Things to know before you begin

This feature is currently available in your organization. The Control interface includes a chat button that will be grayed out until a room is selected. Once a room is set up, the chat icon will turn blue.

Welcome to SP chat

SP Chat enables standardized patients (SP) to communicate with the proctor or monitor if they have questions or requests, especially when they cannot easily alert the control room or room monitor.

How it works – Control interface

To enable chat with your exam, once you have logged in to your organization, take the following steps.

1. Click Control in the global navigation bar.
2. Select a room to configure. After doing this, the chat icon will turn blue. You can also access chat by clicking the kebab menu (three dots) next to the selected room.
3. Click the blue Chat icon to display the chat bar at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click the chat bar to open the chat window. If you only need to chat for one room, using the kebab menu will directly open the chat for that room.
5. Type your message to the Proctor and press Enter to send. Note: Clicking the X in the chat window will close it, but the chat will be saved.

How it works - Standardized patient (SP) interface

When the SP logs in, the chat view will differ from the control interface, but it will function similarly.

To chat with the Admin, the SP clicks on Chat with Admin, types their message in the chat window, and presses Enter to send. In this case, the chat text will appear in the Exam 3 chat window on the control interface.

If the chat window on the control interface is minimized, a red circle will indicate the number of unread messages. Simply click the chat bar to open the chat and view all messages.

FAQs

Q. Can I have more than one chat open at the same time?

A. You can! Should you need to have more than one chat occurring at the same time, just select the configured rooms you want to open the chat in, click the chat icon and that number of chat bars will appear. From that point, just click the bar of the chat room you’d like to work with. 

Be aware that chat windows open in the same order as room selection.

Q. Can I use the kebab menu to open my chat windows?

A. You can! Instead of using the blue chat icon, you can select your room, click the kebab menu, and then select chat to immediately open your chat window. 

Q. Help! I clicked on my page and my chat bars/windows disappeared!

A. Not to worry. If you click on the small horizontal line above your chat bars/windows, your chat will minimize itself, indicated by a blue and white chat icon. Simply click the horizontal bar line to restore your chat. 

Note: If you type text into the chat window, don’t send the text and then minimize the chat window, that text will be lost. 

Q. How can I send multiple lines of text at one time when using chat?

A. To send multiple lines of text in one chat, use Shift+Enter to start a new line. Below is an example of a single line of text and 2 lines of text entered using Shift+Enter.