To utilize the Conference feature, just double click the Conferences icon from your FirstClass Desktop
You will see another similar window open that contains choices of established Conferences, such as Announcements. Things of interest to the entire campus community will be posted there. You can also post your own announcements to this forum, provided they are of potential interest to the entire community. Things of interest ONLY to students can be posted in the Students Private Conference. Also, avoid cross-posting (posting the same message to more than one conference group). When responding to an announcement it's preferable to Reply to Sender, unless your reply contains information that amplifies or clarifies the original posting and needs to be seen by all. Posting to any of the conference groups works the same way as sending an e-mail. If you initiate a new message from within a conference, it will be automatically addressed to the appropriate conference. Red flags for Unread Messages appear only at the conference level where new, unread messages will be found. A new post to the Ride Board will raise a red flag on the ride Board, but NOT on the Conferences folder on the FirstClass desktop.
Reading a message posted to a conference is also like reading an e-mail. The red flag indicates the message has not yet been read, and double clicking the message opens it.
An opened item looks like an incoming piece of mail and, as you can see below, has the same kind of response options.
There are sub-conferences corresponding to all the academic disciplines in the Academics folder, and private Conferences for several groups on campus. Private conferences can be assigned permission by the administrator to allow them to be viewed only by people who are members of the conference.
Conferences can be used as an asynchronous discussion forum, where ideas can be exchanged in several ways: individual to group, group to individual, and individual to individual. Think of it as a place where you could continue a classroom discussion, but with the luxury of being able to really mull over a thought before responding. You can also send attachments within a conference, so a group working on a project could share resources.
If your group wants or needs a private conference, call the Information Services Helpdesk at 8555.