Using a backchannel to improve online interactivity

One of the issues with online teaching and learning can be a lack of interactivity. It is very easy to 'lecture' at a group online and miss that students are becoming disengaged. One solution is the use of what is known as a backchannel. This is a digital conversation that runs concurrently alongside a synchronous online activity. Obviously the type of backchannel you use and the degree of monitoring or scaffolding that you need to employ will vary depending on the age of your students and their technical skills but examples of technologies that can be used for this purpose include:

Tips to support the successful implementation of a backchannel include:

Managing student expectations - be very clear why you are using the backchannel and what is/is not allowed to be discussed.
Being consistent - find a backchannel that works for you and stick to it. Don't be tempted to try lots of different technologies, this will just confuse students and make it much harder to focus on the learning.
Set ground rules - this links to the first point but a good icebreaker activity for introducing students to the backchannel is to get them to set the ground rules. This way they are much more likely to stick to the rules and get the most out of it.
Model good practice - it sounds obvious but if you use the backchannel to model good practice then your students are likely to follow suit.

This is an interesting article about using Twitter as a backchannel: https://research.library.oakland.edu/sp/subjects/tutorial.php?faq_id=192

This website has some good suggestions about how you can use backchannels in your teaching: https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/04/10-ways-to-use-backchannels-in-your.html

Further information about using WhatsApp as a backchannel is available here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cte/students-partners/academictechnology/academictechnologies/otherat/whatsapp