Toss a bunch of community college students into Yellowdig, all with wildly different ages, ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds, life stories, and future plans, and guess what? Everyone digs in. Some whip up drawings, others unleash their inner scribes, and a few even bring the noise with audio or video. And just about everyone throws in cool links and chimes in with enthusiastic comments, eager to earn those points and accolades. That's the magic of the multi-media, multi-topic Discussion platform with so many features: it's engaging for everyone, and a breeze to use. As an instructor, I was able to seamlessly weave/integrate YD into my Canvas class as if they were meant to be together. And if there ever (very rarily) is any issue, the customer service responds on the same day!

With YD, I don't need to remind students to participate in the Discussion ---they spend there so much time (even during their Thanksgiving break!) Most students would use it practically every day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is really nothing I dislike. My students are happy because they earn nice grades while having fun! I am happy, as all those YD points get automatically converted into Canvas points.

So, what's not to love? Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Here's what my students say:

"I love all the information that he (the professor) puts into the class and how communicative he is in Yellowdig. Also, Yellowdig as a whole is such an interesting platform and I'd love to see it used in more classes."

"I /really/ like using Yellowdig, and I think that it's a really good way to understand concepts through other student's responses." Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Needs an easy archiving solution: a way for the instructor to download a record of the conversations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have been an instructor for just over 20 years, and I was eager to find a platform that would serve 3 core purposes: to help engage students’ executive functions, to help students build self-efficacy, and to promote interpersonal care. Yellowdig helps create an environment in which students become the initiators of the topics and the interpersonal glue to keep encouraging their peers to persist. I appreciate the feedback in which students acknowledge the personal nature that the platform fosters, and the range of responses that helps bring confidence and courage to share creative solutions, ideas, and feedback.

