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Get Your Students Talking with Yellowdig

Yellowdig can enhance your course community and discussions. Learn how to utilize the platform effectively for maximum student participation.

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Building a community of inquiry

Yellowdig is an online discussion platform designed to build community. In Yellowdig learners initiate discussion threads based on course guidelines, topics for posts and expectations for participation. Learners are invited to connect course material to real-world experiences, prior knowledge and their own ways of thinking. Yellowdig awards points for learner participation within the community, reducing instructor grading pressure.

Yellowdig’s design is based on the Community of Inquiry framework, which highlights the importance of cognitive presence, teaching presence, and social presence for deep learning. By putting learners in control of course-based discussions in a platform that reflects a familiar social media layout, Yellowdig especially supports social presence, “the ability … to project … personal characteristics into the community of inquiry, thereby presenting themselves as ‘real people’” (Rourke et al., 2001).

A diagram of the Community of Inquiry Framework. the link in the previous paragraph for a text-based explanation.

Image attribution: The Community of Inquiry framework. Image used with permission from the Community of Inquiry website and licensed under the CC-BY-SA International 4.0 license. Visit image source.

Learn about Yellowdig

Is Yellowdig right for your course?

Including a Yellowdig discussion community in your course may require a shift in mindset if you’re accustomed to using LMS discussion forums.

In most LMS discussion forums, instructors pose questions for learners to answer and discuss. Forums often include deadlines, word count requirements, and grading based on specific criteria like accuracy and depth of thought.

Yellowdig takes a different approach. Instructors provide possible discussion topics rather than questions, allowing learners to initiate discussions based on their interests. Topics are often released in sync with course content. Instead of deadlines and manual grading, Yellowdig uses a gamified system where learners earn points for weekly participation. Unlike LMS discussion forums, Yellowdig is not intended for assessment but for learning, participation, and building community.

Screenshot of an example Yellowdig Community Home Page
Screenshot of example Yellowdig Community home page. Visit image source.

How does the Yellowdig platform work?

Use Yellowdig effectively

Add Yellowdig to your course at the start of a new semester

A Yellowdig community is a semester-long activity, and it’s only created once per course offering. Learners earn a single grade based on the percentage of possible points accumulated over the semester. Most instructors launch Yellowdig at the start of the term to give learners time to adapt and build community. When you’re ready to begin, read these two Knowledge Base Articles (KBA’s):

Set up your community for success

  • Use the default point-earning rules. For your first time using Yellowdig, stick with the default settings—they’re intentionally designed to motivate meaningful participation, even if they might initially seem counterintuitive.
  • Set up topics in advance. Create course topics ahead of time and require them for posting. Enable or disable topics as the semester progresses, or turn point-earning on and off for specific topics. Consider adding a social “lounge” topic for off-topic sharing, which doesn’t contribute to point totals.
  • Customize accolades to reflect your values. Accolades let you reward standout contributions with badges and bonus points, signaling your presence in the community and highlighting the kind of participation you value. Yellowdig includes default accolades, but you can customize or add your own to reflect your priorities. Read more about accolades.  
  • Prioritize accessibility. If you or your students use screen reading support, reach out directly to the Yellowdig support team (support@yellowdig.com) so they can help you ensure that students are set up properly before they start using Yellowdig. They recommend using JAWS (PC) and VoiceOver (Mac). If you like you can learn more about Yellowdig Accessibility

Launch your community effectively

  • Explain Yellowdig clearly. Use Yellowdig’s resources to help learners understand the platform and its purpose. See Telling Your Learners About Yellowdig.
  • Establish and communicate any community standards upfront. Students can flag inappropriate posts, which will be hidden until you review and approve them.
  • Ask participants to create accessible content (including, such as including meaningful alt text when uploading images, using descriptive link text (not URLs), being mindful of adequate color contrast in content and utilizing captioning tools when uploading videos. You might assign the 1-hour asynchronous Digital Accessibility Basics course in REPORTER to your students.

Participate during the semester

  • Model good digital accessibility practices.
  • Be present, but don’t be TOO present. Instructor over-involvement can stifle conversation or shift focus to pleasing the instructor rather than engaging with peers. Under-involvement, on the other hand, may signal disinterest. Aim to match (but not exceed) the weekly participation level you expect from learners, using your own points as a guide. Model the behavior you want to see by posting, commenting, and reacting—always as a fellow community member, not an authority figure.
  • Award accolades judiciously. Award accolades to recognize both exceptional posts and contributions that reflect your values—like intellectual risk-taking or real-world connections. Avoid overuse, as this can dilute their impact.
  • Attend a mid-semester Yellowdig workshop. Mid-semester check-ins (early October and March) help instructors review community data and get tailored support. Register for a Yellowdig Mid-Semester Check-In (offered early October and March).

Instructors’ Stories

Workshop Information

If no workshops are available, you can request an instructional consultation from LearnTech about this topic.

Resources

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