Northern Illinois University

Teaching with Blackboard

Chat Session, Archiving


What does the Archive tool record in a Chat session?

The archive records all comments send to the whole class as well as web addresses for sites the class navigates to. You will not see any record of drawings made on the whiteboard (in Virtual Classroom archives), nor will you see private messages (even those intended for you). If a student asks a question using the Q. & A. feature (in Virtual Classroom archives) and you answer privately, you will be able to see neither the question nor the response. If you answer publicly, you will be able to see the question, but not your response (though this doesn't’t make much sense, that’s how it goes).


How do I archive a chat session in the Virtual Classroom?

In this version of Blackboard, chat archives must be manually started at the beginning of each session. The Record Archive button is found in the upper right-hand section of the chat screen. When the archive is begun, a message will go to the group stating that the session is being recorded. Faculty can make the archive available to users after the session by going into the

  • In Control Panel click Course Tools and click Collaboration
  • Find the desired discussion and click Archives
  • Select Manage
  • Name the archive and click the button making it available to students
  • Submit

I had a chat session, but now I don’t see an archive. What happened?

Chat archives are not created automatically. To create an archive, you must press the Record button while in the chat. The archive will continue to record until you press stop (only the Faculty Member can start/stop recording).


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Last Updated: 09/26/2007