When you create a new community, you’ll be prompted to set up your grading structure, add TAs, and add the first “starter posts” to your community, and invite your class.

If you need help at any time throughout the process of setting up your course on Packback, your Experience Manager will be happy to assist. Reach out to Experiencemanagers@packback.co for assistance.

By analyzing thousands of Packback discussion communities, our team has put together best practices for how to integrate Packback into your grading structure and how to integrate discussions from Packback into your lectures.

The basic grading recommendations for Packback are:

• 15-20% of final course grade
• Ask 1 question per week
• Answer 2 questions per week

For more detail on why we make these recommendations, please reference the Implementation Recommendations resource.

Packback has prepared communication templates for adding Packback to your syllabus, adding an announcement into your LMS, and sending an introductory email to your class (if you’d like).

Please use these templates to add critical information about Packback into your syllabus before class begins so your students are not surprised when they are invited to Packback.

Packback makes the process of getting your students registered onto the platform easy (as we know this is often one of the most frustrating parts of using edTech tools).

Just visit your community and click the “Invite Students” option under Professor Tools.

Need help? Please contact our Support Team.

On the first day of class, it is critically important to introduce Packback’s purpose and your expectations for your class’ use of Packback.

This simple action of giving a First Day of Class presentation about Packback takes approximately 5-minutes, but sets the course up for success on Packback for the rest of the term and helps ensure students get full value out of their investment!

What to cover in your First Day of Class Presentation

If you choose to create your own presentation instead of using ours, please cover the following points to guarantee the best student experience on Packback:

1. Share the “Why” behind Packback: Why did you choose to add Packback to your course? What do you hope your students will gain from the experience?
   
2. Set clear expectations of what your students should post and how they will be graded: How many questions per week? How many responses? How will they be graded?
   
3. Alert students that their posts will be reviewed by the AI and possibly flagged and removed: They will need to know to keep an eye on their email and check the Student Participation Report to know what they will earn credit for each week.
   
4. Direct students to reach out to Packback when they need help: Please direct your students to email Packback directly at help@packback.co (or submit a help ticket on our help center). Our team offers 7-day customer support when classes are in session and we’ll be able to handle technical problems fast!