Pronto Instant Messaging Software–A Quicker Way to Collaborate
Move over Discord, so long Slack. Students have a new way to chat! With the instant messaging application Pronto, students at UMass Boston are now able to communicate with their professors and classmates in a manner less formal and more convenient than email. The best part? Pronto seamlessly integrates with the Blackboard learning management system, making it so faculty can set up discussions among their entire class without students having to give each other their personal information.
Pronto can be accessed through Blackboard itself, and by downloading the Pronto app. Students and faculty can send chats to the entire class or send direct messages to each other. As a bonus, the Blackboard integration also allows for groups set up on Blackboard to auto-populate on Pronto, allowing students to collaborate more easily on group assignments.
According to Apurva Mehta, IT’s Associate CIO, Pronto was piloted in the Spring 2021 semester. “When we had our listening sessions with our faculty members to see how the Fall 2020 semester went, student engagement was one of their top concerns,” said Mehta. After Pronto was piloted in the Spring 2021 semester, its usefulness in combating the lack of student engagement and its popularity among faculty quickly became evident.
“It mimics normal text messaging communication, and it also allows me to reply by creating a thread, adding pictures, and animated GIFs.”
Karla Schallies, Biology Lecturer
“Pronto has been useful, engaging, and fun!” wrote biology lecturer Karla Schallies. “It mimics normal text messaging communication, and it also allows me to reply by creating a thread, adding pictures, and animated GIFs.” Pronto also allows users to tag other users in the chat, react to messages, and send emojis; all things that students are used to in modern messaging apps.
Economics professor Andrew Perumal valued Pronto for the application’s ability to communicate quickly and clearly with students.“I post copies of announcements in Pronto so I know that each student got the notification. I can track students’ viewing of the announcement,” wrote Perumal.
The piloting of Pronto was a group effort by Zack Ronald, the university’s Classroom Technology Innovation Coordinator, and Theresa Miller, who works with faculty in the eLearning department. Miller created instructional materials regarding the setup of Pronto for faculty, and her hard work was not lost on those professors involved in the pilot.
“The setup of Pronto in Blackboard and on myphone was a breeze,” wrote Katherine Hatzis, a senior lecturer of business communications.
Throughout the remote spring semester, Pronto was able to bring students and faculty together in a time where social interaction was more difficult than ever. However, Pronto’s benefits extend beyond remote courses, and thus, Pronto became available to any faculty member who decides to adopt it effective August 2021.
“It’s one of those tools that came to us because of COVID-19, but I can see a bright future for it well beyond that,” said Ronald.