With the likely switch to online continuing in the fall, I'm trying to figure out how to have "discussions" that don't require synchronous meetings. We use Canvas, and the discussion board is fine, but students do the bare minimum and it often feels like pulling teeth to get them to write more than "me too!" in response to a classmate. For the fall, participating in discussion will be a large part of their grade, but wondering if there are ways to use Slack or other chat programs to more realistically simulate a discussion.

Has anyone used Slack for class discussion and liked it? Any suggestions of things to do or to avoid? Thanks!