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Fresh perspectives, proven strategies, and stories from real Yellowdig classrooms.
Featured
If Students Have Something to Say, Let Them Talk : A Yellowdig Story

Dr. Scott StandiferrSouthern California University of Health Sciences   Challenge: Traditional discussion boards feel structured and predictable. Students complete prompts, but rarely explore ideas beyond them. The human moment “This is how I kind of envision a discussion board, as a sort of stair step of knowledge. At the end of the course, we end […]
When Students Turn to Each Other First : A Yellowdig Story

Dr. Kevin Carr University of Michigan   Challenge: Students defaulted to instructor answers or external tools instead of learning through each other. The human moment “They can ask their peers, and they get a much better and more interesting response, and they’re more part of a community through that.” — Kevin Carr Dr. Carr teaches […]
Announcing Yellowdig's Guaranteed Retention Outcome

Higher education is facing a structural challenge.   Enrollment pressure is real.   Student acquisition costs are rising.   And too many capable students quietly disengage before we see it coming.   The data is clear: academic performance alone does not predict persistence. Connection does.   Belonging is no longer a “student life” concept. It […]
Latest at Yellowdig
Co-Curricular Uses
Driving Maximum Engagement for Virtual New Student Orientations

In case you missed it, the Department of Education (DOE) finally released the last set of regulations from its epic 2019 negotiated rule-making process on April 1st 2020. WCET has a comprehensive list of blogs with the latest updates from the DOE. This regulation, which has been a long time coming, is expected to have […]
Student Success
How to Comply with DOE’s “Regular and Substantive Interaction” Clause

In case you missed it, the Department of Education (DOE) finally released the last set of regulations from its epic 2019 negotiated rule-making process on April 1st 2020. WCET has a comprehensive list of blogs with the latest updates from the DOE. This regulation, which has been a long time coming, is expected to have […]
Co-Curricular Uses
Devouring Digital: The New Participation

Peek in on just about any university-level lecture and you’ll notice a student audience armed with a variety of technologies. Laptops. iPhones. Tablets. Probably even a few wearables. These are the tools that today’s (and most certainly tomorrow’s) students were born into. They shape their identity. They power productivity, social lives, problem solving (see: Siri, […]
Student Success
Build Online Communities to Support Students Outside the “Zoom Room”

Dear Friends looking to set up an online classroom in the wake of the pandemic, I hope you are well. Our thoughts go out to those being affected by the spread of COVID-19, please see this announcement I made last month about Yellowdig’s response to the pandemic. Like many of you, we have spent the […]
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 3/31

Features: Completely re-designed point configuration interface New comparative analytics dashboard This feature is still in beta testing. We will notify Engage clients when it is enabled. Friendly error messages for request timeouts Improved not-logged-in page language Questions? Reach out to clientsuccess@yellowdig.com. Brian Hurlow is the Director of Technology at Yellowdig.
Product Updates
Yellowdig Engage Product Update 3/20

Features: New display of pending invitations on Communities page Improved appearance of direct message creation dialogue and mobile styles. (Note: Direct messaging is in beta. Email us at clientsuccess@yellowdig.com to request access.) Improved handling of unsupported video formats Permalinks for comments New time zones Network admins can prevent users from changing their primary email Security […]
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
Case Study
Using Remote Learning to Create Learner-Centered Classroom

Interview with A. McKinzie Sutter The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Agronomy and Horticulture Distance Education Specialist One word of advice from McKinzie to fellow Yellowdig instructors:   Make Yellowdig a learner-centered classroom. Let the students learn from each other and discuss topics from the course that they’re interested in. The teacher serves as the […]
Case Study
Dr. Lawrence Duke & Dr. Jesse Ballenger

Online Classroom Format That Leads to Student Success and Satisfaction Case Study with Professor Lawrence Duke Drexel University LeBow College of Business Marketing Department Clinical Professor & Faculty Advisor for the MS Marketing program What follows is an excerpt of Professor Duke’s full case study Professor Duke on how often he reads his Yellowdig feed: […]
Case Study, Webinar
Increasing engagement & retention

Case Study with one of the Nation’s Largest Online Degree Providers How Yellowdig powered a leading national online university to increase learner engagement and retention in just one semester Program outcomes show secondary potential benefits including less instructor admin time spent, lower enrollment costs. ​ Challenge: How does one of the top online degree providers […]
Case Study
Study across 4 Marketing Classes

Higher Student Engagement on Yellowdig Leads to Better Grades Fort Hays State University Deems Social Learning Platform, Yellowdig, a ‘Powerful’ Addition to Marketing Courses Comprehensive Research Study Dr. Andrew Feldstein, Dr. Mary C. Martin, and Dr. Michael J. Martin of Fort Hays State University participated in a pilot program where Yellowdig, a social learning platform, was […]
Case Study
New Explorations in Teaching with Technology

How to Keep Student Engagement High on an Infrequent Class Schedule 2018 NEXT Conference: New Explorations in Teaching with Technology Transcribed from a presentation by Claudia J. Coleman, PhDin February 2018, at the NEXT Conference “So, why are segues and icebreakers important? Well, they may not be unless you care about building stronger relationships with […]
Case Study
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Interview with Professor Nicholas Duran Arizona State University School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Assistant Professor Listen to the podcast One piece of advice from Professor Duran to fellow Yellowdig instructors: “In large online courses, I really emphasize Yellowdig participation as it’s the only way students can really get to know and interact with each […]
Case Study, Webinar
Gamified approach drives meaningful learner satisfaction

Yellowdig Participation Grades are Important for Student Success Marketing Management and New Media Marketing students posted, commented with purpose to earn participation grade ​ CHALLENGE : How do we boost student engagement?   Drexel University Lebow College of Business marketing Professor Lawrence Duke was noticing a trend: student engagement with the message boards set up […]
Case Study, E-book
Community-building for learners and educators

Community Building With Yellowdig for Learners and Educators Interview with Dr. Nina Wieda, PhD Northwestern University MA, Nationalism Studies, Central European University, Budapest Professor at Northwestern University, Chicago Field Studies Program About Dr. Nina Wieda  “I teach in Chicago field studies program, which is an academic internship program. It’s a unique interdisciplinary program.  Our students do […]
Student Success
What We Can Do About Community College Enrollment Declines

Quick facts: 11.8% drop in enrollment for public-two year institutions during the pandemic 53% of students are not ready for undergraduate studies after high school 70% of California students fail to graduate or transfer to a four-year college Community colleges have been facing enrollment problems since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic which has only […]
Student Success, Yellowdig
Yellowdig Community Interaction Strategies

Make sure Yellowdig is not a side-show First and foremost, Yellowdig is designed to be an organic and connected learning community which is used as part of a course in tandem with synchronous sessions (if any) and the LMS. It is not meant to be an isolated part of a course and learners should not […]
Case Study, E-book
A genuine Community for Learners and Educators

Yellowdig Offers Genuine Community for Learners and Educators Interview with Ben Leffel University of California, Irvine Instructor, UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology Listen to the podcast One piece of advice from Professor Leffel to fellow Yellowdig instructors:   It is possible to make the online course as interactive […]
Product Updates
What's New in Yellowdig Engage This Fall?

As the semester starts to kick off, that means it’s time to dust off the cobwebs and get back into your Yellowdig Communities! If this is your first time back since the spring or even the fall of last year, you will definitely notice a few changes. Below we highlight some of the most notable […]

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