Use Office Communicator and Live Meeting for Classroom Chat

Overview
Office Communicator is a messaging client that allows all students, faculty, and staff at Thomas to communicate internally using text, voice, and video methods of communication (more info). Individual and group discussions are supported. Live Meeting is a free client application that can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Office Communicator for students, faculty, and staff to participate in instructor-led audio-enabled and/or video-enabled group discussions with application/whiteboard presentation sharing, handout distribution, feedback controls, etc. Use Office Communicator for basic (text/audio only) chat, and the more robust multimedia-rich Live Meeting for facilitating lecture style presentations or interactive conferences. A PDF summary of this page is available, including all of the FAQ answers below.

Where can I find Microsoft Office Communicator and Live Meeting clients?

• The software is already pre-installed on all College computers, including our academic terminal servers.
• Windows users: See our personal computer setup site at https://update.thomas.edu for install and setup instructions, or connect to one of our academic terminal servers for basic chat service only. You can also use Communicator Web Access for web-based chat.
• Mac OS X users: Use the newest Microsoft Messenger for Mac (v7.0.1) for basic chat service or use Communicator Web Access or use Remote Desktop to connect to our academic terminal servers for basic chat services. Live Meeting conferences are not well supported at this time, since a Live Meeting client is not available for Mac OS from Microsoft and Live Meeting disabled audio/video functions when running under Remote Desktop.
• Linux users must use Communicator Web Access for basic chat service only, or use Remote Desktop to connect to our academic terminal servers for basic chat services.
• Windows Mobile phones can use Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2.

Office Communicator Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How do I login to Office Communicator?
2. How do I add a contact to my Office Communicator client?
3. How can I group multiple contacts into a class list using Office Communicator?
4. How can I invite someone to join an Office Communicator conference already in progress?
5. How can I make someone else a leader of an Office Communicator conference?
6. How can I remove someone from an Office Communicator conference?
7. How can I archive an Office Communicator chat session for review/posting/etc.?

Live Meeting Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How can I start a Live Meeting session?
2. How can I invite someone to join a Live Meeting session already in progress?
3. How can I post handouts to the participants of a Live Meeting session?
4. How can I change the permissions of the participants of a Live Meeting session?
5. How can I archive a Live Meeting chat session for review/posting/etc?
6. How can participants send / receive feedback with an instructor during a Live Meeting session?

Quick Reference Cards and Documents:

1. A PDF summary of the frequently asked questions and answers posted above
2. Office Communicator 2007: IM and Presence Quick Reference Card
3. Office Communicator 2007: Conferencing Quick Reference Card
4. Office Communicator 2007: Phone and Video Quick Reference Card
5. Office Live Meeting 2007 Quick Reference Card
6. Office Communicator MOBILE: IM and Presence Quick Reference Card