Overview
The page provides a summary of the chat tools available at UWF.
Available Chat Options
| Chat Tool | Summary | Usage | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
*Must be employee to access page | A chat tool that allows users to chat in a group or one-on-one. Slack may be accessed via a web browser at https://slack.com/ or with a standalone application. | Communication between UWF employees (and student employees). | Students are not allowed to join existing UWF Slack workspace. Although new workspaces can be created, all users must be invited manually, so not optimal for use by faculty with their courses. |
| Canvas Course Chat | Each Canvas course has a chat tool available to allow instructors and students to communicate with their entire class. This tool must be enabled by the instructor in the course settings for it to appear in the navigation bar. | Available by default in eLearning course. An efficient way to chat all your students as there is no need to add them individually. | No one-on-one chat option. Chats are visible to everyone in the course. |
| Google Hangouts Meet | A tool built into our G Suite for Education platform. May be accessed via https://meet.google.com/ to chat in a group or one-on-one. Google Hangouts Meet is a video chat tool, but can be used as text only by disabling audio and video if preferred. | Communication between users with Google accounts. | A meeting must be scheduled and users invited each time before chatting can take place. Not well suited for on-going chat. Defaults to video meeting. |
| Webex Teams | A chat tool that works in conjunction with Webex Meetings. Allows users to chat in a group, one-on-one, or to quickly launch a Meetings video conference. Access Webex Teams at https://teams.webex.com/ or with a standalone application. | On-going communication with UWF employees and students. | May be overly complicated for simple chat usage. |
| Google Hangouts Chat | A tool built into our G Suite for Education platform. May be accessed via https://hangouts.google.com/ or with a Chrome extension to chat in a group or one-on-one. | Communication between users with Google accounts in same domain. | Users may experience issues attempting to chat with users in different domains (e.g., uwf.edu vs. students.uwf.edu). |