Live Group Chat Setup

Live Group Chat Activities enable you to build a chatroom-style Activity that opens at a specific date and time and typically closes after an hour or two of live conversation. Live Group Chat can support text-based chats, as well as live video chats. During the Activity, participants can interact directly with the chat moderator(s) via video, typed messages and live polls.

Live Group Chat is limited to 200 attendees for text-based sessions. For Live Group Chat with Video, the limit is 50 total attendees, split evenly between the front room (25) and the backroom (25).

Note: In order for observers and translators to join the backroom of live meetings, the Collaborate in backroom permission must be enabled from the Study Admin > Study Settings > Permissions menu.

Activity Date and Time

As part of a Live Group Chat Activity's setup, you must set its date. You'll be required to choose a Start Date and Start Time (i.e. the day and time of the live chat) as well as Duration (in minutes). The Activity's time zone will also be displayed on the setup page directly above the date field.

Once the setup is complete, participants will see the Activity card from their Activities page and be able to click into it. They can then use the Add to Calendar option to schedule the Activity in their preferred external calendar application:

  • Google Calendar
  • Yahoo Calendar
  • Outlook Office 365 Calendar
  • Outlook Live
  • iCal (ICS)

Chat Mode

When configuring a Live Group Chat activity, two Chat Modes will be available:

  • If the Text Chat option is selected, your group chat activity will be a text-only synchronous discussion.
  • If the Video Chat option is selected, you will be able to schedule a synchronous live group video meeting, or focus group, with participants. 

Waiting Room

Once the applicable Chat Mode has been selected, Analysts and Moderators will have the option to enable Waiting Room settings for both participants and Clients. When enabled, the option to Admit clients automatically becomes available. You can also Customize the waiting room message that will appear to attendees while they wait to be admitted into the meeting. 

Activity Access and Description

Like any Activity in a Recollective Study, you'll need to determine who it's visible to using the Activity Access settings. Will All participants be invited to join the live group, or just a subset of Study participants (e.g. Only select participants or Only select segments)?

Note: Participants will be eligible for selection within the Only select participants menu if they have joined the study, been invited to join, or have been scheduled an invite.

Live Group Chat Activities can also be limited in access for Client-role accounts. By default, the Activities will be visible to All clients, however, by selecting the desired option from the Client Access menu, you can make the Activity accessible to only select clients or hide the Activity from clients entirely, if desired. 

You can then prepare an Activity Description (similar to the instructions in a Journal Activity's setup) that lets people know what the Activity is about. Any text entered in this Description field will appear on the Meeting page when participants join the Activity and will also be visible if they click on the card from the Activities page.

Activity Behavior

When selecting the Video Chat option, a set of Activity Behavior settings will be available to customize, such as: Start with participants muted, Start with participant cameras disabled and Disable backroom audio and translator support.

Note: Recollective's Live Video Activities support an optional backroom audio channel for observers and translators. If you do not wish to give observers access to a backroom audio channel, you can disable it. More detailed setup instructions for Live Group Chats with Video can be found here.
Please note: Live video chats consume Live Video Minutes.

Invitations

Live Group Chat activities support automated invitation emails with iCal attachments, making it easy for participants to add sessions directly to their calendars.

By default, the Automatically email meeting invitations setting is enabled. You will need to define the date that invitations are sent to participants, and will have the option to customize the Subject line and Additional Message field to include a personalized message to your attendees. Automatic email invitations can be disabled if needed, which will hide the date, subject, and message fields during activity setup.

Note: Changes made to scheduled sessions, including cancellations, will be reflected through updated calendar invitations.

Notifications

Each Activity in a Recollective Study can have customized notifications tied to it. These notification options can be found by clicking on the Notifications tab next to Basic Settings towards the top of the Activity Setup page, or by clicking the More options... link towards the bottom.

For Live Group Chat Activities, the notification options are:

  • Activity starts tomorrow (24 hours before start)
  • Activity starts soon (1 to 2 hours before start)
  • Activity started (actual start time)

Point Customization

If you have chosen to enable the point tracking feature for your Study, you will see a Points tab on the Activity Setup page with the option to Customize points awarded for activity completion. This is an opportunity to depart from the default point allocation for a Live Group Chat Activity as configured in Study Settings: Points. 

Prepared Content

After saving your Live Group Chat Activity, you will have the option to create any Prepared Content Items.

Backroom Access

Clients will only be permitted to join a Live Group Chat if the Client Permission to Collaborate in backroom is enabled. If you'd like for a Client to participate in the chat directly with participants, then you'll need to enable the Interact with participants permission as well.

Note: Enabling both Collaborate in backroom and Interact with participants allows all clients in a study to join the front room as Host with participants. You can read more about Client permissions here.
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