Back in December 2015, my team and I began to use Slack as part of our day-to-day operations. The program immediately helped to improve communications within the team. Shortly after starting to use the program, I realized that we were not using it to its full capacity. Fortunately, Steve Dotto came to the rescue with his Slack Made Easy course.
Slack Made Easy
Slack Made Easy is an 8-module online course using Slack as an instruction platform. I enjoy Dotto’s courses because he uses the platform as part of the course, for example, he used Evernote as the course platform in his Evernote Made Easy course.
Dotto’s course covers 8 key elements:
- Channels
- People and teams
- Messaging
- File Management
- Customisation
- Mobile Slack
- Integrations
- Slack extras
Each module is supported with multiple screencasts focusing on the topic being discussed. Modules also contain “Post” files as an introduction to the module.
Through this course, I was able to set my preferences so that I can work as efficiently as possible. One of the ways to do this was identifying favorite channels so they group at the top of the list.
Because of this course, I entirely rethought our use of this program and opened it to the whole Jamestown Community College community. If you are thinking about using this tool for communications, I would recommend planning for your entire community and then subdividing it into channels.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the course focused on integration. Because of the course, we have integrated it with a number of our processes to have one place where we get updates. This has made our team more efficient.
You are not alone in his course. In fact, you are part of a class where you can explore and discuss features with other classmates. If you are not sure how to do something, you can ask questions. You will get virtually immediate answers. It a provides a great platform to practice what you are learning. Question channels and discover channels have been created for this purpose.
If you are new to this program, I would definitely recommend Steve Dotto’s course. You will walk away knowing a lot more than when you started. Even with Dotto’s instruction, we are only skimming the surface of what is possible.
If you are interested in using this program, I have pulled together a number of articles in my Diigo collection to help you get started.
Are you using Slack? If so, how are you using it? Please a comment below.
