Introducing Yellowdig Engage’s newest feature: Cloud Drafts

November 8, 2021

Introducing Yellowdig Engage's newest feature: Cloud Drafts

Unlocking Student Motivation with Gameful Learning

Instructors everywhere face the same uphill climb: getting students to participate meaningfully—especially in online classes. Despite your best efforts, traditional discussion forums can feel more like boxes to check than places for real learning. What’s the antidote? For many educators, the answer is gameful learning.

What is Gameful Learning?

Gameful learning isn’t about turning your classroom into an arcade. It’s about applying the elements of games—clear goals, meaningful choice, and immediate feedback—to academic environments. Platforms like Yellowdig use points, badges, and accolades to recognize real contributions, making participation feel rewarding, not obligatory.

Why Gameful Elements Spark Engagement

Why do students respond so well to this approach? Because gameful mechanics tap into motivation in ways that rote assignments can’t. When students earn points for thoughtful posts or insightful replies, they're encouraged to dig deeper and share experiences. A little friendly competition doesn’t hurt, either—leaderboards spark engagement and help shy students ease into participation.

Yellowdig’s Approach: More Than Just Points

Yellowdig’s platform is built around the idea that engagement should be authentic, not forced. Points aren’t given for empty “I agree” comments, but for contributions that spark conversation and critical thinking. Students can curate their posts with articles or videos that interest them and receive recognition when others interact with their content. This approach fosters intrinsic motivation—students participate because they want to, not because they have to.

Real Results in Real Classrooms

Instructors using Yellowdig consistently report stronger participation and deeper discussion. One faculty member noted that “seventy-five percent of student questions get answered by their peers,” freeing up their time to tackle more advanced topics. Students say they look forward to checking new posts, sharing resources, and earning recognition for meaningful contributions.

Tips for Making Gameful Learning Work

Set Clear Expectations: Let students know how points are earned and celebrate thoughtful interaction, not just frequency.
Offer Meaningful Feedback: Use accolades and comments to highlight particularly insightful posts.
Encourage Creativity: Remind students they can use links, visuals, or even short videos to make their posts stand out.
Foster Healthy Competition: Leaderboards and weekly challenges can energize participation and keep momentum going.

The Takeaway

Gameful learning turns participation from a chore into an opportunity for discovery and community. With the right design, recognition, and tools, you’ll see students take more ownership of their learning—unlocking not just better engagement, but genuine excitement for the subject.
Ready to see how gameful learning can transform your course? Try out Yellowdig and join a thriving community that believes learning should be as rewarding as it is rigorous.

Do you want more time to think about your post and get it just right? Accidentally close your browser? Lose power? Have no fear, our Cloud Draft feature is here!

What is our new Cloud draft feature?

Cloud Drafts is a new feature being added to Yellowdig’s Engage Platform, and it works in a similar way to how drafts work in other applications that you may be familiar with. Cloud Drafts work by automatically saving your current work inside our Engage platform as you are writing a post or comment. If you accidentally (or purposely) close the editor without posting it to the Community feed, your draft will be safely stored for later access.

For those who are accustomed to our current draft feature, there will no longer be a pop-up if you have a draft. You can always find all your drafts in the “Drafts” area of the left-hand menu shown as shown in the left hand image.

Why did we implement this new feature?

This improvement allows you to save multiple drafts of posts or replies giving you more freedom in flexibility while using Yellowdig Engage. Additionally, you can now access your drafts from any device, which means you can start a post on your computer and post it from your mobile phone.

We are most excited about Cloud Drafts because they are an important accessibility improvement that helps accommodate those who may need a bit more time to compose their thoughts or create content.

Cloud Drafts In Action

Below is your “My Drafts” tab where Cloud Drafts for posts and comments for your Yellowdig communities will be stored. You can edit, post, and delete drafts from this page.

Check out the Cloud Draft feature in action by watching the short video below.

You’ll be able to start drafting like a pro starting later this week.

Has it been a while since you’ve been in Yellowdig? Maybe you’ve only used Yellowdig Classic?

We’d love to show you around Yellowdig Engage!

If you have any questions please reach out to clientsuccess@yellowdig.com.

Brian Hurlow is the Director of Technology at Yellowdig.

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November 8, 2021