Online education presents ongoing challenges in fostering engagement and building community. This case study highlights how Tess Testeza, M.A., an experienced language educator, addressed these issues by integrating Yellowdig, a dynamic learning community platform into her courses. The result was increased participation, creativity, and peer connection.
The Challenge: Moving Beyond Traditional Discussion Boards
Tess found that traditional discussion boards were too rigid to support authentic, ongoing dialogue. Some alternatives like OneNote and Slack, even though they provided a basic framework for communication, lacked integration with LMS platforms like Canvas and Blackboard, which leads to creating fragmented learning experiences.
The Solution: Building Interactive Learning Communities with Yellowdig
Yellowdig combines the familiarity of social media with academic structure, encouraging students to express themselves through text, video, audio, and images. Tess describes it as:
“Yellowdig is a semester-long space for conversations and contests, polls and manifests – that’s really an agora for the students of the 21st century which they can’t do without if we want them to feel welcome. It stimulates student self-expression in all possible formats: they can type text, make drawings, create an audio podcast or video clips, post photos and links to external resources on the topic.”
Also, Bob Ertischek, Senior Director of Client Success at Yellowdig, describes the platform as “A space where students actively share insights and engage in conversations”.
Gamified features, like points and badges, further motivate participation. By embedding Yellowdig into Canvas, Tess created a natural, ongoing space for student interaction beyond weekly prompts.
Students responded positively:
“Yellowdig is a great, low-stress tool for language learners. It should be used every semester.” (Fall 2024)
Implementation and Impact
In Tess’s Russian course, Yellowdig quickly became a hub for creative learning. Students posted videos of themselves cooking Russian dishes, debated cultural themes, and even participated in a Russian rap contest. The platform’s multimedia features enabled richer engagement and cultural expression.
One student reflected:
“I love being able to talk about my identity, like goth and art culture, in Russian. Yellowdig gives us that freedom.” (December 2024)
Key Benefits of Yellowdig: Fostering Engagement and Community
1. Organic Community Building
Engagement builds over time, creating strong peer relationships that support collaboration and learning.
2. Flexible, Creative Expression
Yellowdig supports multimedia responses, allowing students to explore topics in ways that go beyond text-based formats.
“Free-topic posts and skill-based assignments helped me the most.” (Fall 2024)
3. Gamified Motivation
The platform’s point system and badges encourage consistent, meaningful participation and highlight student leadership.
Results and Impact
The integration of Yellowdig into Tess’s courses led to a significant increase in student engagement and satisfaction. Passive learners were transformed into active participants, contributing to a more dynamic and interactive learning environment. Students reported feeling more connected to their peers and more invested in the course material, highlighting the platform’s ability to bridge the gap between traditional online learning and the interactive, community-driven experiences of in-person education.
One student summed it up simply:
“I like the YD resource for students where we can practice and communicate with each other.” (Nov 2022)
Conclusion
Tess’s experience highlights how Yellowdig reimagines student engagement, not by adding more work, but by making interaction meaningful, continuous, and student-led. Instructors see passive learners become active contributors, while students build confidence, community, and deeper connections with course material.
A short bio:
Tess is a language educator with several decades of international teaching experience. She taught ESL to students from every corner of the world, including Hispanic gang members in county jail; designed and taught specialized Spanish courses for English-speaking educators and for Episcopal clergy; taught Russian and Latin American Spanish courses at the Defense Language Institute as an Assistant Professor and several short-term customized Russian course with MIIS in Monterey, CA.
She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Russian at Sacramento City College.
Tess is passionate about teaching languages, educational technology, and the use of AI.
