Templates and sample language for instructors

To give students more opportunities to discuss course materials outside of class, I’ve made SwayBeta freely available to you.

Sway is a chat platform, similar to WhatsApp or iMessage, but it’s specifically designed to facilitate meaningful discussions on controversial topics. It is part of an educational research project at Carnegie Mellon University; you can learn more about it at www.swaybeta.ai.

You can create an account at go.swaybeta.ai/register using your official school email address. Once registered, you’ll see a list of topics, including:

• [Example of some topic statements that students can chat about].

When you create an account, Sway will automatically pair you with other students from our class who hold different perspectives. The goal is to explore topics and deepen your understanding by engaging with someone who sees things differently. I’ll periodically add new discussion topics to our class’s Sway chats.

This is an optional component, but I believe that having serious discussions with people who don’t share your perspective should be an essential part of your education. Often, it’s also deeply rewarding on a personal level, so I hope you’ll check it out!

[If you wish to give students the opportunity to earn bonus credit by participating, you can mention the details here.]

This semester, some of your assignments will involve discussions that take place on SwayBeta, an educational chat app that’s free for everyone in this class. Sway will pair you with a classmate and use AI to facilitate a discussion between you. 

To create an account, visit: [REGISTRATION LINK]. Use your official [INSTITUTION NAME] email address to register.

Every Sway discussion assignment has two parts:

1. Complete an opinion survey: You must complete the survey by the opinion deadline to be matched with a classmate. If you miss this deadline, you cannot complete the assignment.

2. Chat with your partner: You must progress to 100% and complete the brief understanding quiz at the end by the completion deadline to receive credit for the assignment. After completing the chat, you’ll get a quick quiz to assess how well you understood partner’s viewpoint and reasoning.

You must message your partner no later than [X] hours after the opinion deadline. You and your partner should promptly agree on a plan for completing the assignment. Failing to contact your partner—or waiting until shortly before the completion deadline—prevents them from completing the assignment. If the platform detects that this has happened, your account will be suspended and you will need to contact me to participate in future assignments.

Privacy

Students should feel comfortable to explore and challenge their deeply held beliefs, so your chats are private: only you and your partner can read them. However, the platform automatically checks to ensure that students are broadly engaging with the topics that I assign. I will see the results of these checks and I will also see your scores from the Understanding Quiz. 

Timing

Your chats will have a minimum duration of [X] minutes, after which you will receive the quiz. (You can continue chatting after the quiz.) The minimum duration is an estimate of how long the conversation would take if you completed the assignment in one go, sending messages back and forth continuously. While you and your partner might arrange a time to complete the assignment in one sitting, you can also complete it by exchanging messages asynchronously at your own pace—just make sure to turn on real-time notifications for new messages! 

Viewpoint diversity

Sway will automatically pair you with a classmate based on your answers to the opinion survey. It will try to match you with a student who disagrees with you. However, sometimes you might be paired with a classmate who agrees with you. In this case, either you or your classmate will be tasked with playing Devil’s advocate (i.e., arguing for the side you don’t personally believe).

Sample assignment language

Topic focus: Abortion and bodily autonomy
Opinion deadline: Nov 23, 11:59 PM
Completion deadline: Nov 26, 11:59 PM (including quick post-chat quiz)
Minimum approximate chat duration: 45 minutes

Remember, if you miss the opinion deadline, you will not be able to participate in this assignment. To enter your opinions, simply log into Sway before the deadline. If you haven’t already created your account on Sway, leave yourself a few extra minutes to do so.

Sway will attempt to match you with another student who disagrees with you on one of the topic statements. Occasionally, however, you might be matched with a classmate who agrees with you. In such cases, either you or your classmate will be chosen to play devil’s advocate (i.e., argue for the side you don’t personally believe). Sway's Guide will be there to make sure the devil’s advocate formulates the strongest possible counterarguments.

Enter your opinions and get started as soon as you like—just visit chat.swaybeta.ai.