Division of Information Technology

Faculty/Researchers

Even though Yammer was designed for business groups and teams to communicate and collaborate on projects, it has been adopted by higher education.

Faculty and researchers may choose to use Yammer as a way to:

• Boost inter-departmental communication
• Facilitate communication and course announcements with various student groups
• Continue group interaction long after a course has ended
• Discuss current events related to a course
• Moderate discussions related to course topics and objectives
• Share files, online resources and sites
• Share videos created by students
• Conduct peer assessments
• Allow students a place to connect with other students in their area of study
• Give research groups a place to exchange ideas and information, including members outside of the @stonybrook.edu domain through the use of Yammer’s External Network feature
• Provide students a place to interact with instructors in the same subject area who they may not otherwise get an opportunity to learn from directly if not enrolled in their course
• Facilitate communication between TAs and students for large classes that rely on a TA to act as the primary liaison with students
• Encourage students to ask questions
• Foster more student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction
• Go mobile to make things more convenient for students (Yammer has a free app for iOS and Android devices)
• Tag topics of discussion that can easily be located later (the use of topics in Yammer is an excellent way to keep posts, comments, and notes organized)

While Yammer resembles social networking platforms that many of us are already familiar with, the use of Yammer does require some skills and an understanding of technology. 

Stony Brook’s Yammer network requires NetID authentication, essentially turning it into a Stony Brook intranet. While groups created in Yammer can be made public or private, it is best practice to set up a private group for any type of class discussion.

Students

Students may choose to use Yammer for:

• As a home base for storing files and idea sharing for projects or group work
• Communication among clubs/organizations
• To build their social network on campus
• To find out what’s happening at the University

Professional Staff

Reasons professional staff members may choose to use Yammer:

• Manage projects
• Seek help from other departments at the University
• Network and share ideas with those who share similar interests
• Move internal departmental or team discussions out of email so more people can participate and understand how decisions are reached
• Advertise your department’s events
• Solicit feedback from your campus customers and build demand and loyalty
• Gain visibility for your own team/department and gain insights into how other campus departments operate
• Boost workplace engagement by giving employees a voice
• Help your team make informed decisions and respond to change quickly
• Spark innovation
• Build a unified culture at Stony Brook University
• Stay connected to what employees are thinking
• Accelerate campaign and collateral execution
• Share intelligence faster
• New staff orientation or onboarding