Talk channels are a great way of engaging with your learners, and for learners to engage with each other. If you need a few ideas on how to use talk channels, take a look at our article creating a facilitation plan and template.
Set up
Talk channels can either be set by default for the entire organisation by an account owner, or they can be customised when activating a class by a manager. See how to customise the Talk channels for individual class activations. They cannot be set up by a facilitator without these permissions.
Where to find the Talk channels
The talk channels are found by using the left course navigation menu and selecting Talk.
Types of Talk channels
Talk channels in iQualify are grouped as Private channels (if enabled) and Public channels. Public channels may have an Announcements channel and a General channel.
Private channels
Also called a private support channel allows learners to privately message their course facilitator(s). A course must have at least one facilitator for the private talk channel to show.
Public channels
Announcements and general channels can be broadcast only. This means that only facilitators can post messages, but learners can still respond. For more information see the article here.
General channels can also have full access where all learners and facilitators can start threads and reply to existing threads. These are used to encourage general discussion and can be learner, or facilitator lead.
They can also have group access (this needs to be set up by someone with manage access). Group access allows learners and facilitators assigned to the channel to start threads and reply to existing posts. This is often used for group work within a larger class. For more information on how to set up group access, see this article.
How to use the Talk channels
As well as a text response, you can also make lists, add links to websites and attach images, documents and videos to your posts.
Talk channels also support threaded discussions which will allow sub-conversations to branch off without breaking the flow of the main conversation.
Within each channel, posts can be sorted by User (A-Z), or by time posted (with the most recent posts first).
In-app and email notifications
In-app notifications appear by the bell icon in the top right-hand corner of iQualify and next to the Talk icon to show if there are any unread talk channel posts or responses. Unread channels will appear bold so that you and your learners can easily see which threads have unread posts.
Facilitators and learners will get an in-app notification when others respond to threads they have created or replied to. You can also enable email notifications.
NB: email notifications default to off so you need to turn on email notifications if you want to receive them.