Chat Bubbles

Let’s Chat about Chat: Using a “Side Channel” during Synchronous Sessions

Article by Luke Konkol

The chat box on the side of your meeting platform of choice is a deceptively complex zone. Not in the sense of technical use, necessarily—most of the time you can just type what’s on your mind and hit [Enter] to send it. But that’s exactly what makes it such an interesting tool. So much so, I find myself asking “What is chat, anyway?” I set out to write this blog post with this in mind. Chat can be overwhelming, but it can also be a valuable community-builder. It can be distracting, but it can also help to steer and focus the session on the whole. Why is this? And what can it tell us about best practices around chat? As it would turn out, the word chat itself can tell us a lot.

What is “chat,” broadly speaking—even outside of the web-conferencing context? Importantly, it’s an informal conversation. It’s unstructured. It changes quickly. It’s responsive to the situation. Compare the statements: “Let’s discuss our plans over coffee” and “Let’s chat over coffee.” So why do I and so many others struggle with “chat” online? It turns out the term and the practice followed us into the remote environment, but—as happens so often in the digital world—it began to serve new purposes and took on new meanings along the way. I’m suggesting we take a quick step back on chat. In this post, I’ll run down some of the key considerations of using chat as we look at how doing it “the old way” might not be bad thing.

A cup of coffee

The term “side channel” in the title of this post comes from the term “back channel” (itself a term borrowed from computer science). If you’ve ever attended a conference or presentation with colleagues and texted or messaged them throughout, you’ve used a back channel. The advantage to back channeling is that it helps keep the distractions low for the primary channel (the presentation) but also provides a community space for another layer of engagement. The backchannel is often where what’s said in the “front channel” is first put to use. It forms a space for collective remembering, brainstorming, and clarification. A side channel is a back channel that’s not separated from the main form of communication. For our purposes, this is the chat.

What is it good for?

Breaking the silence, not the flow

Imagine a situation where you’re lecturing and a student loses their place in the text. The side-channel offers support. Student 1 writes in the chat: “What page are we on?” and others in the class can quickly respond without derailing the main flow of ideas. This also makes the chat an informal support system.

The chat can also be a place for more reserved students to get their thoughts out into the space where ideas are flowing. It can also be a space for you as the instructor to quickly gauge agreement, confusion, or loss of steam—is the chat so far afield that students are discussing the cat that entered the frame in the first two minutes of class ten minutes in? Time to regroup! Just like coffee shop “chat,” the chat is informal, but it’s not without its environment—it’s reflective of the times and context.

Adding democracy

Bubbles on the surface
Sometimes it’s about what bubbles up…

It sometimes happens that a key topic will spur an exciting train of thought that everyone wants in on. Especially with mid- to large-sized classes, it can be impossible to get every voice on video. When you pose a question to the group, consider doing so and letting chat flesh out where the next few minutes of attention should be directed. This works especially well if what you’re looking for are “suggestions” and can be strengthened by employing a “raise your hand” feature (or convention).

Navigating controlled chaos

not just junk
There’s probably something useful amongst this “junk.”

If you read through the chat from a session that used it well, it might seem like an exercise in intellectual entropy. The spurts and starts of confusion, passion, frustration, and excitement are better contained within the chat than spilled into the time you’ve devoted to more full-blown discourse. Remember—“chat” (informal) and “discussion” (more structured) can co-exist thanks to this tool! I like to think of the chat as my kitchen junk drawer. The main channel of conversation is your utensil drawer of carefully separated forks, knives, and spoons. The side channel is next to it with that corkscrew, stray fridge magnets, and half a pizza cutter.

Forming Community

SpongeBob took 8 Days of Philosophy
Sometimes SpongeBob knows his stuff.

Forewarning: as you begin relaxing the tension of the chat, students might go farther afield than you are ready for. This is a double-edged sword and something you’ll need to balance. On the one hand, you will want the conversation to stay more or less on track and not become a distraction. On the other, students sharing memes of how that complex discipline-specific concept you just explained reminded them of a line from SpongeBob Squarepants helps to both build community and reinforce the knowledge! Much like our everyday lives, these moments of low-stress “chat” are often what “stick” the best.

And how do I use it? (In three helpful clichés)

“Let it be.”

There’s an adage that multitasking is just doing two things poorly—this is at least true for chat. Don’t try to engage in the video conference and engage in the chat. You won’t be able to devote your full attention to them both. Instead, make a point to check in on where chat is every few minutes or at transition points. Just be up front with students that you’ll be using it in this way. Students, like many of us, have gotten used to chat being just like simultaneous discussions. Let them know that you’re not explicitly watching for questions. Allow students to self-regulate and be transparent that you’re doing so. Tell them directly: if a question or idea bubbles in chat, raise your hand. Consider asking a student to share the “highlights” from the chat when there’s a natural break, and rotate who you ask to share out.

