Introduction
Institutions of higher learning have expanded their offerings of synchronous and asynchronous online courses since spring 2020. Often facilitated through a video-conference platform like Zoom, synchronous online classes provide benefits to instructors and students alike. Synchronous online instructors, however, face notable challenges in engaging students in active learning (Bates 2022; Castelli and Sarvary 2021). Students may be hesitant to engage in oral discussion and active learning practices in this modality (Castelli and Sarvary 2021; Powers, Rauh, Henning, Buck, and West 2011). For example, students may not turn on their camera or unmute because of a weak internet connection; they may lack a functioning web camera and/or microphone; their physical location may pose difficulties; and some have concerns about how others may discriminate against them based on their racial, gender, and sexual identities (Eberly Center, n.d.; Bates, 2022). When developing an inclusive classroom that fosters accessibility and high-impact learning strategies, I was keenly aware of the limitations that Zoom classrooms posed. With equity and inclusive-teaching practices in mind, I developed backchannels on Slack to help lessen barriers to student engagement (Artze-Vega, Darby, Dewsbury, and Imad 2023; Castelli and Sarvary 2021; Gannon 2020).
“Backchanneling” is a common practice in both online and face-to-face higher education classrooms (Neustifter, Kukkonen, Coulter, and Landry 2016; Yngve 1970). Instructors create a secondary channel of text-based communication—a backchannel—that runs simultaneously to a lecture, activity, or spoken discussion (National Resource Center 2017). In synchronous online classrooms, digital backchanneling allows students to “share their thoughts, questions and ideas by texting” (National Resource Center 2017; Neustifer, Kukkonen, Coulter, and Landry 2016). In this Tool Tips piece, I demonstrate how I employ Slack, the communication and teamwork application, to create backchannels that facilitate active, engaged learning.
Designing and Employing the Slack Backchannel
Like many in fall 2020, I wanted to develop active and meaningful learning in my honors course, “Revolution!: Reacting to Atlantic Revolutions.” The course was (and continues to be) taught synchronously online twice per week via Zoom. Using two immersive role-play games under the Reacting to the Past (RTTP) project, students examine the history of the American and French Revolutions. Repeated and consistent student participation, especially through oral debate and communication, is a vital part of the course. Derek Bruff’s (2020) “Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms” provides a suggestion of how to develop a teaching practice in an equity-minded classroom that facilitates authentic student engagement: use a backchannel.
While many platforms facilitate backchanneling, including a Learning Management System’s built-in discussion board, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Padlet, Tozzl, and Backchannel Chat, I chose Slack, a communication and teamwork application. Slack’s organization of conversations into distinct channels that can be made public or private works well for this class. Public channels allow all to participate, whereas private channels allow students to communicate directly and discretely with their teammates when we role play. Another benefit to Slack is that students can access it in ways most accessible to them—through a web browser, a desktop application, or a mobile app. Students tend to use their phone to participate in the Slack backchannel while they Zoom into our class session on a tablet or laptop.
Because Slack organizes conversations into channels on discrete topics, I create a channel for each class session. Known colloquially as “the backchannel” (or “bc”), students access a new daily channel at the start of each class session. As Figure 1 illustrates, these backchannels are titled using a consistent formula: zoom_bc_class session number_date. For example, zoom_bc_14_mar_23.
In the daily backchannel, students find handouts, PowerPoints, and warm-up activities as seen in Figure 3. Students often greet each other as we wait to start class and they share memes, gifs, and photographs with each other. In doing so, students engage in social presence, “communicat[ing] purposefully in a trusting environment” and building an authentic community of learning (Parker and Herrington 2015, 2; Garrison and Akyol 2009, 24).
Following Gail Rice’s suggestion to frequently “hit pause” during class sessions (Rice 2017), I incorporate questions, open discussions, and include primary source analyses into class time. Slack facilitates these “pauses,” allowing students to answer questions in real-time without having to unmute on Zoom.
