| Access | You will need to request a Mattermost team from us first. Once your team is created, you can log in to UBC’s Mattermost. | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Faculties/Departments provide funding per teaching team member. Please contact your Instructional Support Unit to discuss funding availability. | |
| Bandwidth | Low demand on internet connections. | |
| Canvas Integration | None. | |
| Privacy | Complies with UBC’s privacy requirements. | |
| Similar UBC-Supported Tools | Y | Other tools that support group work are also centrally supported. |
What can I use it for?
You can use Mattermost for a variety of collaborative course activities:
- Enabling real-time chat for yourself, your teaching team, and your students
- Creating areas called channels for discussing specific topics, questions, assignments, or projects between individuals or in groups
- Sharing information and files
This tool guide was last reviewed in February 2024 with version 8.1.8 of Mattermost.
What do I need to use Mattermost?
Funding for Mattermost
Note that there is a cost for using Mattermost at UBC. The cost is charged per teaching team member per year, where a teaching team member is any instructor, teaching assistant (TA) or UBC staff member who will use Mattermost. You can check with your Instructional Support Unit to see if funding is available.
Once this funding is secured, an unlimited number of students can join your Mattermost team at no extra cost.
A supported web browser
Mattermost runs in your web browser and supports using the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari. Mattermost will not work with Internet Explorer.
A Mattermost team
A team refers to a specific group of people in Mattermost who want to collaborate together. Each team gets access to a private virtual space where members can interact and share content. Mattermost teams must be requested and created through the LT Hub, as outlined below.
Tips
- You can contact us in the LT Hub to receive an estimated cost for using Mattermost in your specific context. This estimate can be useful if you need to provide a budget to your department for funding a Mattermost teaching team.
- Mattermost also offers mobile and desktop applications to download for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux. Check out how to install Mattermost apps from UBC’s Learning Design & Digital Innovation team.
- You can read the recommendations that came from UBC’s Mattermost pilot to learn how Mattermost can best be implemented as a pedagogical tool. Review the short summary of Mattermost’s pilot evaluation outcomes or read the full Mattermost evaluation report for more information.
How do I use Mattermost?
Once you’ve secured funding for Mattermost, you can request your course team and get started on collaborating.
Click any accordion bar below for instructions and tips for using Mattermost.
Request a Mattermost team (aka set up a course)
Mattermost teams can be created in one of two ways: as a credit-course team (associated with a credit course) or as a self-enrolled team (independent of a credit course).
These teams are linked to a credit course (or multiple courses cross-listed into one team). Students that enroll in the credit course are automatically added to the associated Mattermost team. They can log in and access the team using their UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login).
- Sign in to UBC's Mattermost at least once to ensure that there is an active Mattermost account associated with your UBC CWL.
- Access our LT Hub contact form and complete the following:
- Select Mattermost as the “Support Requested”.
- Under “New Mattermost Team”, select Yes.
- Under "How can we help you?", specify details about the credit course that you want linked to your new Mattermost team. Include course identifiers (i.e., course name, code, number, section, session, and/or term) and staff members who will be part of the Mattermost team (i.e., any instructor, TA, or UBC staff member).
- Fill out the rest of the required fields, and click Submit.
- Once the Mattermost team is created, you will be notified by us through email.
Membership in these teams is managed independently of course registration. After your team is created, you will be provided with an enrollment link, which you can share with your team's participants. Note that anyone given the enrollment link will still need a UBC CWL to access Mattermost.
- Sign in to UBC's Mattermost at least once to ensure that there is an active Mattermost account associated with your UBC CWL.
- Access our LT Hub contact form and complete the following:
- Select Mattermost as the “Support Requested”.
- Under “New Mattermost Team”, select Yes.
- Under "How can we help you?", specify details about your new Mattermost team. Include the purpose of the Mattermost team and staff members who will be included (i.e., any instructor, TA, or UBC staff member).
- Fill out the rest of the required fields, and click Submit.
- Once the Mattermost team is created, you will be notified by us through email. This email will include the enrollment link that you can share with your team’s participants.
Tips
- Add the link of any credit-course Mattermost team to your Canvas course to make it feel like a cohesive part of your course's online environment. Since Mattermost is not otherwise integrated with Canvas, this link is a good way to tie the tools together.
- All participants will need a UBC CWL to access a UBC Mattermost team and you can provide one, if needed. Sponsor a UBC CWL guest account to invite a member to your team who is outside of UBC.
- Additional teaching staff can be manually added to your team later by request. Please contact us at the LT Hub for support with additions. Because the cost of a Mattermost team is generally calculated by teaching team member per year, adding additional staff will increase the cost of your team.
- Any credit-course Mattermost team will be archived two months after your course’s end date. To request longer access to your team, you can let us know at the time of setting up the course or ask for an extension later.