“Go with the flow.”

It’s an oversimplification, but you do have to follow your nose when it comes to using chat. Nothing I’ve said here is a hard and fast rule. All I can suggest is that you do go with the flow. If your glances at the chat reveal that a small set of students are wildly adrift, treat it much as you would in a face-to-face situation. If your subject matter allows and you feel prepared to do so, you might even comment on the uniqueness of the circumstances. Moreover, going with the flow means being willing to use the chat to the effect your lecture/class session allows. If students are dwelling on a topic you thought you could gloss over, feel free to dissect that a bit. That SpongeBob meme above? Feel free to go with it! Use connections like that to your advantage as much as possible.

“It is what it is.”

In my experience, chat works best when we let it be chat. I’ve been in meetings and courses where chat was used as a sort of discussion board, a place for collective note-taking, and everything in between but chat—and it never quite works. In those cases, it always feels like we’re bending it to our will when it wants to be something else. Where chat shines, for me, is when it’s reserved for informal conversation in the context of a larger session. That is, after all, what “chat” is. Where chat is most effective is when you can pair that with other tools. I mentioned above using the “raise your hand” feature. That’s a great way to build a conduit between chat and discussion or between chat and lecture. Some platforms have additional “reactions” participants can use. Those are great for this, too. If what you’re looking to do is collective note-taking there are other tools out there as well.

What am I getting at?

I’ve been in sessions on both sides where the chat was overwhelming. I’ve also been in sessions on both sides where the chat was a phenomenal way of building community and drawing connections to the larger material. The former were always cases where the chat was really trying to do something else—when the chat was “too” something: too structured, too formal, or too off-topic. The best experiences were when the chat was just “chat.” One didn’t need to worry too much about well-structured sentences and punctuation—it was about firing off ideas and seeing what stuck. Emoji were common. While the better chats certainly strayed from the focus on the main stage along the way, they always remained tethered to its context.

In some ways the challenge of chat is that it’s a tool that doesn’t have a direct analogy to face-to-face instruction. We wouldn’t stand in the front of a lecture hall and say, “Alright, class. Get out your phones and hop into the group text, we’ll be looking at chapter six today”—at least, this isn’t typical practice. And yet, when we’re thrust into the synchronous online environment, it’s just assumed that the chat will be there—and that we know how to use it and use it well. We don’t. We want to catch every word and end up trying to multi-task. We want to add structure to it and end up stifling the very flow it’s great for creating. We don’t know what it’s good for, so we try to make it something it’s not—but  we don’t have to. It’s been telling us all along what to do with it: just chat.

So let’s chat!

Okay, not really. But let’s have a conversation around this!

Do you like what you see here? Do you disagree? It’s all fair game. How do you use the chat in your sessions? Or not at all? Do you find chat to be a helpful guide or relentless distraction? We want to hear from you. Feel free to drop a public comment below or email us at CATL@uwgb.edu.

First Week of Class

As the first week of class draws nigh, instructors naturally turn their thoughts to those first moments that form a new community. These initial interactions offer instructors and learners an opportunity to set the tone for learning for the semester. We searched our library and reached out to UW-Green Bay faculty who have presented on their methods for building community and transparency in the first week to share their insights once again. Many thanks to Dr. Jenell Holstead for inspiring our objectives for the first day, and to Drs. Katia Levintova and Carly Kibbe for example icebreakers for building community in large lecture courses.

What are the objectives for the first day:

  • Clarify all reasonable questions students might have about the course (course objectives, assignments, pre-requisites, when you’ll provide feedback, and how and when students should seek help); spotlight important parts of your syllabus and consider asking students to annotate the syllabus either before class or while you’re all meeting for the first time. Suggestions for how to do this are below.
  • Build community and set the tone for the course environment with an introductory activity. Whether you’re teaching online or face-to-face, students are more likely to succeed when they have a greater sense of belonging not only to each other but also to the course design.
  • Convince students of your competence to teach the course, predict the nature of your instruction, and know what is required of them (your expectations about performance in class). When appropriate, consider asking students to generate a class charter for participation so that they have a stake in shaping how and when they will be prepared to come to class. Giving your students some agency encourages them to hold themselves and their peers accountable for their preparedness.
  • Give you an understanding of who is taking your course and what their expectations are and whatever you plan to do during the semester, do it on the first day. Some instructors ask students to do some “predicting” on the first day of class in order to gauge their expectations and learning goals. Suggestions for how to accomplish this are here.

