Communication Tools


Jamboard is an online whiteboard program that allows instructors and students to interact on the same whiteboard in a collaborative environment. Whiteboards can then be saved as PDF’s or jpegs for consumption after the session is over.


Lettersmith helps instructors and students build writing skills to communicate more effectively with anyone. Users can follow along with a checklist of best practices specific to different writing contexts, see examples of communication from experts and peers, and get feedback on their writing from experts and peers


Perusall turns coursework into a social experience, making learning more fun and engaging while simultaneously helping students think critically and develop a deeper understanding of the material. Perusall’s assessment features save instructors valuable time while providing actionable data. Perusall’s group chat feature may be used in multiple ways to encourage social collaboration. Students may have one-on-one discussions with other students or the instructor..


Piazza gives students anonymity options to encourage everyone to ask and answer questions. Instructor endorsements of good questions and answers let instructors push the class in the right direction. Questions and answers on Piazza are community-edited. Each question has a single students’ answer that students can contribute to, and a single instructors’ answer that instructors can contribute to. As an instructor, you have complete editorial control over class content. Your contributions in the class are highlighted, so students can easily identify instructor input. Instructors can encourage students to ask and answer questions by endorsing good content.


Slack is a messaging app which is available for all instructors and students. Slack is organized spaces called channels—a different one for everything you’re working on. With all the people, messages and files related to a topic or course in one place, you can move a whole lot faster. Give everyone you collaborate with a more productive way to stay in sync. Respond faster with emojis, keep conversations focused in channels, and simplify all your communication into one place.

Remote Office Hours Queue


Remote Office Hours Queue is a virtual queueing tool that allows instructors to manage students waiting to meet with them for private one-on-one meetings in person or over Zoom video conferencing. Instructors may select which meeting type (in person and/or Zoom) attendees can select when joining the queue. The Remote Office Hours Queue is perfect for instructors who prefer to have one-on-one meetings with students rather than host office hours or other meetings in a group format.Instructors and students must log in to Remote Office Hours Queue using U-M Weblogin with a uniqname and password (i.e. not Friend accounts).