ASU is rolling out Slack Enterprise Grid, a collaborative communication hub that complements email and excels in group communication. Slack is designed for group communication and is a useful tool in and out of the classroom.
The initial Slack roll-out is focused on academic courses, enabling Slack course workspaces. The tool is available for Session B and can be enabled by faculty via through the Canvas course creation process. Additional Slack enterprise features, functionality and workspaces will be coming for students, faculty and administration.
Slack can be accessed from web browser or the Slack Client. Window users can install the client from the Software Center or reach out to your school IT team for assistance. You can also use the Slack smartphone app.
Helpful Links to get started:
- Find more information on ASU’s plans for Slack
- View a video introducing Slack
- Read how-to documents and answers to Frequently Asked Questions
- Read instructions on enabling your Slack Course Workspace (part of setting up a Canvas site)
Features:
- Presence: You always know when sending someone a message if they are Available, Away or Busy at that moment. Their Out of Office message from Outlook also shows up while typing messages to them.
- Persistence: Unlike other “chat” software, the entire history of communication is preserved and searchable. New additions to the team immediately have access to the communication history.
- Instant: Messaging is quick and compared to email, and more informal. Responding or acknowledging messages can be as quick as clicking the Thumbs Up icon.
- Organized channels: Messages arrive in your course workspaces and pre-defined Channels, rather than one giant inbox. Responses are to Message Threads, rather than individual emails (that may be out of sequence). Channels allow you to organize messages by Projects, Assignments or whatever criteria works best for you. Channels are also great for groups within a class, giving them a space for collaboration separate from the full course.
- @mention: Call out someone (or a group) to make them pay attention to a message — everything else is FYI. People can control notification preferences.
- Guests: Guests can be added to Teams – both from within ASU and externally. If someone has an email address, they can be invited to collaborate.
