In 2008, Professors David Kaufer, a humanist, and Professor Ananda Gunawardena, a Computer Scientist, teamed up to build a platform to integrate the context and interpretation of visual media to streamline communication. It was a simple idea. They never imagined that it would lead to the amazing product that it is today.

Today Salon is used by over tens of thousands of invitation only teachers and students all over the world. The tool is used in many ways that they never imagined in 2008. That is the innovation in Salon.

Using learning tasks, documents, tags, questions, annotations and really cool analytics, you can create an open and transparent learning environment where students can benefit from collective intelligence of the group. Salon is an amazing communication tool. Students can communicate in the context of their learning activity with the instructor, other students or the entire class thus making course communciation superior to any other method. Salon is discipline independent. If you are ready to tailor your instructions to fit student needs, use tags to design interactive learning activities. When you use Salon, you will get to "know" your students. Salon's ability to track learner analytics like no other tool makes it an easy choice for thousands of instructors. If you are in education or training, K-12, higher education, or even corporate training, you need classroom salon. Embed/integrate salon activity links to your existing course environment.

Email classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu for a free instructor or student registration code. It is easy to adopt but yet very powerful