HOW TO USE COMMUNICATION TOOLS

Transcription

1 Developmental Math MINDTAP MATH FOUNDATIONS HOW TO USE COMMUNICATION TOOLS When MindTap Math Foundations was being developed, we spoke with students just like you to better understand the things they felt were important. What we heard was that being connected was a key factor to staying engaged and being successful. That feedback led to MindTap Math Foundations including several ways to connect with both your instructor and fellow students in the class. MESSAGE CENTER The Message Center can be accessed whenever you re on the main dashboard or while you re in many of the activities. Within the Message Center, you can send and receive messages, reply to messages, voice chat, and manage your contacts. Note: the Message Center cannot be accessed during a quiz or test. Announcements are messages that the instructor has sent to the entire class and may include important information regarding updates, reminders, and notes about the class. You cannot reply to Announcements. You should make a habit of checking the Message Center daily for any announcements or messages from your instructor or other students in your class.

2 Set Up Your Profile: You ll want to setup your online profile in the My Profile section by clicking on the My Profile icon. Here you can upload a profile picture (which is optional), make your profile searchable by your name, and set your study partner preferences. Upload a profile photo. Connect with classmates, people in your institution, anyone taking the same class, or no one at all. Managing Contacts: You ll want to build your Contacts List by selecting the Contacts List icon to see a list of all the students in your class. Your Instructor will always appear at the top of your contact list. From there, your list of contacts continues alphabetically. From this view, you can also see which of your contacts are online. When a contact is online, the circle to the right of their profile turns green. When the circle to the right of their profile is greyed out, they are offline. Add Contact: Use Search Contacts to search by name (you can enter any part of a first name, last name, or user name), then select the Connect button next to the name of the classmate you wish to add as a contact. If you send someone a Contact Request, you have the option to cancel the request before they respond. Just click on the contact and select the cancel request button. Accepting Contact Request: If someone wants to connect with you, a new contact request will appear in your contact list in a greyed out state, and you will receive a contact request message from them, which you can select to accept or reject.

3 Blocking A Contact: To block a contact, select the person from your Contact List, then click the Block Contact icon located at the bottom of the page. They will be removed from your Contact List and will not be able to send or receive messages from you. If at a later date, you wish to unblock or restore this contact, you can select their name and select Restore Contact, and they ll be fully active again. Sending and Receiving Messages: To send a message to your instructor or a student in your contact list, just select their name from your contact list and then write your message in the text box located at the bottom of the page and when you re done, hit the send button. Lilyanne, did you already turn in your homework? SHARING AND COMMUNICATING FROM YOUR WHITEBOARD Sending an Image of Your Whiteboard: There are also several communication options that can be utilized within the Whiteboard feature. To send a Whiteboard message while working on a practice quiz or an exercise set within a Learning Loop, simply select the Message icon located at the top of the screen and a dialog box will open. Select the contact to whom you want to send the message, write your message in the dialog box, and hit the send button. Do you want to study on Tuesday? To send a screen shot of your Whiteboard, select the contact, click on the camera icon at the bottom of the dialog box which will take a picture of your Whiteboard screen, write your message, and hit the send button. If any of your contacts have sent you an image of their Whiteboard, a Whiteboard icon will appear in the message. Selecting this will open the image, but you will only be able to view it, not write on it.

4 Live Share Your Whiteboard: You can also do a live share of your Whiteboard by selecting the share Whiteboard icon. This function is only available when you re working on an exercise set within a Learning Loop. You ll see a message notification from the contact in the upper-right corner of your screen. You may decline or accept. If you miss the share request, it will appear as a Missed Share. Both of you can see the Practice Exercise at the top of the screen and everything that is put on the shared Whiteboard and you may use the Whiteboard to work on the Practice Exercise together. The person who initiates the Whiteboard share is the initial presenter. If you want to change presenters, just select the Change Presenter icon and your contact will be able to write on your Whiteboard. At any point, either person sharing can select the End Share icon to stop sharing the Whiteboard. The change presenter icon will become greyed out on your screen if your contact takes control and will become active on his or her screen. You can change presenters as many times as you like during a call. Missing a Share Request: If one of your contacts attempts to share his or her Whiteboard, you ll see a Whiteboard share from: (contact name) message in the upper right corner. You may decline or accept this as well. If you ignore it for 15 seconds, or decline the Whiteboard share, it will appear in your Message Center as a Missed Share. MANAGING YOUR INBOX Messages are shown in chronological order with the most recent message at the bottom. Messages you sent appear grey and messages from your contacts appear blue. If any of your contacts have sent you an image of their Whiteboard, a Whiteboard icon will appear in the message. Selecting this will open the image, but you can only view it, not write on it. On the far right of each message is a check box. You can check off any message you would like to delete and then delete them by selecting the trashcan below. Deleting removes messages from your history. Your contact may still have some or all of your sent messages.

5 Helpful collaboration tools keep you connected to your instructor and peers and help you progress toward success! Visit for more information on: Getting Started How to Take a Quiz How to Do an Assignment How to Use Communication Tools How to Use the Whiteboard How to Use the Learning Burst How to Quickly Access Your Resources How to Use the My Skills Area Technical Issues M E