Live Group Text Chat Moderation

Recollective's Live Group Chat Activity supports two styles of interaction - Live Group (Text) Chat, and Live Group Chat with video. This article is dedicated to moderating Live Group (Text only) Chats. For information on moderating Live Group Chat with video, click here. The following topics will be covered in this article:

• Live Group Chat Interface
• Posting Prepared Items
• Private Messages and Mentions
• Live Group Chat Polls
• Pausing and Ending the Activity
• Activity Summary, Transcript and Excerpts

Leading up to the start of your Live Group Chat, participants can click into the Activity and be kept in a waiting room until you're ready to start the chat. If you have enough or all people in the waiting room, you can choose to start the Activity by simply clicking the Start Early option (if it's at or past the start time the button will read Enter Activity).  

Live Group Chat Interface

Once the Activity has been started, the chatroom interface will appear with the Admins, backroom observers, and participants listed alongside the left. Study Administrators will be identified similar to other areas of the platform with a gold ring around their profile photo, their name presented in gold and appearing at the top of the list on the left-hand side of the chat. 

The participant menu along the side is also useful as you can trigger actions on an individual level using their drop down menu. From this menu, you can perform a participant mention, send a private message or even remove them from the chat if necessary.  

Each message posted by an Admin will be aligned on the right-hand side of the screen, while messages posted by participants will be aligned on the left hand side of the screen.

The group chat interface features a seperate tab which houses the Backroom, an Admin and Client observer only chat space. The messages in this tab will not be visible to participants, allowing you to have a back and forth between Admins who may be observing the chat and those moderating it. 

Posting Prepared Items

You can easily type out your messages or post prepared items at the bottom of the chat as shown below. If you use the post prepared item option, your collection of Prepared Items will then appear for selection.

You can filter between items that are Not Posted, have been Posted or ones that were Skipped using the tab options. You can also reorder content (using the handle icons), edit content by clicking into an item's drop down menu or use the Add Item option to create new content on the fly. When you've drafted or found the desired item, use the Post Now button to surface it in the chat to participants.

Private Messages and Mentions

You can private message participants in an otherwise social Live Group Chat Activity to have conversations and explore things separate from the rest of the group. Private messages will always be highlighted in gold and will state who the messages are between. This feature allows you to pose follow-ups to specific people of interest without having input from other people which might create unintentional influence or bias. 

Mentions on the other hand act as callouts to the given individual(s). Just like in other areas of the platform, you can perform mentions by typing the @ symbol followed by the desired participant or Segment name(s). The mentioned names will then appear bolded in the chat (the relevant users will see their name highlighted as well).

Live Group Chat Polls

Most of the prepared content that can be done for a Live Group Chat Activity is simply message and media based where they are posted and then discussion is facilitated. Polls however are a little bit more interactive as once people start answering, their profile pictures will move from the unanswered area in the bottom right to accompany their selections. 

For polls where the answer is required, everyone must participate before the chat can proceed but you also have the ability to close the poll if you feel you've gotten enough input. You also have the ability to Duplicate or Anonymize results of your polls (if they weren't already configured as such).

Pausing and Ending the Activity

While your Activity is live, it can be paused or closed at any time as needed. Using the drop down menu option found on the left hand side, you can access the Activity Overview and Activity Setup pages or use the Pause Activity and End Activity controls.  

Pausing the chat means people cannot post messages until it is resumed. Ending the Activity however will surface a message that asks whether you'd like to  Exit the chat (but still leave it running) or End Activity. The first option is ideal if the chat is done but participants are still discussing things and you're okay having them do so. 

You can also end or exit the chat by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Once exited, you'll be brought back to the overview page where you'll still get to see which participants are in the chatroom and can Resume your involvement. When things are fully finished and everyone has left, you can use the End Now option to fully close the Activity.

Just like other Activity types in Recollective, you'll be presented with a Participants table that will display each participant, completion status as well as other important items like number of posts they made in the chat, the number of Excerpts you’ve made on their posts, their start / exit times as well as total duration.

The completion statuses of individuals are based on whether they participated in the chat for at least 80% of its scheduled duration. You also have the option to edit completion statuses as you see fit using the drop down menu option next to each participant's name in the table.

Activity Summary, Transcript and Excerpts