RWTHmoodle offers a messaging system through which users of the platform can communicate with each other systemwide. Please also note oursocial conventions using the messenger (Chatiquette).

Contents:

1. Opening the messenger
2. Search for persons or messages
3. Accept contact requests
4. Writing a message
5. Reading and replying to messages
6. Deleting messages from your own chat
7. Editing a contact

1. Opening the messenger

The "Messenger" is set up by default for every user in RWTHmoodle. You can access the messenger by clicking on the speech bubble icon on the upper right side next to the user menu:

The user interface of the "Messenger" contains the following elements:

•  Search for persons or messages
•  Settings
•  Contacts

Below these elements are the three categories:

• Favorites
• Group
• Private

Each chat is assigned to one of these categories.

2. Search for persons or messages

1. In the search field, enter the name of the person (instructor or student) to whom you want to send a message or read the chat history. The person you are looking for must be enrolled in at least one-course room in which you are also registered. Otherwise, no correct hit will be shown. If you are not sure about the exact spelling of the person you are looking for, enter a part of the name (e.g. last name) and click on the magnifying glass icon to display the hit list.

Note: Depending on the name searched for, the number of possible hits can be very large, which is why it may be necessary to narrow down the contact searched for even more precisely.
 

 

Note for students

In order to be found and displayed in the hit list by students sharing at least one-course room with you, you must give your consent beforehand that you may be found ("Opt-In"). By default, only managers and tutors can find other course room users via the search field. So if you as a student want to be found by your fellow students within a specific search query, you have to allow this in your user profile. People who do not share a course room with you will not be displayed in the hit list even if they have "opted-in". Once you have added someone to your contacts, you can continue to write to him or her even if you no longer have a shared course room.

 

Note for managers

You can only find managers and students in the hit list with whom you share at least one-course room. If you want to be found by the students of your course rooms, you must give your consent to this beforehand ("Opt-In"). You can make the necessary setting for this in your user profile. Persons who do not have a course room together with you will not be shown in the hit list. Once you have added someone to your contacts, you can continue to write to him or her even if you no longer have a shared course room.

2. Select the person (or message) you are looking for from the hit list. If you are looking for a person who you have already added as a contact, this person will be displayed in the "Contacts" category. All other hits are listed in the category "Other persons". If the hit list is very extensive, click on "Load more" to display additional hits. If you would like to contact the person found, click on the corresponding search hit.

3. Provided that the selected person has already been added to your contacts or the person has selected the option in their settings that any person from their course rooms can send them a message ( = default setting), the chat channel with the selected person will then appear. You can now send messages to the selected person via the message field. If the person has selected the option in their messenger settings that only their personal contacts can send messages to them, you must first send a contact request:

4. Confirm with "Send contact request" and select the "Add" option in the window that now appears to add the selected person to your contacts. You will then see a message that the contact request has been sent but is still unanswered.

As long as the person has not accepted your contact request, you cannot exchange information with the person via Messenger. You will therefore see the message "You cannot send a message to this person" in the message field.

3. Accept contact requests

You can recognize a contact request that another person has sent to you in your Messenger through the number listed next to the "Contacts" element: This shows you how many contact requests you have received. In addition, each new contact request is signaled in the speech bubble icon with a new message.

1. Click on "Contacts" and then on the "Requests" field to see who made the contact request.

2. Click on the name of the person who sent the contact request to you and decides whether to accept or reject it. To accept, click "Accept and add to contacts".

Note: After accepting the contact request, the message field for reciprocal messages will not be available until you reload the page and then restart Messenger. Otherwise, you'll still see the "You can't send a message to this person" notice.

 

Note

The person who sent the contact request does not receive any separate notification as to whether or when the request was accepted or rejected. The contact acceptance is only visible by the fact that the addressee of the request is listed among the contacts after its acceptance. Since messages can only be sent after the contact request has been accepted by the other party, we advise switching to another communication channel for urgent messages in the case of initial contact or checking the acceptance status at regular intervals.

4. Writing a message

1. In "Contacts", select a person to whom you want to send a message. The chat channel with the message field will open.

2. Type the message into the message field. A common selection of emoticons and icons are available to illustrate what you have written. Note: No attachments and images can be inserted. External pages and videos can be linked via URL!

3. Click the arrow icon to send the message. Note: Sending a message cannot be undone. You can delete a message at any time, but it will only be removed from your own chat channel. It will remain with all other people involved!

5. Reading and replying to messages

The recipient of the message will see the message receipt on the speech bubble icon. In the "Private" category, the sender of the message and a preview of the content is displayed for each listed chat. Chats with unread messages can be recognized by a blue box, within which a number indicates the number of new messages.
 

Open the chat by clicking on the preview. You can now view the entire message history and compose and send your own messages.
 

 

Note

For managers, there is no way of viewing the message history between two students. A chat between two people is therefore not visible to third parties without a specific reason. If you send messages via a group chat, the manager always has the option to add himself/herself or other participants to the group. Therefore, the messages sent within a group chat can also be viewed subsequently by other persons.

All messages from the past 12 months can be viewed in the message history. After 12 months, messages are automatically removed and deleted from the messenger, regardless of whether they have been read by the recipient or not. Archiving and restoring messages that are older than 1 year is not possible.

6. Deleting messages from your own chat

1. If you want to remove one or more messages from your chat channel, click on a message to be deleted. This will then be outlined in black. A circle icon with a check symbol appears on the upper right side of the message marked for deletion.

2. If you want to delete more messages from your own chat channel, mark the empty circle icon in the upper right corner of all messages to be deleted. After that, they will also be marked with a "tick" and prepared for deletion.

3. Then click on the trash can icon below the message history. A final note will appear once again, stating that the messages to be removed will continue to be visible to all other people involved even after deletion.

4. Confirm here with "Delete".

7. Editing a contact

If you want to edit a status for an existing contact, e.g. block, mark as favorite, or mute, go to the corresponding chat and click above the chat history on the three dots to the right of the name of the contact you want to edit:

A context menu will open, offering you several selection options:

• User Information - This allows you to block or remove a person from your contacts.
• Mark communication as starred - if you select this option, the contact will be marked as favorite by a star icon and moved from the previous "Personal" category to the "Favorites" category. This can simplify access to particularly frequently used chat histories.
• Block person - if you want to block a person so that from now on he/she will not be able to write messages to you, select this option. The blocked person will still be listed among the contacts and will not receive an immediate notification about the blocking. However, if you try to send a message to them in the future, the "cannot send a message" message will appear. The previous message history can still be viewed by all parties. You can recognize a person you have blocked by the "block icon". A block can be removed at any time by clicking on the contact.
• Mute - By default, the speech bubble icon displays every incoming message. If you do not want new incoming messages of certain chat history to be displayed by the bubble icon, select this option. You can recognize a muted chat by the icon. Muting can be undone at any time in the same way as it was activated ("Remove mute").

• Delete communication - With this option, you can delete the chat history for yourself. As with deleting individual messages, the deletion is only done in your own chat view, but not for the other chat partners.

• Remove from contacts - If you do not want to write any more messages to a person without specifically blocking him/her, you can also remove him/her from your contacts. In order to contact this person in the future, it may be necessary to send another contact request, which must be answered by the other party.

For more information:

• Create Groups via the participant administration
• Social conventions for messaging (Chatiquette)
• General info on Messaging
• Group messaging
• Settings for Messaging
• Participating in Messaging
• Create announcements
• Quickmail