There are many reasons backchannels are a great tool during large workshops. It is difficult to answer every participants question during workshops. Sometimes participants have a question I want to answer but it doesn’t relate to what we are discussing in the workshop. Also, backchannels make it easy to for presenters and participants to quickly share resources. In these, and many other situations, it is helpful to use a backchannel to organize these questions, comments, or resources.

TodaysMeet used to be the backchannel of choice for many teachers but it unfortunately shutdown in 2018. If you are looking for an alternative I would suggest YoTeach which offers many of the same features.

With YoTeach participants can join the public or private chat room using a link, a QR code, or a number code. Participants can then share text, pictures, and drawings. Other features include replying to posts, responding to polls, and annotating pictures.

For classes or groups that meet regularly learning management systems like Google Classroom or community tools like Slack or Microsoft Meet are better solutions; but when you need a one time tool to share information with a group YoTeach is a great solution.

Picture: geralt / Pixabay