Chat FAQ

Note: Chat is due to be removed from standard Moodle. See the discussion Deprecation of the Chat Tool.

How can I enable guests to participate in a chat activity?

Create a visitor role with the capability mod/chat:chat allowed, then create an account and assign it the role of visitor. Guests can then share this visitor account.

The guest role has some special functionality, for example when a guest attempts to participate in a chat, they obtain the message "The chat is not open to guests. Would you like to log in now with a full user account?". Despite the permissions interface suggesting otherwise, it's not possible to modify the guest role to allow guests to participate in chat activities.

Why don't I hear a beep sound when another participant beeps me?

• Is your audio muted?
• Are you using Linux? If so, you need a browser plugin installed in order to play sound. For Firefox and Chrome, gecko-mediaplayer is required.

How can I use audio chat?

While Moodle itself does not yet include an audio chat solution, due to the large server requirements to implement a standalone solution, voice and video messages have been added since v3.5 in the standard Atto text editor. They can be used in the Forum module for example to accommodate for the audio/video Q&A feature requirement within a class.

Alternatively, there is a choice of free third party modules that you can install into your Moodle to achieve this:

1. Big Blue Button: FREE audio and video conferencing http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=mod_bigbluebuttonbn
2. Deft response block provides a hybrid solution for audio conferencing providing native Moodle functionality assisted by a free service. See https://deftly.us for service details.
3. OpenMeetings: FREE full audio/video conferencing http://openmeetings.apache.org/
4. Zoom Video: formerly FREE, now with payment plans audio/video conferencing https://zoom.us

How can I restrict Chat so certain users cannot access it?

Follow the steps below to create a new role - such as "NoChat" and apply it in the system context to the student(s) you want to prevent from chatting:

1. Go to Settings > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define Roles
2. Click Add a new role - name it for example "NoChat"
3. In the context types, select "system"
4. Type "chat" in the filter box
5. Set the button for Access a Chat room (mod/chat:chat) to Prohibitand save
6. Go to Settings > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Assign system roles
7. Click on the new "NoChat" role and assign your chosen student(s) this role
8. When they try to go into a chat room they will get a message that they cannot access the Chat

How do I configure how long to save past chat sessions?

On the Chat Settings page, navigate to the Chat sessions section, and choose how long to save sessions from the Save past sessions drop-down menu.