An ASU student is developing a group messaging app to connect students and faculty on campus and beyond

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Photo by Delia Johnson | The State Press

Photo illustration of a student opening the Pitch app, created by a team of ASU students, on the downtown Phoenix campus on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018.

Pitch, an app and website currently in development by ASU technological entrepreneurship and management senior Drew Langhart, is looking to change how students and faculty connect with each other.

Langhart, originally an ASU Online student, began development on Pitch after he became distraught by how difficult it was to communicate with his professors and reach out to other online students.

'I wanted to be able to connect with other online students, but there was no easy way to do so,' Langhart said. 'Essentially they all had the same issue that I did, they were given a link to their class and Blackboard, that's it.'

That's when Langhart decided to reach out to Philip Regier, a professor and CEO of ASU's EdPlus, to discuss if there were any workarounds for his communication issues.

'I told him the education is great; however, there's no way for me to connect with other students,' Langhart said. 'So he put me in touch with a team that builds these types of experiences, and as the team started to grow more and because my existing digital product background they offered me a job.'

Pitch is intended to be a platform where both online and on-campus students can connect and chat over channels for general discussions or even their specific classes.

When asked about his inspiration for the layout of Pitch, Langhart cited Slack, another app used to connect people through various filtered chat rooms.

'Essentially we were like, Slack works, why don't we just use Slack, but it quickly boiled down to the price,' Langhart said. 'Slack is $6 standard per person (per month), and ASU has a student population of over 100,000 students and 3,500 staff members, so we quickly decided that it wasn't going to work.'

While Slack was an inspiration for the app, Langhart said the team is working to develop other features that Slack does not have. These additions include class channels, where students are filtered into their specific classes and are able to chat among their peers and professor. The app connects with a student's ASU ID to determine his or her classes.

Pitch also has Devi, a chatbot the team hopes will be able to help advise students and answer questions they might have, similar to a success coach.

Lisa McIntyre, executive director of student success innovations, said she has a strong belief that Pitch is a useful tool when it comes to online students connecting with faculty.

'I believe they are able to connect with their support services across the University, like with an academic coach or with a professor from one of their classes,' McIntyre said.

She also said the app will help students connect with student interest groups and find others on campus with similar interests.

Although Pitch originally started as an app focused on online students, it has begun to pick up steam on campus as well.

Gregory Broberg, a lecturer in the School of Social Transformation, has incorporated the use of Pitch into his homicide and serial killers course.

'I think that it's great for my students who are trying to communicate with each other outside of class,' Broberg said. 'The funny thing is you never know how these tools work with students. Like some of the students were sending notes, if a student in their group wasn't in class, they were messaging them, sending them a little note saying, 'Oh, here's what we talked about today.' '

Broberg said some future improvements he would like to see are with the overall structure of the message board and how media can be shared.

'If I put a post out there, I'd like to have it always show up at the top of the message board, so for me it's mostly tidying things up,' Broberg said. 'One of the things that I would really love is the capability to have students post a video response to a question rather than just using texts.'

Austin Villegas

Screenshot of the web page version of ASU app Pitch, showing the homepage and the general channel, as well as classes that students are enrolled in.

Pitch isn't yet ready for mass use, Langhart said. The app is currently in a beta phase and is constantly being updated based on student and faculty feedback so that it can one day be used to connect ASU both online and on campus.

'We're designing something from students, from the voices of students,' Langhart said. 'This is completely a student-driven tool. It's brand new, so it's not perfect, this is part of building a new product.'

Reach the reporter at amville8@asu.edu or follow @AustinMVillegas on Twitter.

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ASU-wide tools

Note that the following tools are licensed by, contracted through, and supported by the ASU University Technology Office.

Here is a more comprehensive spreadsheet of what is currently available in Canvas, including pilots: Canvas Learning Tool Integrations spreadsheet

Clickers

In Summer/Fall 2020, ASU switched from TurningPoint to iClicker. It is an enterprise tool (no cost to students). Find iClicker info here: https://uto.asu.edu/services/tools/clickers/faculty/KBA

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ASU is currently piloting Badgr, which integrates with Canvas for digital credentialing course competencies. Get started with a pilot here: https://asu.digication.com/badgr-sandbox/getting-started

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Document sharing

Google Drive

All ASU faculty, staff, and students have access to Google Drive through their asurite@asu.edu Gmail addresses (accessed via MyASU).

Google Drive is a cloud-based service for creating and storing Docs (similar to Word), Sheets (similar to Excel), Slides (similar to PowerPoint), Forms (a survey creation tool), and Sites (a website creator that can be used for portfolios).

