Backchannels – what’s all the fuss, anyway?

By Dean Hawkinson

I recently attended the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) conference in Orlando, Florida. While there, I engaged in a practice I had never before used known as a backchannel, via the well known micro blogging tool Twitter. Before we define what a backchannel is, we need to define a couple other terms as a foundation for the discussion.

Microblogging – Wikipedia states that microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links.” It is different from a traditional blog in that it is exactly what the title infers – micro. Twitter, for example, limits your “tweets” (as comments in Twitter are called) to a maximum of 140 characters.

Backchannel – Wikipedia defines a backchannel as “the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks.” But guess what? In this day and age, you can even use devices such as smartphones and tablets to microblog.

Learners typically use a backchannel for a live, facilitated event, such as virtually facilitated training, a webinar, or a conference.

How It Works

There are a lot of tools that can be used for a backchannel, but one of the most popular is Twitter. Other online tools are available in the marketplace; however, I will refer to using a backchannel in Twitter throughout this post.

In Twitter, participating in a backchannel is as simple as using a hashtag (#) and then a few letters in front of your “tweet” to set it up. For example, the backchannel for the ISPI conference was #ispi. During the presentations, when something important stood out, I would simply pull out my smartphone device, sign into the Twitter application, and enter a “tweet” using the hashtag at the beginning. For example, “#ispi consider using Captivate for eLearning simulations.” Then, anyone can search “#ispi” and locate all of the comments being made on that backchannel.

For virtually facilitated training that uses a tool such as Adobe Connect or Microsoft Live Meeting, the instructor can set up a backchannel using the hashtag (#) functionality, and then let participants know the tag to use.

Positives

There are a few things I would like to point out in support of using a backchannel for learning events. First of all, it is a good way to capture points of a presentation that stand out to you. These short microblogs force you to keep your comments brief and summarize the key points that the facilitator is sharing. Your comments are also available for others to see by searching for the particular hashtag.

Second, in addition to your own assimilation of the key points, you can read others’ microblogs about the same presentation that you are attending. Chances are, someone else may have caught something that you missed, or it may add to your own assimilation of the material. You can also “retweet” someone else’s comments to show up on your own Twitter home page.

Challenges

One of the frustrations that I faced when using the ISPI backchannel is that I wondered who might even be reading my comments and what value those comments actually added. I have to admit that I have really not used Twitter extensively, and I am more familiar with a Facebook environment where I get that instant gratification of knowing people are reading my comments by replying or simply “liking” them. Twitter does not provide the same type of reinforcement, so it left me wondering if they even got read.

Also, using a backchannel can be distracting. A couple of times, I found myself trying to type out my thought on a comment the facilitator had just said, and in the process missing out on something else he was stating while adding the comment. I am guessing that it could also be distracting to the facilitator to see participants on their smartphones while he or she is presenting.

If your company does not allow you to use Twitter, a backchannel may be a challenging option. You may need to use the chat options in Adobe Connect, Microsoft Live Meeting or other conferencing software, which can be distracting if a lot of people trying to “chat” at the same time. Alternatively, some companies may find that this functionality is available in other tools they already use for other purposes, such as Microsoft SharePoint.

If your company does not allow you to use Twitter, a backchannel may be a challenging option. You may need to use the chat options in Adobe Connect, Microsoft Live Meeting or other conferencing software, which can be distracting if a lot of people trying to “chat” at the same time. Alternatively, some companies may find that this functionality is available in other tools they already use for other purposes, such as Microsoft SharePoint.

That's my experience using a backchannel. What's yours?

That, in a nutshell, is my take on using a backchannel. Have any of you had experience using one in your learning events or other presentations? Feel free to share your experiences here.