Getting Started with Slack

If you teach in the Master of Health Care Innovation (PSOM) or Penn Engineering Online programs, you can enable Slack from the navigation menu of your Canvas site.

1. Log in to Canvas and select the course site from your Dashboard.
2. Click “Settings” from the left side menu.
3. Click the “Navigation” tab.
4. Locate the “Slack” item from the bottom group of menu items. Drag/drop or move it into the top group of menu items. Place it anywhere within this top group; these items can be re-ordered based on how you wish them to display for students.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save.”

Instructors in all other programs participating in the Slack pilot must request for Slack to be enabled at the course level. Please contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu with the course number of your Canvas site and ask for Slack to be enabled.

Once Slack has been enabled for your Canvas site, you will need to create and join the course workspace. 

1. Log in to Canvas and select the course site from your Dashboard.
2. Click “Slack” from the left side menu. If this menu item does not appear, select Settings > Navigation and move or drag the Slack item up into the top menu group. Save and return to the course home page to select Slack from the menu.
   
3. If this is your first time logging into a Penn Slack account, you may receive the “unavailable” message shown below and will need to log in with your PennKey.
   
4. After logging in with your PennKey, refresh the page or return to your Canvas site and again click “Slack” from the left side menu.
5. Click the button to “Create Slack Workspace”.
   
6. Log in using either the desktop/mobile or web app. You may download Slack for Windows or Mac OS, visit the App Store or Google Play Store to download a mobile version, or continue in your browser.
   

You have now created and joined a workspace for your course. If you plan to use Slack in multiple courses, repeat steps 1-2, then skip directly to step 5 for each course. Once you have added all of your workspaces, you will be able to switch between them in the Slack app or access each workspace through its Canvas site.

If you’re not already familiar with Slack, we recommend the very brief video below to learn about some of its main features:

All course workspaces exist within an enterprise account called “Penn Online Learning,” which appears in the top left of your Slack window and is indicated by the logo below:

Within the Penn Online Learning account are any workspaces you have connected to for each of your courses. By default, channels and messages from all workspaces are displayed. You may select or switch between individual workspaces using the drop-down list that appears below the words “Penn Online Learning” in the web or desktop app (below left), or the expander menu in the mobile app (below right).

A Slack channel is a conversation thread about a specific, ongoing topic. Public channels may be accessed by anyone in the workspace, while private channels are limited to invited users. Each user can subscribe or unsubscribe to channels as they prefer. Subscribing to a channel means that you can view and participate in the conversation and will receive notifications (according to the preferences you select) when someone posts.

As an instructor, you may want to proactively create channels that all students should subscribe to, such as #announcements or #homework-help. Use the Coursebot tool to create these as default channels that automatically subscribe all users, whether they join the workspace before or after the channel is created. To create a default channel:

1. From the left side workspace menu, select “Coursebot” (circled below).
   
2. In the top right corner, use the drop-down list to select the course workspace for which you would like to create a new channel.
   
3. Click “Create Default Course Channels.”
   
4. Give the channel a name and (optional) description. Click “Submit.”
   
5. Repeat for any additional default channels you wish to create.

You may also follow this process to create network channels. These should only be used for conversations that are intended to continue across semesters and are not tied to an individual course, for example, a channel for conversations among a student cohort throughout their program. To create a network channel, follow the process described above for default channels, but in Step 2, click “Create Network Channels” instead.

You may repeat this process for additional course workspaces by using the drop-down list in the top right corner (pictured in Step 2 above) to select a different workspace, then repeating the remaining steps to add default and/or network channels.

The Coursebot tool also provides instructors with access to information about the course workspace and user analytics. Click “Coursebot” from the left side workspace menu to locate these options.

Closure Preferences

By default, the workspace will close 30 days after the end of the semester. This preference can be edited from the drop-down list. Default and network channels can be added to future semesters’ courses, and conversations in network channels will continue to be visible in future courses.

Analytics

Use the Analytics section of Coursebot to retrieve information about how students are using Slack in your course. 

The user engagement report details the frequency with which each user engages in different types of interactions, such as sending and replying to messages, or using message reactions.

The channel overview report provides a list of all channels in the course workspace, which users created the channels, and how many users are subscribed to each one.

You may also view user engagement data for an individualized view of the same information included on the user engagement report.