ASU receives Slack in Education Award
ASU is excited to receive the Slack in Education Award as part of Slack’s first-ever Spotlight Awards! For using the real-time collaboration tool to redefine education and power the modern learning experience, ASU is being recognized by Slack as a forward-thinking university that sees the future of learning through the lens of new technology.
While Slack was used by different groups at ASU as early as 2014, it was officially adopted by ASU’s University Technology Office (UTO) in 2017. Fast-forward to 2019, and ASU has become the first university to adopt Slack campus-wide, rolling it out to five campuses and 200,000 users, including students, faculty and administrators. Slack is used to host classroom discussions, develop new courses, and support students on campus and at home.
Slack is a primary part of ASU Sync, the university’s new mixed learning modality that brings remote and physical environments together for students and instructors. In this way, it also serves as a “digital campus.” Student success through ASU Sync is bundled within the ASU Digital Backpack, equipping students with future self-technologies for learning, creating and collaborating. The toolset also includes Zoom, Dropbox, G Suite and Adobe Creative Cloud.
ASU instructor Rachel Balven’s use of Slack for her “Collaborative Team Skills” class is a perfect representation of the promise of the tool. “The most important impact of using Slack is from the student perspective,” Balven said, who reported seeing more open communication when using Slack. “And that’s key for a collaborative class.”
Students have also been able to interact and make those crucial social connections outside of the classroom through Slack. Devil2Devil, the social platform that brings incoming freshmen together, found a new home on Slack in 2020. “Easy login access, a mobile app and customizable channels for conversations made Slack appealing,” said Casey Thomas, Associate Director of Digital Engagement and Public Relations at Admission Services and Devil2Devil’s community manager since its inception.
The ASU Digital Backpack has a counterpart for faculty and staff: the ASU Digital Briefcase. This briefcase contains the tools of the Digital Backpack, as well as ASU One Number, ServiceNow and Office 365. Slack is also deployed from the Digital Briefcase to great effect.
When COVID-19 first sent remote learning into necessity, three faculty members demonstrated how embracing a digital campus prepared them for a new modality. “Slack is for people to come together, create a workspace and get work done,” Matt Sopha, Clinical Assistant Professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business, said.
ASU’s participation in the Slack Frontiers event also gave UTO leadership the opportunity to speak to the innovation and collaboration conducted through the tool. ASU CIO Lev Gonick explained that it allows everyone to stay connected. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re learning online, on the campus in the classroom or ASU Sync; they are all enabled by Slack,” Gonick said.
Some key data represent the expansive use of Slack, with over 5,500 active course workspaces and 7,500 active users, alongside tens of thousands of messages sent daily. UTO thrives with a number of team—and work-related channels across its entire Slack workspace. More than 16 key UTO Slack communities keep all of their family members informed and connected.
With ASU’s deployment of Slack, the university was able to create a space for everyone in its community to connect. This ability became even more crucial in the days of COVID-19 and remote learning, instruction and work. That such hard work is recognized with the Slack in Education Award is an honor and a validation of all the lengths the university goes to in order to support its community.