Element-Chat

Information about the benefits

The Element Chat is a tool for team communication that is provided on a server at Osnabrück University. It is intended to supplement the existing internal communication by telephone and e-mail. While emails are not clear enough for conversations with several participants, telephone calls are only possible between two people present and are not documented at all. This means that interesting and often important information remains hidden from the rest of the team in a personal one-to-one conversation or telephone call.

The chat supports asynchronous working and communication, i.e. all team members can check in anywhere and respond when it suits them - without topics and conversations being lost in the medium term. Overall, the team should benefit from the transparency, speed and availability of a chat program in the long term, as the content of conversations is easier to find again.

Here is a summary of some of the features:

• accessible on all PCs, laptops (via browser and desktop app), smartphones and tablets (via apps)
• Different chat rooms sorted and separated by topic or area of specialization
• File storage, 1-to-1 chats, video calls, phone calls in chat possible
• Further add-ons and usage options available
• integrated into the university's user directory, i.e. you can get in immediately with your university ID

Information and detailed instructions on Element are provided on the  Digital Teaching (VirtUOS) pages.