{"id":10824,"date":"2017-06-01T16:04:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T21:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=10824"},"modified":"2017-06-01T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T21:04:48","slug":"using-a-backchannel-for-student-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/using-a-backchannel-for-student-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Backchannel for Student Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A backchannel communication, in an educational context, is a secondary electronic conversation that takes place at or near the same time as a lecture, instructor-led learning activity, or conference session.<\/p>\n<p><div align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/keyboard-computer-laptop-backlight-2098301\/\" title=\"keyboard\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/keyboard-2098301_640.jpg?resize=480%2C320\" alt=\"keyboard\" height=\"320\" width=\"480\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Instructors are finding that using a backchannel can increase student engagement because backchannels allow students to engage in a digital conversation alongside the activity. This is beneficial because a backchannel can provide introverted students with a place to ask questions or make comments without speaking up. Additionally, instructors can share supporting resources such as videos, links to websites and photos through a backchannel. Instructors can ask questions and watch the response of students to determine if they really understand the concepts being discussed. Students can search the backchannel for notes and resources without having to scribble personal notes on paper.<\/p>\n<p>Instructors are using web 2.0 tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/todaysmeet.com\/\">TodaysMeet<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socrative.com\/\">Socrative<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/padlet.com\/\">Padlet<\/a> to facilitate backchannel communications. <\/p>\n<p>If this blog post has piqued your interest, you can find additional information about backchannels at these links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/delphiweb.louisville.edu\/theteachingpractice\/?p=346\">Using a Backchannel to Engage Students<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freetech4teachers.com\/2013\/09\/backchannels.html#.WS7yV-srLX4\">A Teacher's Guide to Classroom Backchannels & Informal Assessment<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/articles\/edtech-news-and-trends\/professors-use-twitter-to-increase-student-engagement-and-grades\/\">Professors Use Twitter to Increase Student Engagement and Grades<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/catlintucker.com\/2013\/01\/todaysmeet-the-beauty-of-the-backchannel\/\">TodaysMeet: The Beauty of the Backchannel<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smore.com\/gngjb-backchannel-in-the-classroom\">Backchannel in the Classroom<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><small>Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/keyboard-computer-laptop-backlight-2098301\/\">Keyboard<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/service\/terms\/#usage\">CC0<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A backchannel communication, in an educational context, is a secondary electronic conversation that takes place at or near the same time as a lecture, instructor-led learning activity, or conference session. Instructors are finding that using a backchannel can increase student engagement because backchannels allow students to engage in a digital conversation alongside the activity. This <a href=\"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/using-a-backchannel-for-student-engagement\/\" class=\"more-link\">...continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \"Using a Backchannel for Student Engagement\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[35,298],"class_list":{"0":"post-10824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-online","7":"tag-backchannel","8":"tag-student-engagement","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry","11":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-2OA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/using-a-backchannel-to-engage-students\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":0},"title":"Using a Backchannel to Engage Students","author":"Janice Florent","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you looking for new ways to engage more of your students? Do you want to provide more authentic learning opportunities for your students? Searching for some way to help students write concisely, critically examine arguments, or take notes? One strategy you might consider using is a \u201cbackchannel\u201d Dr. Michelle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16906,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/icymi-student-engagement-in-synchronous-zoom-class-sessions\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":1},"title":"ICYMI: Student Engagement in Synchronous Zoom Class Sessions","author":"Janice Florent","date":"June 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many faculty are teaching remotely as a result of the pandemic. One topic related to teaching remotely that comes up often is student engagement during Zoom class meetings. Instructors who meet their students synchronously through Zoom want to know that the students are paying attention and are engaged during the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"person in white long sleeve shirt using MacBook Pro","src":"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1611703371950-244fa15e9486","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15664,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/student-engagement-in-synchronous-zoom-class-sessions\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":2},"title":"Student Engagement in Synchronous Zoom Class Sessions","author":"Janice Florent","date":"August 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many faculty find themselves teaching remotely because of the pandemic. One topic related to remote teaching that comes up often is student engagement during Zoom class meetings. Instructors who meet their students synchronously through Zoom want to know that the students are paying attention and are engaged during the class\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"laptop screen with image of Zoom window with camera screen on","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/chris-montgomery-smgTvepind4-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/chris-montgomery-smgTvepind4-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/chris-montgomery-smgTvepind4-unsplash.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15724,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/plan-and-facilitate-quality-online-discussions\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":3},"title":"Plan and Facilitate Quality Online Discussions","author":"Janice Florent","date":"August 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A common assignment given in an online class is for students to participate in a discussion forum. Many online discussions forums are setup so that students are asked to respond to a prompt and reply to posts from their classmates. The discussions are likely to be underwhelming if the discussion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"gears with silhouette of two heads facing each other","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2013\/12\/03\/08\/19\/exchange-of-ideas-222790_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2013\/12\/03\/08\/19\/exchange-of-ideas-222790_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2013\/12\/03\/08\/19\/exchange-of-ideas-222790_1280.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6039,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-132-keeping-students-on-track\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":4},"title":"Bb Tip #132: Keeping Students on Track","author":"Janice Florent","date":"March 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Students are more likely to be successful in a course when they attend regularly and keep up with their coursework. Instructors can use Blackboard to help students stay on track. Review Status, Performance Dashboard, and the Retention Center are features in Blackboard that collectively enable instructors to access student progress.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9378,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-155-keeping-students-on-track\/","url_meta":{"origin":10824,"position":5},"title":"Bb Tip #155: Keeping Students on Track","author":"Janice Florent","date":"March 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Students are more likely to be successful in a course when they attend regularly and keep up with their coursework. Instructors can use Blackboard to help students stay on track. Review Status, Performance Dashboard, and the Retention Center are features in Blackboard that collectively enable instructors to access student progress.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"person walking on jogging track with the caption stay on track","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crossfitwesthouston.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Stay-on-Track-copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10824"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10834,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions\/10834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}