Create

To add a Chat activity to your design, just drag and drop the activity in the authoring canvas and double click on it to set it up.

Chat Content

By using Chat effectively, you shift from simply delivering content to facilitating dynamic, student-driven learning experiences, supporting the kind of interactive and structured learning design that underpins LAMS.

Chat authoring

On the Basic or Content tab, you are able to set:

1. Title Make sure you use a meaningful title that summarises what the students are meant to do.

   Use a clear title so students immediately understand the purpose, for example:

   • Case Discussion: Patient Diagnosis

   • Week 3 Debate: Ethical Dilemmas

2. Instructions This is where you provide guidance for the discussion. Use this space to:

   • Explain what students should discuss

   • Provide context or background information

   • Set expectations for participation

   Well-written instructions help keep the conversation focused and purposeful.

Pro tips for maximising the educational value of Chat

• Set a clear purpose for the discussion, for example, debate, brainstorming, or problem-solving

• Provide structured prompts to keep the conversation focused and meaningful

• Actively facilitate by asking follow-up questions or challenging responses

• Encourage equitable participation so all students contribute, not just the most vocal

• Use Chat as a diagnostic tool to understand how students are thinking in real time

• Summarise key insights at the end to consolidate learning and reinforce important points

• Link Chat to other activities (e.g. assessments or collaborative tasks) to deepen learning

Advanced Settings

Chat moderation filter

When enabled, this option allows you to automatically filter inappropriate or unwanted language in the chat.

You define a list of words to filter:

• Messages containing those words will be blocked or restricted

• Separate each word with a comma (e.g. word1, word2, word3)

• The system will scan messages and apply the filter automatically

• Here you enter the words or phrases you want to block.

This helps you maintain a safe and respectful learning environment, especially in large or unsupervised sessions.

In some cases, you might require some words to be filter in case accidentally (or purposely) a student adds a bad word to the chat. When filter is enable, any word that matches will be automatically excluded from the chat.

Disable chat after completion

When enabled, students will no longer be able to continue the conversation after they complete the activity.

This is useful when you want to:

• Limit discussion to a specific time window

• Prevent late or ongoing contributions

• Ensure all students participate within the same timeframe

Learning Outcomes

Mapping learning outcomes to activities is very useful for curriculum mapping.

Add learning outcomes to the activity

As with all activities in LAMS, you can map your learning outcomes to this activity. If you want to add a learning outcome, just search for the particular outcome or type a new one it will be added to your list of learning outcomes for the future.

You can search Learning Outcomes by code or name.