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 support can support text-based chat as well as live video. During the Activity, participants can interact directly with the chat moderator(s) via video, typed messages and live polls.
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 below 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 calendar application:
- Google Calendar
- Yahoo Calendar
- Live Calendar
- iCal (ICS)
Live Video
If not enabled, your group chat will be a text-chat only. Once live video is enabled, you will also have the option to Start with participants muted and to Start with participants cameras disabled. Recollective's Live Video Activities also 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.
Activity Visibility and Description
Like any Activity in a Recollective Study, you'll need to determine who it's visible to. Will the Activity be completed by All participants or just a subset of Study participants (e.g. Only select segments)?
Live Group Chat Activities can also be limited in visibility for Client-role accounts. By enabling the Limit visibility by clients option, you can make the Activity visible to only select clients, or hide the Activity from clients entirely.
You then have to prepare an Activity description (similar to the instructions in a Journal Activity's setup) that let people know what this Activity is about. This description will be also displayed if they click on the card from the Activities page.
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.