In this post, I will be introducing the potential of using a community-based platform to encourage organic interactions amongst students in a virtual environment. Whether you’re teaching online or in-person, I hope to illustrate what tools Discord can bring to your classroom to facilitate and foster an online community.

My name is Carlo Diego, and I teach Animation and Motion Graphics in the Media Arts and Technology Department. Like many of you, the switch to distance learning brought about many challenges. The tools that were available to us, namely Zoom and Blackboard, left a lot to be desired in the way that modern, organic, asynchronous communication can happen online. Email quickly started to get particularly out of control and I found myself obsessively checking my email to make sure that I didn’t miss anything – especially from students who I wanted to make sure did not feel like they were yelling into a void.

This is where Discord comes in. During the lockdown, I began attending in-person-switched-virtual events via Discord and it allowed for weekly voice chats and continuous asynchronous chats amongst its members. And, because this was outside of the traditional social media ecosystem, members didn’t have to sign on to a platform that has become synonymous with misinformation and inducing minor levels of depression. Finally, with so many students already using Discord within their communities (mostly gaming), this allowed me to create a learning community hub in a space many of them were already using.

Before we continue, it would be helpful to go over some basic nomenclature and the similarities to everyday, commonplace platforms. Note, this is only a primer, as Discord truly has its vocabulary but for our purposes, the basics will suffice.

What is Discord?

Discord is a free voice, video, and text cross-platform application that is used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.

What it’s not.

A LMS (Learning Management System, e.g. – Blackboard, Canvas, etc.)

Discord is designed to be extremely lightweight and because of its initial design, it has some of the lowest latency numbers when it comes to voice and video sharing. It is available as a website or stand-alone app, and it is made up of servers, similar to how the internet is made up of websites. Servers are either public or private and by invitation only. A server is comprised of “categories” (these are essentially folders) within which are “channels” (text-only, or voice and video) where all interactions occur within a given server. A community is made up of the members, and like most communities members have roles. In a Discord server, roles are arbitrary titles created by the server’s administrator and are used to further control what categories and channels are available to anyone assigned a specific role. For example, I use roles to assign class and section-specific categories and channels to my students.

My main goals and reasons for choosing Discord:

• One-stop-shop for content delivery, collecting work, and high-quality voice & video calls
• Take the pressure off of email
• Gamification through engaging automated features

Discord allows me to create a space that could be customized to fit any number of classes, sections, and students. My classroom server has categories for general resources, interactive channels and read-only channels, grade book channels for one-on-one conversations with students, and community channels. I use roles and permissions to control what students have access to. I can organize classwork into categories for specific sections, in-text channels that are “read-only” (like a static webpage or assignments on Blackboard), or voice and video channels to host virtual lectures (removing the need for an external video application, such as Zoom).

When trying to help students troubleshoot a particular assignment, rather than emailing back and forth multiple times students can post their questions on the class questions channel (similar to troubleshooting forums) where anyone with access can answer using text and screenshots.

Discord has tools that are designed to help with server retention and engagement through the use of a gamified user experience. Gamification is the process of adding game-like feedback loops to something to encourage engagement. One of the biggest challenges during distance learning and now that we are back in person, is that we are competing for students’ attention. Discord server members can react to posts with still or animated emojis, and GIFs or memes, much like reactions on social media apps. Emoji and memes have become a ubiquitous form of non-verbal communication in many circles and can often be enough to validate a thought or opinion. Additionally, by using third-party “bots”, Discord servers can grant experience points and levels based on their activity on the server. The main purpose of this is simply to reward and encourage participation and engagement. In addition, in my Fall semester server, I allowed students to choose a custom emoji reaction that I would add to the server for them to react to other’s posts.

Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Most students remark that they “wish other classes were on Discord”. With all of this momentum, I decided to take things further and start a Department-wide server open to all of the Media Arts and Technology majors. Within the first month, we were at 150 members, and some students made requests for voice channels for movie or game night and a polling system that they can use to vote on what to watch or play together. While on the academic side, students have started using the space to talk about transfer options and ask general scheduling questions.

But, this is just my experience with Discord. I invite you to watch our CETLS Panel: Fostering Community in the Classroom with Discord to hear how other faculty in different departments are using Discord to engage with their students. If you decide that you want to try setting up your server, you can download and install my Discord template here. Feel free to drop me a line if you need any help getting started: cdiego@bmcc.cuny.edu