Drive syncs documents and files across all user devices, enabling real-time edits that are automatically saved to the cloud. No more saving files to your device and emailing attachments -- simply share a link!

Because multiple users may access Google files simultaneously, it's an excellent collaboration toolbox for instructors, students, and groups.

Video lecture and screen recording

Screencast-o-matic

Screencast-o-matic (SOM) is a screen recording tool available for ASU faculty, staff, and students. Quickly create and edit videos from your computer with the option of recording yourself, your screen, or both. See the installation instructionsHERE.

MediaAmp

Upload prerecorded videos to this hosting tool that integrates with Canvas. MediaAmp provides computer-generated captions that require instructor editing.

Student engagement and collaboration

Yellowdig

Yellowdig is a social learning platform designed for higher education that integrates with Canvas. Many instructors use it instead of Canvas Discussion because of its capacity to build community among students. We have a 2-year enterprise contract for Yellowdig beginning Fall 2020; after that, academic units will likely need to purchase a license to continue its use (The College Dean's Office does not fund tool licenses).

Slack

Slack is a chat tool that integrates with Canvas; enables student collaboration, supports organized group channels and audio and video calls with screen sharing capabilities.

Virtual office hours

Zoom

Useful for small group meetings and online office hours.

Free online tools

Note that though the following tools are recommended by ASU Instructional Designers, they are not typically licensed by or supported by UTO, EdPlus, The College, or academic units.

Data collection and visualization

Lucidcharthttps://www.lucidchart.com

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Qualtrics https://www.qualtrics.com/

Instructors and students can survey and collect, manage, and analyze experience data from stakeholders: customer, product, employee, and brand.

Tableau Public App https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/

Instructors and students can create data visualizations and publish them to the web/ Canvas. It also has how-to videos covering the following: how to use data sources, clean and analyze data, create interactive charts, and publish data visualizations.

ZeeMaps https://www.zeemaps.com/mapping/

Links out of Canvas or embeds in Canvas. Students can pin their location on a map as an introductions activity, or create, publish, and share interactive maps, construct dynamic visualizations of geographic information, and produce maps from Excel or Cloud Drive.

Gamification

Quizlethttps://quizlet.com/

Instructors and students can create digital flashcards and other gamified study tools.

Graphic design

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Canvahttps://www.canva.com/

Canva is an easy-to-use graphic-design document creator using drag-and-drop functionality with access to countless templates, photos, graphics, and fonts. Instructors can create infographic learning materials; students can create posters, resumes, flyers, etc. It is used by non-designers as well as design professionals. Attach Canva files to Canvas or embed them.

Video

Flipgrid https://flipgrid.com

The free version links out of Canvas. Students and instructors can record short, authentic videos and can reply to each other’s videos. Instructors are 100% in control with video moderation, access controls, and much more.

Powtoon https://www.powtoon.com

Sign up for a free 4-day trial to create short animated videos using drag-and-drop functionality. The free trial gives you access to pro-level templates, animated characters, music, graphics, and fonts. You can purchase the tool after the trial for about $70. Creating a Powtoon can be time-consuming, but the payoff is big.

Tools supported by EdPlus

Note that these tools are licensed and supported by ASU Online for use in online degree program courses (oCourses) and iCourses cross-listed with oCourses. Some of these may also be licensed by other colleges within ASU, but are not licensed by The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Playposit

Embeds in Canvas and allows instructors to insert comprehension quizzes within videos.

Voicethread

Embeds in Canvas and allows students to add video comments on one another's slides.

Wistia

Video hosting service (an alternative to MediaAmp). For captioning see https://wistia.com/support/player/captions

Yellowdig

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Discussion tool that integrates with Canvas. Discussion on a social media-modeled platform designed for higher ed. Auto-graded; reduces instructor workload and requires very little instructor oversight

Interested in piloting a new tool in Canvas?

You have the academic freedom to use any tools you have access to, as long as they support ASU's mission and goals of inclusivity, and as long as they do not access ASU student data, research data, or business data.

However, before piloting a new tool, please consider the following:

Security Review Tools that access student data must undergo a security review and a procurement process, which includes a detailed contract, prior to deployment to students. Student data includes names, emails, ASUrite IDs, grades, and any other personally identifiable information per FERPA, HIPAA, etc.

Accessibility and inclusion All tools should also be universally accessible and inclusive to culturally-diverse learners of all ages and abilities.

• Check this spreadsheet to see if the tool has undergone security review: Canvas LMS External Apps Licensing
• Click this link to begin the security review process: https://lms.asu.edu/introducing-third-party-tools

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Disclaimer for adopting new technology

While innovative technologies have great potential for increasing student engagement, they require a fair amount of instructor troubleshooting to set up and manage.

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