Introduction

Students initially start conversations with VirtualAdvisor to ask basic questions and resolve issues, but can be handed off to a live school user for further discussions when available. Students have the ability to request to speak to an advisor, advisors monitoring conversations can manually intervene and take over, and advisors can transfer the conversation from themselves to another advisor if needed. Advisors can also exit the conversation and have VirtualAdvisor jump back in for further questions. Admin, Advisor Manager, and Advisor users can view the waiting queue in Advising > Awaiting Advisor and manage their conversations in Advising > My Conversations.



Awaiting Advisors

At any point during a conversation with VirtualAdvisor a student can request to speak to an available school advisor. Depending on which advisors have indicated they are available and based on their category permissions, students who request to speak to an advisor may be put into a queue.


In order for the Awaiting Advisor queue to be available for students to wait to speak to an advisor, at least one advisor has to currently be set for availability. This indicator can be managed in Advising > Live Conversations tab, by both Admin and Advisor users.



  • Click the Available for Live Chat switch to enable/disable availability for chat


VirtualAdvisor will then look to see if any advisor is currently flagged as available. Based on the last message provided by the student prior to asking to speak to an advisor, VirtualAdvisor reviews the category permissions of all advisors available. If at least one advisor has the category permission, the student will be put into queue. If none of the available advisors have the category permission, VirtualAdvisor will let the user know that no one is available.


If an advisor is available for chat and a student is in their queue, advisors will receive an indicator of students in queue. A red dot can be see next to Advising on the left hand menu, and another indicator next to the Awaiting Advisor tab if the user is already in the Advising page.



Admin and Advisors can view a list of students currently waiting to speak to an advisor under the Awaiting Advisors queue.


This list includes all of the student currently waiting for an advisor with the following information:

  • Time in Queue
  • First Name - displays name of student if authenticate, otherwise unknown for anonymous users
  • Last Name - displays name of student if authenticate, otherwise unknown for anonymous users
  • Student ID - displays ID of student if authenticate, otherwise unknown for anonymous users
  • Last Message
  • Source - displays how student is chatting in VirtualAdvisor (web chat, sms)
  • Last Category - category based on the last message prior to asking to speak to advisor. This drives which students an advisor sees in queue based on their category permissions.


User can then view the conversation and join.

  • Click View (Binoculars Icon) to view the conversation in real time
  • Click Connect (Link Icon)to join the conversation
    • Joining a conversation will automatically redirect the advisor to the My Conversation tab



My Conversations

Advisors can manage multiple conversations with students in the My Conversations tab. Here advisors can view the entire conversation the user has had with VirtualAdvisor and/or other advisors. Notifications are present to alert advisors to any new unread messages and specific actions can be taken for a conversation.


The page is split between the conversation summary list on the left side and the conversation section to the right. The summary list includes the students name (if authenticated), their last message in the conversation, and a timer of how long since that last message was posted.


Conversation view includes a header with the student's name (if authenticated), profile image (if given), and additional information about the conversation on the right hand side, including the source of the conversation (web chat, SMS) and which CampusLogic product the student is having the conversation in (otherwise no product listed). The Information ("i" icon) expands to further student view, which will come in a future release.



The conversation portion works similar to the student user side. Incoming messages will appear on the left, any message from VirtualAdvisor, previous advisors from the conversation, and the current advisor appear on the right. Notifications of an advisor joining or leaving the conversation and notification of student leaving the conversation will appear when the event occurs.


When new messages appear from students outside of the currently viewed conversation, indicators will appear on those student conversations to alert the advisor of new unread messages. A red dot will appear on the My Conversations tab to indicate at least one conversation has a new unread message and within the conversation list summary an individual indicator will appear for each student with a count of the number of new unread messages.



Above the conversation summary list is a count of the number of students currently in the Awaiting Advisor queue.

  • Click the Get Next Conversation button to join the oldest conversation in queue.


An advisor can take multiple actions on the conversation. 

  • Click on any message to view the timestamp of the message (this is converted to the user's timezone)
  • Click on the Toggle Sensitivity (Eye Icon)to mark the message as sensitive
    • Note: Marking it as sensitive will redact the message and block other school users from seeing the response. Only a user with the support role Sensitive Data Manager will be able to view the original message. Any user can block a message, and they can undo any redaction done while in the conversation, but once the conversation has ended the message will stay hidden. For more information, please review the Sensitive Information article.


The bottom toolbar has additional actions for an advisor to take.

  • Select a category to update the overall category of the conversation
    • This is used to update category permissions to allow transfer to different advisors who may not currently have permission to view/enter conversation
  • Click the Sign Out (Exit Icon) to exit the conversation - this will hand the conversation back to VirtualAdvisor. A message will appear in the conversation that the advisor has left.
  • Click the Require Student Login (Unlock Person Icon) to request the student to login. This is only available if the user is currently anonymous and the advisor wishes to have them authenticate themselves. A card will appear for the student with a button to login. Once authenticated, a message will appear that the student has logged in.
  • Click the Transfer Student (Forward Icon)to transfer the student to another advisor.
    • Select an advisor to transfer to
    • Optionally, an advisor can narrow down the search by advisor name or category using the filters above
    • Enter an Introduction Message to provide to both the user and new advisor, so that they are aware of the transition
    • Click Transfer 

  • Click the Toggle Sensitivity (Eye Icon) to keep the next response hidden. This should be used if sharing sensitive information with the student that should not be viewed by other school users. This does not hide the response from the student.
  • Click the Send Message (Paper Airplane Icon) to send a message. Clicking Enter in response field also sends the response.



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