Serious chat in a university setting

[Walt Howe]

At 06:53 AM 11/8/1997 -0800, Sharyn Ladner wrote, in part:
>We use iChat here at FSU for group discussions in our distance education
>masters program. ... 

>I have found that chat becomes unwieldy if more than 10 persons are in the
>group and all try to participate. ...

I've used chat in various forms for years. One very common voluntary
mechanism for large groups with a common interest that works with all types
of software is to use a moderator to control the discussion. Ask people not
to speak out of turn, but to simply type a question mark when they have a
question and an exclamation point when they have a comment. The moderator,
or if a very large group, an assistant keeps track of the order of
questions and calls on them in turn. Comments are usually called on as they
are raised. This will certainly work with iChat. With an assistant, the
moderator and assistant may use private messages or a separate channel to
keep track of the flow. One thing needed is an entry screen or prior
message which gives the rules.

The technique only breaks down when you have a chaotic, undisciplined
audience that is changing all the time. 



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