YoTeach!: Educational and Anonymous Backchannel Chatroom Platform

Many students seldom ask and answer questions proactively in class. To encourage students to engage in learning, PolyU developed “YoTeach!”, an educational backchannel chatroom platform that allows anonymous discussions. It is an ideal tool for teachers to improve student engagement in traditional or online classes. Once a teacher sets up an online discussion room on YoTeach!, students can ask questions or initiate peer discussions there. The platform supports text sending, interactive drawing and image uploading. Other functions include voting, image annotation, as well as machine learning-based recognition of hand-written numbers and symbols. These functions help to convey scientific concepts with calculations, equations and diagrams, making it an ideal tool for teaching STEM subjects via distance learning and for supplementing traditional face-to-face classes. The programme is free for use worldwide.