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Fresh perspectives, proven strategies, and stories from real Yellowdig classrooms.
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When Vulnerability Leads to Engagement : A Yellowdig Story

Dr Heather Young University of Florida   Challenge: In large online courses, students often feel like just a “face on a screen” or a number. Traditional discussion boards often result in “compliance” posts, posting once and replying twice just to check a box,which lack originality and real connection. The human moment Dr. Young shared a […]
Burnout Isn’t Just Workload… It’s Emotional Load : A Yellowdig Story

LaToya Devezin Penn West University Challenge: Faculty burnout is no longer just about time. It’s the pressure of large classes, constant grading, and trying to support every student—often all at once. The human moment LaToya described what burnout actually feels like behind the scenes. It’s not just the volume of work; it’s the expectation to […]
Why Discussions Don’t Feel Like Conversations : A Yellowdig Story

Jill AndersonNC State University   Challenge: Online course discussions lack real conversation. Students participate out of obligation, and faculty must grade every interaction. Engagement becomes routine, not meaningful. The human moment Jill described a frustration many instructors recognize immediately. Discussion boards, meant for interaction, often fail. Instead of real dialogue, students simply complete assignments. As […]
Latest at Yellowdig
Student Success
How to Build an Online Community that Rocks!

The Basics of Creating Community in a Virtual Cassroom: There are many free and paid technology options for starting an online community. While choosing software, it is important to consider: 1) ease of use rather than just a feature checklist, 2) access to data, and 3) compliance with the regulations and standards of your industry.  We […]
Yellowdig
Maintaining Learning Communities Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Yellowdig helps connect students, teachers and administrators so that learning can happen anytime and from anywhere. Our #1 goal has always been to make sure every online student has the network needed to excel in their program and graduate. We purposefully built our platform to support fully asynchronous learning. We are making Yellowdig Engage available […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 3/4

Features: Posts can now be copied via permalink Discoverable boards are now searchable Not authorized page appears when an issue is preventing users from accessing part of the platform Performance Improvements: Scalability improvements in notification pipeline for large enrollment communities Improved page load performance Upgraded software versions Bug Fixes: Fixed performance issues on /user/notifications page […]
Student Success
The Textbook’s Crumbling Monopoly

But that is no longer the case today. The textbook’s monopoly on knowledge is crumbling (if it hasn’t already). Scan any university campus or peek in on any dorm room and you will see fewer books. Why? Well aside from the astronomically inflated cost of textbooks at campus bookstores, the model in which students acquire […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 2/19

Features: Password complexity checking. This strengthens the security of users’ accounts. Post reply-to threading UI. This distinguishes replies to comments from replies to posts, making it easier to read and track long conversations. Avatar hover card. This allows users to follow and directly message each other by hovering over their picture in the feed. Interactive […]
Yellowdig
Want a Yellowdig Community that doesn’t suck? Follow our best practices.

In 2020, we created a composite Community Health metric that captures four key dimensions of student engagement and achievement. Along the way, we confirmed something we already knew: instructors who use many of our best practices have Communities that perform significantly better than instructors who use fewer. Over the past 3 years, we’ve continued to […]
Latest at Yellowdig
Product Updates
This Fall Brings Large Point System and Grade Passback Improvements

Recent Improvements to Our Points System Feedback we have heard made it clear that there was potential confusion around two aspects of our points system: 1. Points fill one big bucket for the semester 2. There is a buffer that allows users to earn points beyond their current week’s requirement to get ahead This October […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig’s Patented Gamification Approach Improves Student Outcomes

Gamification is a bit of a buzzword in education these days. We can debate the educational value of all the digital games out there, but no one can dismiss the impact (good or bad) of gaming on the formative minds of future generations. I believe game-based learning, when designed with the right motives in mind, […]
Co-Curricular Uses, Instructor Stories
Enhance Your New Student Orientation with Yellowdig

Orientation is a make-or-break experience for incoming students. COVID-19 has left many universities to reinvent different elements of the student lifecycle, and orientation is no exception. At University of Nebraska-Lincoln, orientation leaders were halfway through training when the pandemic hit. Their in-person event was all about community building and making connections to help the new […]
Instructor Stories, Student Success
Improving Course Success and Retention with Yellowdig

Think back to when the world was in the early stages of COVID-19— it was predicted that the virus would have such massive impact. Universities were caught totally unprepared. Instead of having a plan in place, they were forced to scramble and cobble together different programs overnight to try and keep class in session. Change […]
News
Online Ed Demand Boom Leads Robin Hood Ventures to Invest in Yellowdig

(Philadelphia, August 24, 2020) – Yellowdig is excited to announce that it has attracted investment from angel-investment group Robin Hood Ventures (RHV). Yellowdig is a community-building platform that enables a learning institution’s entire ecosystem—from students and faculty to administrators and alumni—to connect, learn, and engage. Built from the ground up, the platform empowers lifelong learning […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Release 8/17

Features New capability to paste a community template link into the community creation form to import settings and content New network graph data visualization page (BETA). Reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to try this feature New and improved post interface style, which visually nests comments underneath posts and displays a stronger separation between […]
Yellowdig
Is BigTech About to Take Over Higher Education?

Whether you are a student, faculty member, or parent, the future of higher education is uncertain. The entire college experience has been condensed into a series of web conferences and online assignments. It is convenient to be able to join a live classroom with a few clicks, or watch recorded sessions later, but what is […]
Co-Curricular Uses, Student Success
What Makes Yellowdig More Engaging Than Your LMS Discussion?

“I found that the Yellowdig discussions were far more personable than any other LMS discussion boards I have partaken in. The flexibility of content and responses made it more engaging and exciting… I definitely found that people were more active and excited about posting and responding to others’ posts. Previous blackboard discussions have felt somewhat […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 7/13

Features Notifications and settings for direct messages. Support for all global timezones. Accessibility improvements for direct messages. Network/Community Report improvements. Bug Fixes Added special handling for Safari version > 13 to circumvent new iFrame and cookie restrictions imposed by Apple. (Requires opening Yellowdig in new tab when using Safari.) Fixed a bug related to pinned […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 6/29

Features Detailed community- and student-level CSV reports can now be downloaded on demand from /organization/admin/reports and /community/[community id]/reports. Redesigned Periods view in Point Setup Wizard. Reduced payload when groups are enabled. Introduced basic SSO (beta). Bug Fixes Copy Content From dropdown component in LTI board creation modal no longer returns error when list is empty. […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 6/2

Multimedia posting and commenting: Updated mobile/tablet layout New user creation flow for those logging into Yellowdig from their LMS for the first time. Email verification flow for users with multiple LMS accounts. (Security measure.) Bug Fixes Fix for certain timeout requests Better handling of unfurled links Questions? Reach out to us at [email protected]. Brian Hurlow […]
Corporate Learning
How Yellowdig Fuels Corporate Learning

Underwhelmed by corporate learning programs? You’re not alone. Both managers and employees report low satisfaction, with only 25% crediting their program with improved job performance.[1][2] And yet, companies still spend billions on programs that yield disappointing or unclear ROIs.[3] Both the real costs and opportunity costs of just a single day of training are sobering.[5] […]

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