Chat and File Sharing in an Online Class: A Teacher's Guide

To use chat and file sharing well in an online class, give the chat one clear job, such as questions and quick answers, send files and board snapshots into it instead of email, use private messages for individual help, and decide which students may send attachments. Educastic's whiteboard has this chat built into the class.

A class chat is where the quiet student asks the question they would never say out loud, and where the worksheet link stops getting lost in someone's inbox. Used without a plan, it is also where the lesson drifts. This guide shows how the chat works in Educastic and how to use it so it supports the lesson instead of competing with it.

What is the class chat in Educastic?

Educastic's class chat is a panel on the whiteboard's right rail, labelled CHATROOM, where everyone in the session can send text messages, files and voice notes while the board stays on screen. Messages go to the General tab, which the whole class sees, or to a private tab with one person.

The panel also has a font size setting (Small, Medium, Large), useful for students on a small screen, and an on/off switch that each person can use to stop sending and receiving chat messages.

How do you use the chat in a live class?

You use the chat by opening the CHATROOM icon on the right rail and typing in the Write message here box. The steps for each type of message:

1. Message the whole class. Leave To set to All and type in the General tab.
2. Message one person privately. Choose their name in the To list. A separate tab opens for that conversation, and it opens for them too when your message arrives.
3. Send a file. Click the attach button and pick a file. The chat accepts png, jpg, jpeg, gif, pdf, doc, xls, xlsx, wav, mp3 and mp4. Images can be up to 1 MB and other files up to 2 MB. Images appear inside the chat with a download button.
4. Send a voice note. Click Voice Note, allow the microphone, and speak while a timer and waveform show the recording. Click Complete to send it or Cancel to discard it. It arrives as an audio message the others can play.
5. Send the board. Open the Save Whiteboard Tab menu in the header and choose Attach To Inbox / Outbox, then confirm. A snapshot of the current board tab goes into the chat tab you have open.

How do you share a snapshot of the board in the chat?

The quickest way is to right-click the board and choose Attach screenshot to chat. Educastic captures the part of the board that is on your screen, opens the chat and sends the image to the tab you have open. The same menu offers Attach screenshot to notebook, which adds the image to your notebook.

This is the move for the end of a worked example: the class keeps a picture of the finished solution in the chat, and you clear the board for the next problem. Because the screenshot follows the chat tab you have open, you can also send one student a snapshot of their own corrected work in a private tab.

How do you control who can send attachments?

The teacher controls attachments per student in the ATTENDEES & PRIVILEGES panel on the right rail. Each student's row has an Attachment Access switch, and the teacher can turn it on or off at any time. A student without it cannot send the board into the chat or the notebook; Educastic shows a message instead.

Two more controls are worth knowing:

• Turn the chat off for a session. When you choose which tools appear in a session, you can leave out CHATROOM, and the chat icon is not shown on the board.
• Guests and private messages. The To list is disabled for guests, so a guest cannot start a private conversation.

How should you use chat during a lesson?

Use the chat for the things that would interrupt the lesson if they were spoken, and keep the explanation itself on the board.

A routine that works with most groups: after each explanation, ask everyone to type their answer to one question and send it at the same time on your count. You see every answer at once, and nobody copies the first reply.

When are voice notes useful?

Voice notes are useful when typing is slow or when sound is the content. Language teachers can ask each student to record one sentence and send it, then play the recordings back to the class. Younger students who type slowly can answer by voice. A student with a weak connection can still contribute when their microphone in the video call keeps cutting out.

Keep voice notes short, ideally under 30 seconds, so the chat stays easy to scroll. Voice notes are sent as audio only; they are not turned into text.

What are the tips and limits?

A few points to plan around:

• File sizes are small on purpose. The chat caps images at 1 MB and other files at 2 MB. For a long PDF, load it onto the board instead; see how to import files to the online whiteboard.
• Shared audio and video have their own panel. For longer media, use Media Share in the Load File to Whiteboard menu. Shared items appear in a Shared media list for the session.
• Google Meet add-on. Inside Google Meet the Educastic chat is hidden, and Meet's own chat is used instead.

For more ways to keep students active, see how to keep students engaged in online classes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I send a private message to one student? Yes. Choose the student in the chat's To list and a private tab opens for that conversation.

What files can students send in the chat? Images (png, jpg, jpeg, gif) up to 1 MB, and pdf, doc, xls, xlsx, wav, mp3 and mp4 files up to 2 MB.

Are voice notes transcribed? No. Voice notes are sent and played as audio messages.

Can I stop a student from sending the board into the chat? Yes. Turn off that student's Attachment Access in the ATTENDEES & PRIVILEGES panel.

Does the chat cost extra? No. Educastic includes all of its teaching features in the free version.

Try the chat in your next class

Open the Educastic online whiteboard, send your worksheet into the chat and ask every student to answer the first question there at the same time.

Start a class free