Professional Communication Tools in Higher Education: A Case Study in Implementing Slack in the Curriculum

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents a study which considers the implications of embedding professional communication tools within the computing curriculum. Computing students are comfortable using various communication tools such as social media applications in their personal lives, but are rarely trained or monitored when transitioning to using these tools professionally. This is despite the fact that these tools, such as Slack, Jabber and Microsoft Teams are rapidly becoming an expected staple of their professional toolkit. 243 students were invited to use Slack as their primary communication mechanism for set taught modules with staff and their fellow students across two institutions in Scotland. This allowed for an understanding to be developed of computing students' attitudes and experiences when using these communication tools, as well as a reflection on staff experiences. A number of recommendations are made for the inclusion of these tools within computing in Higher Education curricula.