Organize your Mattermost team using channels
If you manage a UBC team in Mattermost, you will have the ability to create channels for the team to organize the content. Channels are themed areas for discussion, communication, and file-sharing that can be made public (anyone in your team can join the channel to participate) or private (participation is limited to invited students or teaching team members). Once channels are set up and students join them, everyone can begin to interact in real time or participate asynchronously.
Note that Mattermost's “Town Square” and “Off-Topic” channels are created by default and are meant for team-wide communication and non-course-related conversations, respectively. You can rename or edit these channels’ details as needed. ("Off-Topic" can also be deleted, but "Town Square" cannot.)
Public channels can help organize team-wide conversations into topics or projects (e.g., assignments, exams, presentations). Anyone in your Mattermost team has the ability to join these channels and see and post content in them.
- Sign in to UBC's Mattermost with your UBC CWL and access your course team.
- Click CHANNELS to expand its options in the sidebar navigation.
- Click Add Channels and select Create new channel.
- Enter a name for the channel and select Public Channel.
- Use the text box to describe the channel's purpose to tell students what the channel should be used for and help them meaningfully engage.
- Click Create Channel to add the channel to the team.
Private channels can help organize your students for group work or for discussing topics that don’t call for the whole course’s participation. Only members invited to private channels will be able to see and post content in them.
- Sign in to UBC's Mattermost with your UBC CWL and access your course team.
- Click CHANNELS to expand its options in the sidebar navigation.
- Click Add Channels and select Create new channel.
- Enter a name for the channel and select Private Channel.
- Use the text box to describe the channel's purpose to tell its members what the channel should be used for and help them meaningfully engage.
- Click Create Channel to add the channel to the team.
- The channel should open. Click Add members to this private channel to start inviting members of your team to the channel.
- Search for and select all the members that you want to invite, then click Add.
- Avoid splitting students into groups smaller than 10, if you can. This minimum increases the likelihood that each group will have significant participation from its members.
Tips
- You and your students can personally "favorite" Mattermost channels that you consider most relevant, to pin these to the top of your view of the team sidebar navigation. Open a channel and click the star icon to the right of the channel’s name to favorite it.
- You can pin messages in channels to bring attention to important course information such as announcements, events, and assessment dates. To pin a message, hover over a message, click the more menu (the 3 horizontal dots), and select "Pin to Channel".
- You and your students can label messages under the same topic with a hashtag, which allows you to search for the content later. When searching with the hashtag, you will be able to see tagged messages across multiple channels and chats.
- You and other teaching team members can archive and unarchive Mattermost channels to organize and clean up your team’s sidebar navigation as the term progress. Everyone will still be able to view channel messages by searching in the "Find channel" box, but no one will be able to send new messages to the channel.
Chat privately in Mattermost using direct messages
Mattermost allows you to chat privately with individuals or in groups with up to eight people using what are called direct messages. Students can connect with each other and the teaching team to ask questions, seek clarification, collaborate, and build a virtual community.
- Sign in to UBC's Mattermost with your UBC CWL and access your course team.
- To start a new chat, click the plus icon next to “DIRECT MESSAGES” in the sidebar navigation.
- Enter a username, nickname, email, or full name in the search bar to find and select the person or people you want to privately chat with.
- Once you have added all the names that you would like, click Go to launch the chat.
- Enter your text in the message bar and use any of the additional options for chatting:
- File Sharing: Click the paperclip icon to upload a file.
- Reactions: Click the emoji icon to send emojis or gifs.
- Press Enter to send the message.
Tips
- If you want to include more than seven other people in the private discussion, use a private channel instead of a chat. While direct messaging has a maximum of eight members, a private channel has no such limitation.
- Set explicit expectations around teaching team availability, to help students know when they can interact with instructors and TAs in real time. You can also set a status by clicking your profile and choosing one of the options, to let students know when you are available (or unavailable) to interact. When the teaching team is not available in real time, indicate an estimated delay in the response time.
- To reveal additional functions for messages, click the top right corner of any direct message. These functions include options to react, save, reply, pin, and delete messages.
- Private chatting is particularly beneficial for distance education courses, as it provides an important communication point between you and your students. Checking in with each student one-on-one can help replicate the face-to-face interactions of in-person courses.
Where can I get more support with Mattermost?
Technical support
If you have trouble with Mattermost:
- Contact your faculty’s Instructional Support Unit as your first point of contact.
- Contact us for further assistance:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
Pedagogical support
- Team chat tools like Mattermost can help increase interaction and foster classroom community. The UBC Online Teaching Program shares strategies and approaches to creating classroom communities (Module 6.3) that can enhance learning.
Learn more
- Get more familiar with Mattermost and its features by visiting the Mattermost support site.
- Check out the UBC Learning Design & Digital Innovation team’s Mattermost recommendations for setting up and organizing your Mattermost team.