2.7 Student/Professor Interaction

The program provides a simple chat facility and student groups to allow students to communicate with their professor and their peers.

The program allows the students to ask a question to the professor using the chat function. The student simply double clicks on the professor's name on th roster list, then enter the question into the chat. The program displays the question in the queue until either the professor or the student have closed the chat. Unlike a 'normal' chat window, the queued questions does not automatically pop up a chat window for the professor.

To ask a question, the student does the following:

• Double-Click on a professor's name in the roster display
• Enter the question into the chat window that the program displays
• The program then adds the student to the current queue of students with questions in the roster display

To respond to a question, the professor does the following:

• Double-Click on the student's name in the roster display
• Read the student's question in the chat window the program opens
• Type any response to the student's question into the chat window
• The program displays the text in the chat window on the student's computer
• When the question has been answered, the professor simply closes the chat window. This removes the student from the question queue.

To create a 'shared whiteboard' between a professor and a student while in a chat, the professor does the following:

• Click on the 'Open Shared Whiteboard
• The program adds a tab to the slide viewer that is the 'shared whiteboard'. Both the professor and the student can use the drawing tools on this shared whitespace. The chat window displays a message ever time that activity occurs in the drawing window

The program has a groups feature that allows a subset of the class to interact among themselves.

Figure 2.7.1 - Manage Groups Dialog
The Manage groups dialog. From there the user can add users, remove users, and randomly assign group members to a group. The User can also access the 'Add Group' dialog from the 'Add Group' button.

Figure 2.7.2 - Add User Dialog
The add user dialog. The user can add a new group using this dialog.

To add a new group the user does the following do the following:

• Right-click on the 'Groups' header and select "Manage Groups" from the drop down menu, -or- Select 'Manage Groups' from roster menu.
• Click the add group button.
• Enter the desired group name in the dialog
• The program will add an empty group with the entered name to the list of current groups.

Figure 2.7.3 - Assigning a Member to a Group
To add members to a group, the teacher can click and drag names into a group.

Figure 2.7.4 - Assigning Members to a Group
To add members to a group, a teacher can also use the 'Add Members' Dialog box.

To add users to a group the user does the following:

• • Select any number of users from the current roster
  • Click-and-drag the users from the roster to the desired group heading or that group's 'Group Management' Dialog
• -Or
• • Open the desired group's 'Group Management' Dialog by selecting 'Manage Groups' from the Roster Menu or right-clicking on the group
  • Clicking the Add Members Button
  • The program then displays the add members dialog
  • The user selects the desired users and click "Add members"
• The Program adds the desired members to the desired group

To remove users from a group, the user does the following:

• • Select the desired users from the desired group in the group listing
  • Click and drag the users away from the group listing -or- right-click and select 'remove users from group' from the right-click menu
• -Or-
• • Open the mange group dialog by using either the group's right-click menu or the Roster menu's "Manage Group" option.
  • Select the names the user wishes to remove.
  • Click the "Remove Member" Button