Andrew Toczydlowski American University   Challenge: Graduate orientation is often designed to transfer as much information as possible. But students don’t retain most of it, and by the time they need it, they don’t know who to ask. “At the very least, we wanted to have those handful of connections, because students aren’t retaining all […]

Imani Mayo Gaskins Augusta University Online Challenge: Online enrollment is increasingly automated. Students get texts, emails, and the portal, but they often reach orientation having never had a real conversation with a real person about what comes next. Quote: “We’re not just throwing them out into the sea and telling them to swim. We have […]

Alan Hecht Drexel University, LeBow College of Business   Challenge: The “post once, reply twice” model was designed for a pre-social media world. It no longer reflects how students communicate — and it is holding engagement back. “If you ask students to post once and reply to two or three classmates, it’s almost insulting now. […]

Stacy GantNC State University   Challenge: Engagement is treated as a single metric. Are students participating? But behavioral compliance tells us almost nothing about whether students actually feel connected. “Do they feel interested, connected, curious, and motivated to return? That’s where Yellowdig is really, really well suited, to spark that emotional engagement.” The human moment […]

Allison Brown Augusta University Challenge: Asynchronous learning has a reputation problem. Faculty and students assume that without live sessions, real engagement simply cannot exist. “The need for engagement hasn’t changed. When you’re online, you need the same level of engagement as in a classroom. We just need platforms that actually support it.” The human moment […]

Marcia Bohn Youville University Challenge: Faculty hesitation is real. Moving a course online creates immediate anxiety around interaction, engagement, and technology adoption. As Marcia shared, “I don’t know, but I’m gonna trust you. And then we introduce them to Yellowdig, and after that first week, faculty come back and say, ‘I love this.’” The human […]

Maha Migdadi New Mexico State University Global Challenge: When a student starts falling behind, the instructor is often the last to know, especially when teaching multiple courses at once. Without visibility into engagement, support arrives too late, after students have already disengaged, fallen behind, or quietly decided to leave.  The human moment Maha has seen […]

Nicholas DeMayo American University Challenge: Faculty adoption of new tools and platforms is often slowed by fatigue, too many platforms, too little time, and a lack of a clear path from tool to outcome. The question isn’t just which tool to choose. It’s about keeping faculty at the center of learning and using technology to […]

Dr. Heidi Blair Augusta University Challenge: Many institutions wait until orientation, or even the first class session to begin building connections with students. But as Dr. Blair shared, “What about when they get admitted? How do we let them know right away that they belong?” The challenge isn’t just onboarding students. It’s helping them feel […]

Nan Nicholls Slippery Rock University Challenge: Student disengagement has become more visible. As Nan shared: “In the classroom, it seems that students are disengaged… people being distracted by their phones… that’s what I’ve observed.” Participation drops, attention shifts, and meaningful interaction becomes harder to sustain. The human moment Nan described seeing a growing shift from […]