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flogg_ A guide for universities and non-profits A guide to FloggFlogg is a feedback log where collaboration happens online. It gives a group one shared space to read, respond, and build work together, so that every voice in the room is heard, not just the loudest. What Flogg is Reading and thinking, made shared and visibleMost online coursework asks people to work alone and then post a result. Flogg does the opposite. It turns a reading, a question, or a piece of writing into a shared activity that the whole group does together, in one place, with everyone's contribution attributed and equal. There are three kinds of activity, and the rest of this guide explains each one in plain terms for the three people who use Flogg: the student, the teacher, and the administrator. In a university
In a non-profit
The idea behind all of it Participation should never depend on being the fastest, the most confident, or the most willing to interrupt. Flogg is built so people can speak up without speaking over. Think alone first, then agree together.
For students
The student viewWhat it feels like to read, respond, and contribute in Flogg, and how your work and your grade are handled. Getting inYou join a course with a join code or a link from your instructor. Your courses appear on a simple dashboard, each with its reading list and assignments. There is nothing to install. Reading and annotatingOpen a reading and you arrive to a conversation that has already started. Your instructor has highlighted key passages and left notes. To add your own, select any text in the passage and choose how you want to respond. Your note attaches to those exact words, and your classmates' notes sit right beside it, colour coded so you can see the shape of the discussion at a glance.
Agreement
Disagreement
Clarification
Instructor
Controversial
A passage marked controversial is one the class is genuinely split on, with both agreement and disagreement on the same words. You can reply to any note, so a single highlight becomes a small threaded discussion. The highlights also work as a heatmap of engagement, because a passage's colour deepens as more people annotate the same lines, so at a glance you can see which sentences the class found most worth stopping on. When you see a request for clarification, your instructor can answer it right there, often adding the cultural or historical context that explains why a passage was written the way it was. Built for learning, not for posting Commenting on a discussion board does not prove you read anything, and these days a comment can be generated from an AI summary in seconds without absorbing a single nuance. Flogg is built the other way around. Because your note attaches to specific lines, you have to engage the actual words, and reading closely at the sentence level is what helps you understand why a passage matters. The goal is to absorb and learn the material, not to produce forced, meaningless engagement. Answering a questionFor a Q&A activity, you write your own answer first, before you can see anyone else's. Only after the release point do the rest of the answers appear, so what you submit is genuinely your own thinking rather than an echo of whoever posted first. Co-writing an essayFor a collaborative essay, the class writes one document together, one paragraph at a time. Every paragraph carries the name of the person who wrote it, so your contribution is always visible and credited. Your gradesWhen your instructor releases grades, you see your points and their written feedback in context, right next to the work it refers to. You can also see how the class did as a whole, so you know where you stand, without ever seeing any individual classmate's score. Why this matters for you You are never competing to post first or loudest. Your reading, your reasoning, and your writing are what count, and they are visible and credited on equal terms with everyone else's.
For teachers
The teacher viewThe three kinds of assignment you can build, how to set them up, and why each one does more than a traditional discussion board or quiz. You can paste a reading as plain text, using simple formatting for headings and paragraphs, or upload a PDF, HTML, or text file. Mathematics renders cleanly, and so does code, so a Flogg reading can be a philosophy excerpt, a historical source, a scientific paper, or a problem set. Every assignment can be a draft first, then published when you are ready, with a start window, a release point, and a deadline. The three assignment types1. Reading and annotationCurate a reading, highlight the passages that matter, and attach context notes. Students respond directly on the passage, marking each note as agreement, disagreement, or a request for clarification. The result is a threaded margin instead of a flat list at the bottom of a page. You set it up by pasting or uploading the text, writing a prompt, pre-highlighting the passages you want to focus the class on, and choosing when responses release and when they are due. Better than a traditional discussion post A discussion post sits detached from the text, rewards whoever writes first, and turns into a wall of near-identical replies. A Flogg annotation is anchored to the exact sentence it responds to, colour coded by stance so the shape of the debate is visible, and threaded so disagreement and clarification stay connected. Every student has to engage the text itself, not just react to a classmate. A learning-first design Posting on a discussion board does not mean a student read the material, since a reply can be produced from an AI summary without absorbing any of the nuance. Anchoring responses to specific lines changes that, because students have to engage the actual words, and that close reading is where real understanding happens. The annotations also build a heatmap of engagement, as a passage darkens the more the class marks it up, showing you exactly which lines landed. And when a student asks for clarification, you can reply in place with the cultural or historical context that explains why a passage was written in its particular style, the kind of nuance a quick comment never reaches. 2. Q&A, think alone firstPose a question. Every student answers independently, and no one can see anyone else's answer until the release point you choose. Then the whole class sees every response at once and can compare reasoning and build toward a shared understanding. You set it up by writing the question, choosing when peers' answers become visible, and setting a deadline. Late answers are flagged automatically. Better than a quiz or a discussion thread A quiz tests whether a student can recall one right answer. A discussion thread rewards the first confident voice and quietly invites everyone else to agree. Answering independently first removes that anchoring, so you see what each person actually thinks. Then the comparison step turns those individual answers into a real class conversation that moves toward consensus. 3. Collaborative essayThe class co-writes a single document, one paragraph at a time, with every contribution attributed to its author. The group produces one coherent piece of writing together, and you can see exactly who wrote what. You set it up by creating the essay activity, setting the prompt and structure, and choosing the window in which the class writes. Better than a group project or scattered posts Traditional group work hides who did the work, and discussion boards never add up to anything. A collaborative essay produces a shared artifact with visible authorship, so contribution is transparent and the group builds one thing together instead of talking past each other. Grading the thinkingFor every assignment you get a roster and can see each student's notes and answers in one place. You can leave written feedback, either private to the student or shared with the class, and assign points to a whole assignment or to individual notes. You release grades when you are ready. Students then see the class distribution alongside their own result, so they understand where they stand without seeing any individual peer's score. Running your course
Flogg compared to the traditional setupDiscussion posts and quizzes
Flogg
For administrators
The admin viewA brief look at oversight and settings, and how Flogg can run under your own institution's brand. An administrator manages Flogg across the whole organisation from one panel. From there you set global rules such as enrolment, whether file uploads are allowed, default point values, how long peers' work stays hidden, and privacy options, and you maintain the list of available terms. You can also see every course and its membership in one place. White labelling Flogg is built to carry your identity, not ours. From the admin settings you set the site name and tagline, so the platform can be branded and distributed as your own institution's tool. It is meant to be handed to a school or organisation and run under your name. If you would like to bring a branded Flogg to your university or non-profit, get in touch and we will help you set it up.
Recently added
New in FloggCapabilities for running full courses, richer assessment, and student support.
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