Communicating and Community within the TTU MOO

Communication and Community: A Brief Guide to TTU MOO for Online MATC and TCR Students

This guide will provide instructions for how to communicate within the TTU MOO as well as information on how to set your own "description" so that others online can "see" who you are. In addition, it will point you toward a more complete user guide for more information on enCore.

Communicating--Speaking out loud in the same room
SAY-- To speak to someone, type the word SAY before your words (or use a quote mark "). You can also click the "say" button to shift to the "say" mode for extended conversations. Examples:
You type: "Hello -or- Say Hello	You see: You say, "Hello"		Others see: John says, "Hello."
TO--To direct your speech at a specific individual in the room, often as a reply, type the word to then the name of the person you are talking to, and finally the text of your message:
You type: To Erin Hi	You and others in the room see: John [to Erin]: Hi
EMOTE--To express emotion, feelings, or non-verbal actions (cues), type the word emote or a colon followed by the text (or you can click the emote button).
You type: : smiles -or- emote smiles		You and others in the room see: John smiles
Communicating--Private Speech
PAGE--To speak privately to someone not in the same room, type page, their name, and the text of your message. Example: page John Hello
WHISPER--To speak privately to someone in the same room: whisper <text> to <name>
You type: whisper "Hi" to John	You see: You whisper, "Hi" to John.

For more complete information on communicating inside enCore, visit either the TTU Guide to the MOO or the enCore User's Guide v.4: Communicating

How to Set Your Character Description

Whenever you are "in-class" inside the TTU MOO, you can click on the charcter name of your classmates and see a description of who they are. These instructions will help you input your own character description and include a picture of yourself with it. Knowing a bit more about who we are (and even what we look like) can help build a personal sense of online community within our TCR online classes.

Setting Your Character Description

1. Once you are logged in, click the Options Button in the button bar.

2. Within the window that opens, pull down to select "Description."

Fill this textbox out with your character description, and then hit SAVE. Now, whenever someone clicks on your character name they will see this description of you. (You can go back and edit it at any time.)

Getting a picture into your description

1. Once again, click on "Select options to edit" in the editing window for your character (go back and click Options if you need to), and select "Edit Multi-Media Content" this time.

2. In the Visual URL textbox, input the URL for a picture of yourself (or whatever graphic you wish to use).

edit

Getting a Picture with your Character Icon

1. Once again, click on "Select options to edit" in the editing window for your character (go back and click Options if you need to), and select "Edit Icon " this time.

2. Input the URL for a picture of yourself or a graphic you wish to use. Click SAVE.

enCore his highly customizable. For more information on how to set your character options, visit either the TTU Guide to the MOO or the enCore User's Guide v.4: Options.

Brief Notes on Doing Presentations in enCore

The @url command:
To share a web page: type @url <webaddress> and hit enter.

Example: @url http://http://www.english.ttu.edu/tc/
This will display the webpage inside the graphical site of the MOO. You may also @url pdf files with ease.

Note: .doc and .ppt files DO NOT display well within the MOO. Some people will be knocked out of the MOO attempting to open these files.

Using a Webprojector
Webprojectors are specially designed objects inside enCore for displaying webpages. You are also able to pre-load web pages for display inside a room. To use a webproject, however, you will need to ask for more "quota" from Locke (that means more memory so that you can create your own webprojector). For instructions on how to create and use a webprojector, see

Creating Objects in enCore
How to Use a Webprojector

For more complete information and help on using enCore, see visit either the TTU Guide to the MOO or the enCore v.4 User's Guide. Feel free to contact me (Lennie Irvin, Lirvin@accd.edu) at any time with questions about using the TTU MOO. If you are interested in enCore for research purposes or perhaps for an opportunity to work on the help documentation for v5 of enCore, visit the enCore Consortium home page and contact Lennie Irvin.

This guide composed by Lennie Irvin. 1/7/06