Back to resources Article Contents Keeping Conversations Alive Outside of Class February 10, 2020 Author: Read time: 2 min Share This Article Copy Link Share on Linkedin Share on X Share via Email Packback gives students in Melissa Mendelson’s class a place to write their ideas before sharing them in class Melissa Mendelson found students reserved during in-class discussions. She wanted a way to get students thinking outside of the classroom so when they attend class, they would have thought through some ideas and be more comfortable sharing their opinions. Mendelson found Packback to be an efficient tool in keeping conversations alive both in and outside of the classroom. INSTITUTION University of Utah DEPARTMENT Linguistics COURSE Expository Writing for EAS SIZE 19 Students “I teach writing to international students at the University of Utah. I’ve been using Packback this semester to kind of liven up our discussions and bring those discussions that we have in class home, online so that students when they leave the classroom, they can think about what we talked about in class. [They can put their ideas] into writing and add a little more depth and nuance, and then respond to each other. They don’t always feel comfortable responding in class, and online they kind of have a little bit more anonymity to kind of write what they think. But they’re also asked to justify and offer rationale, so Packback has been working really great for me.” Community Stats QUESTIONS 180 AVG CURIOSITY SCORE 59.3 RESPONSES 211 AVG WORDS PER POST 129 More Faculty Spotlights
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