What are the chat thread controls?
In the Grok tutor messaging system, a chat thread is created for a user on a problem.
As a tutor, you have the following controls/information for each chat thread:
Viewing a thread
Claiming a thread
Hijacking a thread
Locking a thread
Locking (blocking) a user
Chat thread info
Chat thread participants
Viewing a thread
To view a chat thread, you click on the Open button on the chat thread on the live tutoring triage page.
This takes you to the “red view” of the learning interface. The red view is a view of a student in a course in which you can access the notes for the course as well as see all submissions and saved code made by the student for each problem. The red view of the learning interface is available to all teachers and tutors of the student.
The main body area of the tutor chat modal shows all of the events that have happened to this chat thread in chronological order. This interleaves any sent chat messages, tutor notes, saved codes, submissions, and chat thread state changes.
⌘/ctrl-clicking on a chat message or tutor note will copy the markdown for that message or note into the message composition area. Students do not see tutor notes or state change information when using the tutor messaging system.
Chat threads are created by students on a particular problem.
Claiming a thread
You can claim a thread from the main tutoring interface. Or, you can open a thread, and use the Claim button at the top of the chat window. Claiming a thread assigns it to you, so that no other tutors can reply to the student.
Hijacking a thread
You can hijack a thread that is currently claimed by someone else. Open the thread and use the Hijack button at the top of the chat window.
Closing a thread
Closing a thread will remove it from the triage queue. Solving a problem does not change the state that a chat thread is in; you need to either manually close or reply to any unreplied threads to stop them from appearing in the list of actionable chat threads on the triage page.
There isn't currently a way to re-open a closed thread, unless the student replies. If you accidentally close a thread, either reply or ping someone else to take it so it doesn't get forgotten about!
Locking a thread
You can only Lock a thread if you have Claimed it. Use the Lock dropdown at the top of the tutor window, and select Lock Thread. Locking a thread will disallow the user from posting in this thread, but they can raise other threads.
Locking (blocking) a user
You can only Lock a thread if you have Claimed it. Use the Lock dropdown at the top of the tutor window, and select Lock User. Locking a user will disallow the user from posting in ANY thread, or from starting new threads.
Typically we block users who continuously spam us or send inappropriate messages, until their teacher has discussed appropriate behaviour with them.
Chat thread info
The top-left of the chat thread window shows the current state of the chat thread, as well as the tutor who is currently assigned to this thread - see (3) in the screenshot above. The top-right of the chat thread window shows you the state-changing actions you are able to perform on this chat thread - see (4) in the screenshot above. Students do not see this bar when using the tutor messaging system.
Chat thread participants
The avatars bar shows who has participated in this chat thread, as well as their onlineness - see in the screenshot above. Hovering over each profile image shows the name of the participant. Students do not see this bar when using the tutor messaging system.
The onlineness is indicated by a coloured halo around the profile picture:
- Green halo indicates that this user is online on Grok and currently has this chat thread window open.
- Yellow halo indicates that this user is online on Grok but does not have this chat thread window open currently.
- No halo indicates that this user is not currently online on Grok.
This information might be useful to decide how to respond to the student. If they're currently viewing the chat thread, you might choose to use the messaging system in a more instant-messaging fashion than if they're not online.