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Fresh perspectives, proven strategies, and stories from real Yellowdig classrooms.
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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
Yellowdig
Using Discussion Boards to Increase Student and Class Engagement: Effective? Clichéd? Let’s discuss.

We’ve all heard of discussion boards at this point. It has long been introduced to universities and various K-12 schools for students to access course material, complete assignments, and look at grades. What is a discussion board? It is an online “bulletin board” where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. People […]
Corporate Learning, Instructor Stories
How The University of Delaware Boosted Its Online MBA Ranking by Targeting Student Engagement

We had the pleasure of sitting down (virtually) with Jack Baroudi, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Programs for the University of Delaware’s Lerner College of Business and Economics. In our conversation he shared the secrets behind the University of Delaware’s 15 spot jump up to 32nd in the US News & World Report Best Online […]
Product Updates, Yellowdig
New Update: Reminders and Notifications!

We have some amazing updates coming up this Summer! Changes to Yellowdig’s reminders and notifications can be configurable within your Yellowdig Community and will be released on June 28th. At Yellowdig, we value the feedback from our unique instructor and faculty experiences, these updates are coming directly from your feedback, thank you! We’re hoping you […]
Yellowdig
The Evolution of Gameful Learning with Yellowdig’s Shaunak Roy and Brian Hurlow

The world of education has come a long way with new methods of teaching and learning arising as years progress. In particular, the increase in different education technologies has had a significant impact in how content is delivered in the classroom. Shaunak Roy, CEO of Yellowdig, and Brian Hurlow, Director of Technology, sat down to […]
Yellowdig
Roles of Hybrid Learning and Blended Learning — What Will and Will Not Work Post-Pandemic

What is Hybrid Learning? Hybrid learning is a unique combination of in-person and online instruction, mixing traditional styles of teaching and learning with online teaching practices. The goal of this type of learning is to provide different techniques of learning to effectively deliver course content and material. Students enrolled in hybrid classes that meet three […]
Instructor Stories
Teaching a Women’s History Course — Thoughts about Yellowdig From a Professor on the Deaf Spectrum

Speakers: Gayle Fischer and Bob Ertischek Building a community for students to learn and listen to each other is an effective approach to teaching. Gayle Fischer, history professor at Salem State University, sat down with Yellowdig in April 2021 to talk about how she uses our virtual classroom platform for her Women’s History Class. Prior […]
A Student Perspective, Yellowdig
In-Person vs. Online Learning — Can They Compare?

Online vs. In-Person Class for Learning — What is Best? Many may believe with the changes in the way students are being taught that there is one medium of teaching that is better than the other. As technology has developed, we’ve been able to connect with people all over the world through apps like WhatsApp, […]
Product Updates
New Update: Anonymous Posting, Feed Redesign, Search Improvements, and More!

For those who couldn’t find a way to get the summer off to spend more time cooling off in a pool, we’re hoping this makes your summer in the classroom feel a bit cooler! We plan to start releasing this set of changes on May 3rd, after which you will start noticing the changes in […]
Co-Curricular Uses, Instructor Stories, Student Success
Driving Virtual Participation in a Career Exploration Program

Yellowdig had the honor of hosting a guest webinar with DePaul University, a school that has been integrating Yellowdig’s services for “Future Forward” program. We had notable key speakers from our team and DePaul’s team to talk about the ways Yellowdig is used. What is the Future Forward Career Education Program? It is a co-curricular […]
Guest Feature
5 Questions for MIT's Vice President for Open Learning, Sanjay Sarma

Sanjay Sarma is the Vice President for Open Learning at MIT, and the co-author of Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn. Along with Luke Yoquinto. Their book is a fantastic resource for teachers, professors looking for cutting-edge learning research, and parents evaluating educational opportunities. “Grasp takes readers across multiple frontiers, from fundamental neuroscience to […]
Instructor Stories
Spring Clean Your Classroom: Clear Out These 8 Myths About Online Communities

Talking to instructors who are new to Yellowdig, we often find there are a number of misconceptions around student participation and the role of the instructor. We have compiled a list of 8 myths and debunked them with the reality we have seen across our company partners below! Myth #1 – Students need prompts to […]
Product Updates
The New Horizon of Opportunity with Yellowdig’s Group Update

Before: When groups were enabled, you could only work in groups. When they were public, students in other groups could interact with your posts, but all original posts had to go to a group. Now: So many more options to configure your Community! In addition to the system being configurable as it always has been, […]

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