Practical question to my 2.71828183… readers: has anyone used YackPack for classwork? I’m realizing that for the first time in 5 years, I’ll be teaching a course distance-learning without live chats, or at least without having to wrench each week upside down for students or me in doing so. Our LMS (Blackboard) doesn’t even have icons/avatars in the discussion boards to duplicate even a faux kind of social presence. Assuming no student has a hearing impairment (at which point I switch everything around), YackPack could be a way to make social connections in a course with plenty of hot topics and disagreements in a class.
But I’d love to know if anyone’s experimented with it.