On August 7th, 2018, Packback will be ending support for Packback Books, our eTextbook rental service and textbook price comparison services, to focus all of our engineering efforts toward making Packback Questions the best and most curious discussion platform for students on the web.
Scaling relationships between the instructor and each student are hard when class sizes grow; so Packback sees it as a core part of our mission to help instructors scale their feedback and impact in their classes. To help instructors have more control over the feedback their students receive and to offer a way to provide …
Our platform, Packback Questions, is an assistive technology designed to guide the development of curiosity and critical thinking in students. We’ve seen instructors use Packback to help students fall in love with the subject matter, and we understand that a instructors role in student growth is irreplaceable. But finding innovative ways to connect and challenge students …
Continue reading “The Packback Method: Best Practices for Engaging Students”
It was 9:05 a.m. and I was in my seat ready to start my final semester as a senior at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. I had my laptop out and was eager to learn what awaited me in Leadership Ethics.
The spring semester has wrapped up and it’s been an exciting year for Packback. We started the year as a team of 22 working to find our place in education. Since then, we’ve secured $4.2 million Series A funding, added 20 new team members and reached students at more than 100 universities!
“We are reversing education’s fast-answer epidemic, reviving the life skill of asking great questions by awakening and fueling lifelong curiosity, no matter the scale.” Listen to our co-founder and CEO Mike Shannon discuss the mission of Packback at the ASU/GSV conference.
At Packback, we believe when students are allowed to be curious and ask the big questions, they’ll be equipped with skills to become future innovators. Packback encourages students to explore classroom materials in a new way, which makes students more willing to engage and apply their learnings.
Asking questions is an important skill that can be improved with practice and by understanding what makes a quality question.
Students post thousands of questions with sources every week on Packback. Not only do the sources strengthen arguments, but they also serve as a fact-checking tool and provide context for rich conversations. Unfortunately, not all sources are reliable and using an inaccurate source can undermine any argument. So what makes a source credible?
Packback adds $1.5 million of new capital with participation from industry strategic investors as the Chicago-based education technology company doubles its user-base since the last semester and anticipates over 70,000 new students at 50+ universities using the service throughout the academic year.
