Backstage – Designing a Backchannel for Large Lectures

Abstract

Students and lecturers use computers in lectures. But, the standard tools give a rather insufficient structure and support for better learning results. Backstage is an adjustable backchannel environment where students can communicate by microblogs, which they can link to the presenter slides. The lecturer can get feedback by Backstage and place quizzes with an Audience Response System. Backstage is designed to facilitate specific sequences of learning activities and to enhance student motivation with different functions, like asking questions anonymously via microblogs or to rate other students' questions.