Slack Course Workspaces provide a great way for students to communicate both within and beyond the classroom. Due to the flexibility of Slack, instructors have the opportunity to invite users who are not registered for the course to communicate and interact with registered students.
Please follow the instructions in this article for the specific type of user you are adding:
- Adding an unregistered Brown user (with an @brown.edu email address)
- Adding an unregistered external user
NOTE: Instructors must comply with FERPA guidelines when inviting un-registered users to their Slack Course Workspaces. Please see the Slack Course Workspaces and FERPA help article for details. |
Adding an Un-registered Brown University User
Option 1: Add User to Your Workspace (Full Access)
NOTE: When adding a Brown user to your Slack Course Workspace, you will need to use that person's official Brown email address. Do not use custom email aliases. |
You can add Brown University community members*** as full members to your entire Workspace. As a member of your Workspace, the user will have full access to all public channels in your Slack Course Workspace and can be added to private channels as needed.
NOTE: Brown University users cannot be added to just one channel in your Slack Course Workspace unless you use Option 2 below to create a Multi-Workspace Channel.
Instructions:
** Certain Brown community members are not automatically provided access to the Slack service (e.g. Brown Alumni, Brown Sponsored ID holders, Brown Medical Residents, etc...). If you need to add a user to your Slack Course Workspace who does not have Slack access, please create a ticket with the OIT Service Center to request that the user be granted access to Slack.
Option 2: Create a Multi-Workspace Channel
If the Brown University community member is already the member of another Brown University Workspace, you can create a channel that links your Slack Course Workspace to the Workspace they are already using. When you do this, you will be able to invite the user to just the Multi-Workspace Channel and the user will not get full access to your entire Slack Course Workspace.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Submit a request to and specify which private channel you'd like to make available to which workspace(s).
- Step 2: Follow these instructions on how to add members to a channel.
Adding an Un-registered External User
Although there are a few different methods to invite a user, we recommend for the best user experience that external users be added to your Slack Course Workspaces via a Slack-Connect Channel.
Pre-requirements to set up a Slack-Connect Channel:
- The instructor/TA for the Brown course must have a Slack Course Workspace set up for their course and be a Workspace Admin for that Workspace (Please see the How to Create a Slack Course Workspace help article.)
- The external user must be a member of a non-Brown University Slack Workspace. Their Slack Workspace can be a free or paid version of a personal Slack Workspace or an official Slack Workspace from another university or company.
NOTE: An Org Administrator for the invitee's Workspace will need to approve the connection between their Slack Workspace and the Brown University Slack Course Workspace. |
Instructions:
- Step 1: Follow these instructions to create a new channel in your Slack Course Workspace. For a Slack Connect channel, the Instructor/TA for the Brown course must set up a separate channel (cannot use the #general or #random channels).
- Step 2: Follow these instructions on how to add new users to a specific channel. Make sure that you use the external user's email address that is already a member of a non-Brown University Slack Workspace.
Need Additional Help?
- For help with Canvas, please contact dld@brown.edu.
- For help with using Slack, please contact Brown's OIT Service Center.