Implementation Challenges
Learning how to effectively balance asking students to unmute versus acknowledging their written responses is an important skill for instructors to develop if choosing to backchannel. It is difficult to read student responses when they are coming in quickly, especially in large classes. Bruff (2020) suggests making sure that instructors have designated someone as “The Voice of the Chat.” This person can be a member of the teaching staff, a student, or a group of students that serve as moderators. Commonly employed in instant messaging communities for e-gaming such as Discord and Twitch, moderators monitor the chat’s content. In addition to noting “how engaged students are and what they say” and creating a safe space for learning, moderators can also “see which students needs extra help” (Universiteit Leiden, “Moderators”).
Employing an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow (UTF) as a moderator has been pivotal to the success of Slack in my classroom. If students get off topic, the UTF refocuses the conversation. Additionally, every five or so minutes, I check in and ask, “What’s going on in the chat?” The UTF offers a quick overview, and we transfer students’ responses, opinions, and questions directly to the “front channel”—the verbal discussion that I’m leading on Zoom. In this way, students participate in class, even though they have not unmuted. When we bring their response to the front, though, students will often unmute themselves to provide additional context and commentary. Slack’s text-based communication, in other words, builds student confidence and helps them communicate verbally.
This moderation model, however, will not work at every institution. At schools that do not provide teaching assistants or undergraduate teaching fellows, instructors may assign students the role of moderators for individual class sessions. While this provides the instructor support, it also “enhances … students’ opportunities to critically think and reflect … encourage[ing] co-creation of knowledge” among peers (Malik 2013).
In addition to using Slack in my first- and second-year honors course, I use it in Historical Research Methods, a mid-level history course offered face-to-face. The goal of backchanneling remains the same in this course and produces similar results. Yet, I noticed that it took my non-honors students a bit more time to embrace Slack and use it well. Whereas honors students tended to backchannel frequently by the third or fourth class session, Historical Research Methods students needed more priming on what the purpose of a backchannel was, how to use it, and how it could support their learning (Gossard 2023).
To help address these issues, I kept the Slack backchannel on the side of the screen in the physical classroom, allowing students to see it as an extension of our discussion. This was also a strategy to have the whole class serve as moderator since I did not have additional teaching staff. The students respected this as a place for civil, academic exchange. Since many students in my sections of Historical Research Methods in 2021 and 2022 were still transitioning back to in-person learning, the backchannel provided them a venue to participate and gain confidence. Additionally, the backchannel allowed students who needed to quarantine the opportunity to participate as they watched the class broadcast.
Limitations and Drawbacks to Slack Backchanneling
While Slack is great for providing students a sense of community and engagement, there are several significant drawbacks to consider. First, developing a backchannel system requires considerable labor on the instructor’s part. There are tutorials available through Slack itself as well as hundreds of YouTube videos. But the instructor must feel comfortable enough with the application before asking students to use it. This could be a problem for those with heavy teaching loads and busy personal lives and those who are less adept with digital learning environments.
Second, even though the intention of backchanneling is to reduce the “digital divide” in synchronous online classrooms, it could potentially exacerbate it (Bates 2022). For students who lack a strong internet connection, Slack could potentially lag, putting them behind in the conversation. Moreover, students who lack mobile internet access may feel left out of conversations. This might be especially the case when conversations occur outside of set class time and in channels set up for group work.
Third, even though backchanneling is increasingly viewed as a “social equalizer,” especially for neurodivergent students, students who struggle to concentrate could find backchanneling an impediment to learning (Boren 2018). For this reason, instructors should carefully consider if backchanneling is mandatory or simply encouraged.
Finally, Slack is a “freemium” product. Although the free version of Slack allows users a good amount of functionality, messages and channels become inaccessible after 90 days. To access all of Slack’s capabilities, instructors will be frequently pushed to pay monthly subscription charges per user. While Slack offers educational discounts and some institutions may cover monthly charges through course fees, the limitation of the free version is a factor to carefully consider.
Conclusion
Backchanneling is a common practice in higher education classrooms, whether in-person or in synchronous remote instruction. Using Slack to create backchannels for synchronous discussion transformed student engagement in my classes. Students are not idle, passive participants but rather actively engaged through verbal and text-based communication. By using Slack as a backchannel, students can be more active and autonomous learners.