Man with ice pick chipping away at frozen lakeExamples of Ice Breaker Activities

  1. Sharing Course Trepidations.* Some students have high anxiety about beginning a new course, especially in some courses, such as math or writing, which may be associated with high student anxiety and expectations. Have your students pair up or work in groups to share some of their fears and concerns about starting your course. Groups can share with the larger class if they feel comfortable; this provides validation for the students and an opportunity for the instructor to address student concerns.
  2. Simple Self-Introductions.* Have students introduce themselves to the rest of the class, including their names, majors, and year in school. You can even have them include a “fun fact” about themselves. This also may help you remember them a little bit better. This is a particularly useful exercise in a course where student speaking, in the form of speeches, oral presentations, or regular discussions, are expected.
  3. Getting to Know Each Other through Writing.* Instead of asking students to interview one another verbally, have your students write down the information that is traditionally shared in an introduction. Students can write their names, majors, reasons for enrolling in your course, “fun facts” about themselves, etc. Have your students swap papers with one another and learn about their partners without speaking. This is especially useful in a writing-intensive course.
  4. The M&M Icebreaker. Each student should be given an M&M (or a Lifesaver, or other multicolored candy). They can be given this piece of candy either as they walk in to the room or while they are already sitting in their seats. Develop a few questions or ideas about what students can share with the rest of the class.  Then ask the students to introduce themselves to either a small group of other students or to the whole class, depending on the size of your course.  When they introduce themselves, what they share or say is dependent on the color of their piece of candy.  For example, a red one might mean they share why they decided to take the course or what they did over the school break.
  5. Syllabus Icebreaker.* Before distributing syllabi, have students get into small groups (3-5 students depending on the size of your course) and introduce themselves to one another. In their groups, students write a list of questions they have about the class. After their questions are written down, hand out the syllabus and have the students find answers to their questions using the syllabus. This is not only an icebreaker, but can also show students that many of their questions can be answered by reading the syllabus. Afterward, the class “debriefs” as a large group and discusses any questions that were not answered in the syllabus. 
  6. Syllabus Jigsaw.* Divide your syllabus into a few major sections. Have your students get into groups and distribute one major section to each group (for example, Group A gets “homework assignments”). Each group studies the section of the syllabus until they are confident about the information in it; groups then present that section of the syllabus to the rest of the class.
  7. Common Sense Inventory.* Make a list of true or false statements pertaining to content in your course (for example, in a Biology course, one might read, “Evolution is simply change over time”). Have students get into groups and decide whether each statement is true or false. As a large group, “debrief” by going over the answers and clarifying misconceptions.
  8. Anonymous Classroom Survey.* Write 2 or 3 open-ended questions pertaining to course content. Consider including at least one question that most students will be able to answer and at least one question that students will find challenging. Have your students respond anonymously on note cards; collect the answers to get a general sense of your students’ starting point.
  9. Choose your Thread:* ask students to read the poem “The Way It Is” by William Stafford, and reflect on what their “thread” is and how it sustains them.
  10. Draw* a picture or create a PowerPoint Slide where students can express why they are taking the class.
  11. Bingo: Make a 5×5 grid to use as a Bingo sheet. In each box, write a “fun fact,” or something that at least one of your students will probably relate to. Some examples might be: has traveled to Europe; plays a sport; is left-handed, but they can also be related to your discipline. Have your students walk around and talk to others until they find matches; the first to find all of them “wins.”
  12. Shoes Activity: This activity comes from Dr. Katia Levintova, which she uses in a large lecture class to develop community on the first day. Take a look to see how students’ shoes, a few minutes of silence, and shuffling groups helps her to do this.

(* = suitable for Online or Face-to-Face environments)

Why do an Ice Breaker?

Research around the first weeks of a course indicates that it is not just content expertise that matters to student experience and learning: it is also the environment that the instructor creates–ideally engaging students as active participants (Deluse, 310-312). First impressions are important—from the first time you greet your students to the built or virtual environments in which you teach. Sara Rose Cavanagh shows how students’ first impressions heavily influence their evaluation of courses at the end of the semester. (Cavanagh, 63) 

Email CATL@uwgb.edu if you have an activity for the first week that you would like to share!

Resources

“!2 Icebreakers for the College Classroom” Center for Advancement of Teaching, Ohio State University

Angelo, T. A., and Cross, K. P. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Cavanagh, Sarah Rose. The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. First edition. Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 1. Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University Press, 2016. [E-book requires UWGB login]

Deluse, Stephanie. “First Impressions: Using a Flexible First Day Activity to Enhance Student Learning and Classroom Management.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 30, no. 2 (2018): 308–21.

“First Day of Class – Design & Teach a Course.” Carnegie Mellon University. Teaching Excellence & Education Innovation – Eberly Center, 2019. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/firstday.html.

