Online Chats in Blended Learning Rooms

Online chats are not available with the blended learning room software and faculty are using other products as a workaround. One way to encourage software adoption among students is to use software that they are already using in their daily lives as then there no need to learn new software.

In terms of chat software, WhatsApp is probably most widely used, but this comes with privacy concerns if we wish to use this with our classes. A very similar enterprise social network available as part of the Office 365 package is Yammer and it works very well as a phone app.

Let’s briefly look at setting up a private group on Yammer for your class.

Rather than adding students individually to a group, the best way is to create a locked private group and then send the link through email for students in your class to join. You’ll receive a notification which you can quickly accept to add these students to the group.

To get started, log into Office.com with your HCT credentials and look for the Yammer app. If it doesn’t show on your main app page, click on the ‘all apps’ button.

When you create a group, make sure you create an internal private group which isn’t listed on the public group feed.

Once your group has been created, you can use the url at the top and send this to your class members by email. As they click on the link, you’ll receive a notification whereby you can accept or decline.

Ask your students to add the app to their phones and you can start sending out messages, polls, announcements and files. Students seem happy to engage with this software as they don’t have to log in after the initial log in as the settings are remembered on the phone.