Awaken student curiosity with online discussion that simply works.
Packback is an AI-supported online discussion platform that improves student curiosity, communication skills and critical thinking. Packback delivers an easy-to-use and engaging discussion experience for students and instructors, with powerful support from automated moderation, sorting and scoring algorithms.
Professor testimonials after using Packback
“Teaching can be a tough and thankless job. Packback does a beautiful job of showing me that my students do care and are genuinely putting effort into the material.”Dr. Alex Gainer
“In essence, Packback finally allowed me to do what I’ve failed to effectively to do for almost ten years of teaching: scale the Socratic style of teaching to large enrollment courses.”Dr. Jose Vazquez
Packback appeared in the September 2018 cover story of the Chronicle of Higher Education, “How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Teaching.”
Packback, along with several instructors, was featured in the November 2017 Forbes article, “Packback Is Building A.I. To Enhance University Learning.”
Research on Packback’s efficacy compared to LMS discussion boards was recently presented by Dr. Kathleen West at the NITOP conference.
Our co-founder Jessica Tenuta presented the concept that later grew into Packback Questions at TEDxNormal in 2016.
Drive skill development in effective question formation, writing and critical debate.
Packback delivers real-time feedback to students on how to construct effective questions, responses and arguments leading to skill development that benefits students in class and in their futures.
Provide a positive and constructive real-time feedback loop for students day or night.
Packback’s algorithms continuously review the community to remove low-quality posts, maintaining a healthy discussion while giving students the opportunity to edit and republish posts for credit.
Inspire students’ intrinsic curiosity with a tool based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognition
Students who use Packback self-report improvements to their confidence in asking questions, their curiosity about the subject and their likelihood to read course materials.
Gain professor superpowers to create greater learning impact with less time and effort.
With Packback, instructors get unprecedented visibility into what makes students curious. Educators who use Packback spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on teaching through the use of our algorithmic support.
Get reliable technology with a human touch.
Just because we’re a technology company, doesn’t mean we have to act like robots! Every educator on Packback is matched with a dedicated Packback Experience Manager, who provides support throughout the semester (think of them as a remote TA!). Experience Managers learn about each instructor’s course objectives and customize an implementation plan to achieve the best results for their course and their students.
Packback prioritizes security, accessibility and integration.
FERPA & PCI Compliant
Packback is FERPA compliant, utilizing only Directory data for student account creation. To learn more about our practices, contact our team.
ADA & WCAG Audited
Packback takes accessibility for ALL learners seriously in our design and development. We strive to adhere to the level AA standards of the WCAG 2.0.
LTI Integrated
Packback is an IMS Global Alliance Partner and offers an LTI 1.2 integration that enables Single-Sign-On experiences for our partner schools.
Statistics on Packback’s usage at institutions nationwide
247K
247,053 total students have used Packback since May 2016.
208
208 institutions nationwide have students using Packback for discussion.
5M
5 Million student-posted questions and responses since May 2016.
1,323
1,323 Instructors and professors have used Packback since May 2016.