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Communicate Expectations

Slack is a communication tool you can use in partnership with other academic technologies like myCourses, Zoom, and email. As with any tool you want to use, it is important to communicate your expectations for using the tool in context of your class. A helpful place to put this information is in the syllabus or in a Slack Overview document or video. The following are good expectations to set with your students. You may have other items you want to include based on how you will be using Slack.

• Given the many methods we have for communicating, be clear about what types of communication should happen in each method. For example, what should a student communicate in Slack versus email? When should you set a Zoom meeting versus post in Slack? Do you want to allow students to direct message you in Slack?

• Given that Slack feels like other chat programs that students may use for their personal social communications, set expectations for the tone and scope of communications you want to have in your class. You may wish to reiterate that Slack is for a professional/class context and other technology that students use is for a personal context.
  

• Given that students are used to having myCourses be the "hub" for their course, be clear what kind of content you will share in myCourses versus Slack. Where should students go for announcements? Where do content-related discussions take place?

• Encourage students to answer each other's questions but not to directly share solutions to assignments or quizzes.
  

• Given that students will need to go to a separate app or website to access Slack, share your reason(s) for wanting to use Slack in this class. Students may be reluctant to use a separate tool unless you make the value clear to students.

• Indicate how often you plan to check Slack and how long students should expect to wait for replies. If you allow students to direct message you in Slack, what are your available hours? Also indicate how often you expect that students should check Slack.

Ideas for Using Slack

For details on how to set up the ideas described below, review the Setting up Your Workspace page. For sample images of what some other courses are doing, review Example Channel Structure Images.

Cross-post Announcements

Rename the default #general channel to "#announcements-class". The benefit of renaming #general instead of creating a new channel is that students will not be able to remove themselves from the #general channel. Manage the posting permissions so that only you can post, but all members can view. Use this channel to share announcements to students. It can also be useful for letting students know of outages or quick pivots that you need to do with the course delivery. If you type "@channel" along with your announcement, it will notify all members to check that channel. Note that students are used to checking for announcements in myCourses, so a best practice is to post the announcement in both the announcements Slack channel and the myCourses announcement tool. You could instead create an RSS feed to have your myCourses announcements automatically post to a channel in Slack. Also since there is a "announcements-rit" organization-level channel that will be available to all workspaces, it is important to differentiate your class announcement channel and the main RIT announcement channel.

General FAQ

Create a public channel called "q-and-a" (or similar) so that all students can ask course-related questions in Slack instead of sending an email or direct message to you. Encourage students to respond to each others' questions. You can respond or clarify as needed. Since items posted here are public to all members of that workspace, all students can see the response. Note that you should reinforce that students should still email you or direct message you for personal/private questions they don't want the class to see.

Channel for Class Lecture 

Create a public channel so that during your lectures, students post questions, upvote each others' questions with emojis, or answer each other's questions. Students could also use this channel to share notes they take about the materials. This can be helpful in mixed-mode classes where some students are on Zoom and other students are in person because all students can be on Slack together. It is helpful to have a student designated as a moderator, so that the moderator can route questions to you to answer during the class time. You can rotate who is assigned as moderator throughout the semester.

More Robust Chat for Zoom Breakout Room Work

When using Zoom breakout rooms, the chat in Zoom is limited to the participants in the breakout room. Also the Ask For Help button makes it more difficult to manage multiple breakout rooms needing help at the same time. Instead, create a public channel in Slack so that students can reach you and TAs for assistance while in Zoom breakout rooms. Use reactions in Slack to let students know you are on your way to the breakout room. For quick questions, you can reply in Slack without having to jump between breakout rooms yourself. You can also post updates to all breakout rooms at once with additional media beyond what is available in the Zoom broadcast option.

Group Work

Create one private channel for each group and add the appropriate group members to each channel. Integrate apps such as Google Drive and Zoom to your workspace. The group members can facilitate their group work by sharing files, typing to each other, and starting Zoom meetings in their group channel.

Sharing Relevant Supplemental Material

Create a public channel (or use the default #random channel) so that you and students can share news articles, videos, or additional reading related to course materials. Indicate in the description of the channel that this channel is optional. Students can opt into engaging with this channel or ignore if they aren't interested.

Other Tips

Making Slack Easy to Get to from Your Course

Copy the link to your Slack URL. Then customize your navigation bar in myCourses. Create a custom link to your Slack URL, and set it to open in a new window/tab. Students can click this link from the course navigation and open the Slack workspace in their browser.

Check in on Slack Usage

Slack has analytics so you can check in on how much students are interacting in Slack, what channels are most used, and more. For details on Slack analytics, review View your Slack analytics dashboard. This page has been moved to the new CTL Knowledge Base. 

• Common Configurations for Course-related Slack Workspaces
• Best Practices for Using Slack in your Class