’s visit. Selecting the tool to Save Chat to a New Meeting and Send Survey will also end the chat, add the meeting to the calendar with Appointment Details, and an email will be sent to the student with a link to the Group’s end-of-meeting survey.

Figure 8

Save Chat to a New Meeting

Send to Another Moderator

Another chat tool is to send the student to another Faculty/Staff member. Clicking the Send to Another Moderator option opens a window with a complete list of all the users across the platform. Those who are online are highlighted green. Select the appropriate moderator, check whether or not you want to forward your chat transcript, and click Forward Chat as shown in Figure 9. It is a best practice to forward the chat transcript so that the other moderator has some context for the forwarded chat, and the student does not have to re-explain their reason for their visit. The other user will receive an audio alert, popup notification about the forwarded chat, and the chat window with all the same chat tools.

Figure 9

Send to Another Moderator

Send to Group Lobby

When you want to send the student to another staff member but do not have a specific staff member in mind or are unsure of which staff member to send a student to, another option is to forward the student to the Group Lobby. When you select Send to Group Lobby on the chat tool menu, you will see a popup with all the Group Lobbies across your institution. Select the desired lobby and then click the button to Send Student to Lobby button as illustrated in Figure 10. The student will arrive in the Group Lobby as Figure 11 illustrates where a staff member in that lobby can chat with the student and bring them into a virtual meeting.

Figure 10

Send Student to Group Lobby

Figure 11

Inside the Group Lobby

Send to My Lobby

If you receive a knock on your door but you need more time before you bring the student into a meeting, you can use the Send to My Lobby chat tool. Taking this action will move the student to your Personal Lobby as shown in Figure 12 where they can wait for you to bring them into a Virtual Office meeting or continue your conversation in the Lobby.

Figure 12

Send to My Lobby