Student-Driven Discussions with Packback

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.

What is Packback?

Packback Questions supplements an instructor’s teaching style and helps achieve learning objectives. Packback facilitates online discussion and uses Artificial Intelligence to help instructors provide individual coaching, moderate and grade discussions and motivate students throughout the term.

How Do We Facilitate Academic Discussion?

1. We coach the life skill of asking great questions

The Google search bar isn’t the best training ground for academic discussion. New students on Packback often ask, “What Makes a Good Question?” or “Where do I start?”. The first time students log onto Packback, they take a 7-step tutorial. This tutorial explains why they are using Packback. It also walks them through our Community Guidelines of what not to post and what makes a great question. If a student wants more support they can review our resources to help with structuring questionsciting sources and more. But the journey doesn’t stop there. We support students throughout the term by providing in-line feedback and coaching. This feedback challenges the quality of posts and leads to a more academic discussion. 

In Action: Dr. Jose Vazquez, a Clinical Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, struggled to facilitate and grade discussion in his class of 1,600 students. With Packback, Vazquez was able to bring the Socratic method into his large classroom, which, as he mentioned during a Forbes interview, led to “a dramatic increase in both [his] enjoyment of teaching and also the student’s motivation to learn.”

2. We provide a positive and constructive feedback loop

Once students understand how to start great conversations, we guide them through feedback. This feedback challenges students to apply course material and take ownership of their work. Our AI reviews every post on Packback. Our AI flags posts that do not follow the Community Guidelines. These posts, plus any flagged by other students or instructors, get reviewed by our human moderators every day! If a post gets moderated, the student receives an automated coaching email explaining why the post was moderated and how he/she can improve. Instructors and TAs can also provide custom feedback by publicly “Praising” or privately “Coaching” student posts. This instructor involvement solidifies the standard of quality for the class and makes a large class feel small. 

In Action: Dr. Jennifer Summers, a professor at Grand Valley State University, wanted her students to feel like she was more present in their discussions. Between her professional duties and teaching, she didn’t have the resources to respond to each student. However, after implementing Packback in 2017, Dr. Summers noticed providing scalable feedback had a significant impact on her students’ learning and made her feel more connected to the class.

3. We fuel purpose and curiosity for the subject matter

When students become curious about a subject, they are more likely to research the material and make new connections. Packback sparks curiosity and adds gamification with our Curiosity Score. Each post earns Curiosity Points based on effort, credibility and presentation. Posts with the highest Curiosity Score get shared with the entire class in a weekly Curious Reader Digest. Our platform also provides engagement tools such as Sparking, Featuring and Pinning posts. These tools are a quick way to highlight great content that will inspire the class.

In Action: Dr. Kathleen West, a professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, struggled to get non-major students excited and engaged in her psychology course. She found that students don’t want to engage with class materials unless they can connect the subject to their lives. Dr. West starting using Packback in her 300-student course of non-majors. She saw an increase in the level of engagement and the range of topics students were discussing. She even saw an improvement in the quality of posts and test scores.

What About Support?

Instructors who signup for Packback receive an Experience Manager who provides guidance and supports throughout the term. We understand that each class is different. This is why our EMs develop a plan based on learning objectives and classroom goals. We also have a dedicated customer support team available to answer any student questions.

What’s Next?

Packback has expanded quickly, reaching more than 100K students across 200 universities. We will continue to focus on creating a seamless user experience, building new features and ensuring the platform is accessible to all students!



Request a Demo of the Packback Questions Platform

Curious to learn more? One of our friendly strategy consultants will be excited to meet you and discuss your course learning objectives. We will provide a free consultation to see if Packback would be a good fit for your class!

Request a Packback Demo