AI most likely can give answers for students using old protocols-traditional discussion platforms, and this has been an easy format for students to integrate. I can apply Yellowdig in online, hybrid, and ground classroom environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Take time to make sure integrates with LMS smoothly Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have used browser-based discussion tools in my university teaching since they have existed. What makes Yellowdig better than any of the others I've seen are two things. One, its interface models social media, which not only makes it familiar to digital natives, but, like social media, allows for easy integration of multiple types of content: text, images, video, easy metadata (tags and topics), and community engagement. But, two, even more important is the way it fosters organic, community-based discussion. Sure, Yellowdig can also be used poorly by instructors if they make the discussion too constrained by "assigning" specific "prompts" for students to respond to. But if an instructor heeds Yellowdig's suggested setup — gameful incentivization and openness of discussions — it is likely to promote ongoing, organic, and genuine conversation. And what's best is that it does by reducing instructor workload: there is far less need to grade or review in detail all student contributions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In the context of constantly proliferating ed-tech tools, interoperability across learning management systems can be tricky. Learning-tool interoperability (LTI) has made that better in recent years, but there can still be challenges in data transfer between Yellowdig and LMSes (we use Canvas). It's not insurmountable at all, but for some students, the number of tools and their slightly imperfect compatibilities can be overwhelming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Yellowdig allows my students to reach new heights of collaboration. It’s inviting and easy to use and transforms traditional discussion board experiences. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's all good! I don't have any 'dislikes.' Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Traditional forums have their place, but they usually don't generate rich interaction and conversation between students. Yellowdig takes a very UDL approach to online discussions. Students have lots of agency and choice in what they write about, and they have different ways they can interact (commenting, launching a poll, recording a video, sharing a link). Yellowdig allows them to write about what's relevant to them. It also allows them to easily check on their progress, which helps with task prioritization and completion. The proof is in the pudding - for those faculty at my instittuion who use this tool, nearly all of them have found it to be very effective in not only alleviating grading burden but also fostering community. Additionally, the YellowDig support staff are very helpful, attentive, and responsive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This is not so much about Yellowdig, but an instructor has to really buy into the Yellowdig approach to fully reap the rewards. It requires a bit of a paradigm shift and a willingness to release a lot of control. This can be a challenge. The only other complaints we have received are when students try to game the system, but this happens very rarely. Nonetheless, it's not easy to detect or correct, if an instructor is super worried about this kind of thing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are so many things I like about Yellowdig. It begins with their team of experts who are dedicated to student learning and continual improvement. They genuinely listen and reach out to their clients. As for the tool, I love its versatility and how it puts students in control of their learning. Students can use it to comment/connect with each other and to help each other as well as use the social media reactions they know from various social media platforms. This sets Yellowdig apart from traditional discussion board platforms. Yellowdig allows students to extend the content with external links and images or journal their specific progress on their research project. As an instructor, I like that it breaks the age-old, week-long discussion paradigm and extends these discussions throughout the term--more organically--as discussions should be. As an instructor (user), I can pair Yellowdig with any course at any level in any modality (face-to-face, blended, online, HyFlex). Most importantly, I like that Yellowdig frees me from the tedious grading of discussion boards, gives my students instanteous feedback, and allows me to spend my time helping students and extending the learning. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Although Yellowdig offers buffer points for students, I'd love to see the ability for instructors to create designated times off (e.g., Spring Break or Thanksgiving Break, impromptu weather events, exam week). Additionally, I would like to see generative AI detection so that students know that copying and pasting from LLMs is not acceptable and that they be guided toward elevating their learning. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Yellowdig truly embraces and facilitates the concept of more purposeful social interactions amongst students to foster a collaborative learning experience. Students appreciate the "social media-like" feel of the platform where they can engage with one another and not feel confined by traditional discussion board prompts. As a result, students have more meaningful connections with one another and can share their experiences and not feel as isolated. It has allowed our students to diseminate evidence-informed practice techniques while also sharing their own successes and challenges. The setup of Yellowdig also allows me as an instructor to be hands-off. Although I can monitor the conversations, it frees up a lot of time that would otherwise be spent "grading" discussion board posts and comments. The grading system is effective and allows me to give accolades that recognize student achievement, but is not cumbersome. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Linking Yellowdig to the learning management system for grading purposes can be a bit clunky each year at the start of the course, but this may also be more user error! I'm never sure I have it quite right. Any time there are technical questions, they are quickly answered and remedied or one can find instructions/help on their website easily enough. Students have also expressed interest in having easier access on their phones, e.g. a mobile app. But there isn't really much to dislike! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that Yellowdig engages students where they are, in a format they are familiar with, and encourages deeper and more meaningful conversation the longer it is used. What I have noticed is that student responses become more divergent and more intentional the longer they use Yellowdig. Students are not parroting what I think, nor are they parroting what their peers have said. Rather, they are attempting to articulate unique vantage points OR continue conversations with other connections and questions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is very user-friendly, for the most part, but I do not love that I cannot easily "skip" weeks within the grading/point system. We have multiple week long breaks a year, so it would be nice to be able to block off weeks for no points awarded. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a former tenure track and adjunct professor who assigned online discussions in Canvas, Blackboard, and D2L, when I learned about Yellowdig as a learning designer and saw and read the true organic engagement between peers in an online course, I was so impressed. It's this simple: do you want your higher ed student online discussion to be about quantity (post once a week and reply to two peers' posts) or do you want it to be quality with rich, meaningful, and course-aligned content, created and faciliated by students? I can tell you, in an 8-week online course of approximately 1000 students, that course's Yellowdig learning community had over 3000 posts, almost 30,000 comments, and close to 7000 reactions. I've NEVER seen this type of content creation and conversation in a traditional LMS discussion. Plus, Yellowdig helps you build community in your online courses and helps cultivate instructor presence. Another plus is at the end of the course, change the Yellowdig learning community to read-only status, and then it becomes a student-created course resource! Need I say more? Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What's not to love about Yellowdig? I can't think of one detail that I don't enjoy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.