Blog

5 Spooky Online Teaching Mistakes to Avoid

As Halloween rolls around the corner, we wanted to help you to save the spooking for the holiday by keeping it out of your classroom. We have compiled 5 common mistakes instructors make while running an online class to keep you from falling victims to these easy tricks. Read to the bottom and you may […]

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 […]

Co-Curricular Uses, Instructor Stories

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Co-Curricular Uses, Student Success

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Latest at Yellowdig

A Look into Gameful Learning with an Online Learning Platform

Dr. Ben Plummer got his PhD at the University of Michigan focusing on motivation and gameful learning. Now he works as a learning experience designer for the Ross School of Business, designing courses for their online MBA program. Dr. Mika LaVaque-Manty is the director of the Honors Program in the College of LSA at the […]

Corporate Learning

Reducing Stress in 2021: 10 Tips for Instructors

We are extremely grateful for all of the teachers who are on the front lines risking their own health to educate our youth. We admire your strength and adaptability that has been evident over the past year. In an effort to help you, we have put together some tips and resources specifically for those dealing […]

STEM

Guide to Using Yellowdig for STEM Classes

Yellowdig is a very effective tool for STEM classes. With the right ~simple~ setup, you can motivate students to participate and engage with each other throughout the whole semester. If you would like to learn more about why Yellowdig works for science, technology, engineering, and math classes, check out our conversations and research with STEM […]

Student Success

8 Tips for High-Quality, Open Conversations

There are two types of reactions instructors have when they switch over to Yellowdig. They either are so excited to not have the responsibility of orchestrating the conversation and letting it happen naturally or they are afraid to break the structure they are used to in standard “discussion boards” and continue to post prompts for […]

10 things to know about Yellowdig from 2020

Yellowdig is an Education Technology Company Driving Change in Virtual Classrooms This year has been a whirlwind for the entire world, and the education industry has had its own unique challenges. Here at Yellowdig, that was no exception. Although this year had it’s clear challenges for everyone, including the EdTech space, our team was able […]

December 2020 Product Update - Freeform Point System, Navigation Redesign, and Plans for 2021

The Yellowdig team has been listening to user feedback and diligently working to improve the Yellowdig Engage platform. To ensure a consistent experience for our instructors and students, we have waited until after most semesters end to release our biggest improvements. We are very excited to tell you about all of the changes that have […]

Building Vibrant Learning Communities Across Borders

How can an online learning platform help bridge communication across oceans and time zones for students? Oddly enough, in a year when most of us have spent more time in our houses than anywhere else, this year has become a critical year for institutions to innovate in international learning. Below, we share 4 examples of […]

Learning from the YAAC

Our users are the best source of insights for how to get the most out of Yellowdig. Professors and instructional designers have that real-world, day to day experience using Yellowdig that we rely on to fine tune Yellowdig and create an even better experience for you and your students. That’s why we’ve decided to give […]

8 Things Yellowdig is Thankful for in 2020

It’s that time of year again! Although we are extremely grateful for our amazing supporters, partners, investors, and employees all year round, we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight everything we are especially thankful for this year, especially in a year when it’s extremely important to be reminded of the good that still exists. […]

A Student Perspective

Rethinking Virtual Learning With Less Zoom

Way back before a global pandemic in 2020 was nothing more than a plot to a scifi movie, one of my professors needed to host class via Zoom for the first half of the semester for health reasons. As a full time, on-campus student, I thought that was the most exciting thing. Instead of the […]

STEM Professor Succeeds using Yellowdig as a Help Forum

Dr. Vicki Hart, Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont, has been using Yellowdig for two and a half years to teach her graduate courses on epidemiology and biostatistics in the master of public health program. Classes for this program are 100% online and asynchronous, so students are never in real-time classes together. It was […]