“First Day of Class Guide.” Vanderbilt University. Center for Teaching, 2010. https://wp0.vanderbilt.edu/cft/guides-sub-pages/first-day-of-class/.

Holstead, Jenell. “Do’s and Don’ts for the First Day of Class.” Presentation Session presented at the Instructional Development Institute, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, January 17, 2018. https://blog.uwgb.edu/catl/files/2018/01/DosDonts.pdf.

Jaggars, Shanna Smith, and Di Xu. “How Do Online Course Design Features Influence Student Performance?” Computers & Education 95 (April 2016): 270–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.01.014.

Kibbe, Carly, and Katia Levintova. “Building Community in Large Lecture Classes.” University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, January 28, 2018.

Samudra, Preeti G., Inah Min, Kai S. Cortina, and Kevin F. Miller. “No Second Chance to Make a First Impression: The ‘Thin‐Slice’ Effect on Instructor Ratings and Learning Outcomes in Higher Education.” Journal of Educational Measurement 53, no. 3 (2016): 313–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/jedm.12116.

 

 

 

 

 

Event Follow-Up: Course Crunch

In 2017, thanks to the “Becoming a Student-Ready University” Initiative, some of us on the UW-Green Bay campus were able to read a few books, and discuss them. Some common themes arose from those discussions: one of them being “The Course Crunch.” Based on the interest from last year, CATL decided to host one of our “Difficult Discussions” around this theme. We then asked a few people who deal with scheduling issues to speak on a panel:

  • Sophia Sielen, Psychology + Art Student
  • Amy Van Oss, Academic Advisor
  • Kate Burns, Associate Dean of CAHSS + Associate Professor of Human Development, Psychology, and Women’s and Gender Studies
  • Jim Loebl, Chair of Business and Accounting + Associate Professor of Accounting
  • Alissa Warpinski, Front Desk Manager of the Green Bay One Stop Shop

Thanks to our panelists, we were able to have an open discussion about how “The Course Crunch” affects our students, instructors, and staff at UW-Green Bay.

In preparation for this meeting we had asked the panelists to collect and compile questions or prompts from others in their areas. Some of the questions are addressed in the video below, but if you’d like to see all of the options we could have responded to, click on the “eye” icon to preview questions from this session.

The questions were placed in a basket, and we chose to respond to ones pulled from the basket, but in an effort to be transparent we wanted to post the rest:

How can we make course scheduling easier?

When and in what modality (online/hybrid/in-person) do students want to take classes?  How can we get their input?

Would students take more Friday classes if we offered them? Why do some programs not offer courses on Fridays, and how does that impact the overall schedule of classes?

Are there other ways to maximize our available course times (more MW times? More 3 day/week class times?  4 days/week class times?)

How can students communicate when they are experiencing course crunch to better let us know?  

 How can we help instructors strike a balance between their own availability and what is pedagogically sound?

Why do some campuses use block scheduling?

Are there other scheduling strategies that are related to block scheduling, and why do campuses use these?

When campuses adopt block scheduling/guided pathways/meta-majors for their specific program how does that affect the rest of the student’s general education course scheduling?

What kinds of resources are currently available to all students while they’re choosing their classes?

Are there potential pitfalls we can make public, so all students have a guide to use if they can’t/won’t meet with their advisor?

What is the purpose for pre-requisites in the major/minor category? Should general education courses have prerequisites, such as a major declaration?

Are there other times aside from M/W or T/R from 11-2 that are underutilized in the schedule of classes?

What are some strategies we can use to help students schedule classes during their spring semester?  

Many students don’t understand that after R&R, they are responsible for scheduling their own classes.

Do you find that instructors are scheduling their office hours on the same days they’re teaching classes?

How many seats are reserved for online students, and who maintains that number in your department?

How does the way we schedule courses impact money we get from System to build new facilities?

The major issue we have every semester is the underestimation of the number of seats/sections we need in online classes. Then, we end up adding classes at the last minute. Why not have those options for student’s right up front?

The other issue we have is online classes filling up with non-online students. I know face-to-face students want online options, but online students are specifically online because they cannot take face-to-face classes. When on online class fills with students who are capable of F2F classes it is frustrating.

When students are unaware of drop deadlines, what are their options to move forward?

I felt like this Fall, I could feel the pinch with the lack of gen ed courses. I felt like Ethnic Studies hardly had any left in summer. I also felt the pinch in Fine Arts because Intro to Theatre was an option, but the other Art courses were reserved for majors for a few months.

I am always concerned about the accelerated content in the Math 99 and 101 courses. I know the seven weeks allows students to complete two classes in one semester, but are the students being successful in those math courses. Especially, our new freshman.

Here’s the recording of the virtual session: