Instructor's Role in Yellowdig

The discussions in Yellowdig should be more organic than what you have probably used in Canvas or Blackboard. Since your goal is to encourage student interaction, the way that you set up discussions should encourage students to share what is interesting to them and discuss the topics of the course to interest their peers rather than to perform for you.

As the instructor, your role in Yellowdig is as an example for students. You should be present in the discussions, but not drive the conversation. Here is a sample statement you can include in your course site to let your students know your expectations:

Welcome to Yellowdig Discussions

Part of communicating and leading in the virtual environment requires you to be aware of what is happening in the world around you and to think about how those events and discussions are related to you and your firm/industry. To encourage you to relate course concepts to day-to-day events in the business world, you will use Yellowdig in Canvas to share relevant articles and videos found on the web, and specifically tie those to what you are learning in the course. In order to encourage consistent reading and commenting, you will be able to earn full credit only by participating regularly over the entire span of the course.

Yellowdig is a flexible online discussion forum where you will be asked to respond to ideas and topics that will be provided in Canvas each week. Additionally, you can attach articles, videos, or images to illustrate your comments. As you create Pins and make Comments, and as other students up-vote or comment on your posts, you will automatically receive participation points. Just to be clear, using Yellowdig is a required part of the course and a significant portion of your final grade.

The points you earn in Yellowdig are automatically passed to the Canvas grade book for your discussion credit. To learn more about how points work, see the "How Points Work" link on the right sidebar of Yellowdig.

I really want you to read what other people are thinking and to have a real discussion about course-relevant content. Therefore, I’d like everyone to pay attention to the fact that you will earn points when other people upvote (Like or Love) your Pins and Comments. Your Pins will also get more points if they get a good conversation started (i.e. if people comment on them). So think about your audience when you are posting (i.e. your fellow classmates). Also, be sure to recognize good posts by upvoting them and talking about them.

It is also helpful to realize that you can’t get points from people interacting with your posts if you don’t have posts up for other students to see. Therefore, coming in earlier and getting good conversations started can actually save you work. I will also be dropping in regularly to badge posts that are exceptionally good or thoughtful. You’ll definitely increase your odds of your posts receiving that recognition if you have them up early and I can see you are contributing to a vibrant discussion. While badges are not worth any extra points, you will know that I am reading and reacting to what you are saying. I will also bring good content from Yellowdig into our classroom discussions and activities.

To get started, I'd like you all to get used to using Yellowdig by introducing yourselves. Use the "Introduce Yourself" Topic tag and share a bit about who you are, where you are from, and what you are hoping to get out of taking this class. If you click on the "Introduce Yourself" Topic on the right or search for my name, you can find my introduction and some ideas about things to post. Don't forget to share pictures, videos, or interesting links about you and you are to make your information memorable!

A few pointers and recommendations:

Review the student section (Links to an external site.) of the Yellowdig knowledge base, especially the learner orientation guide (Links to an external site.).
Use the 'Help' section (see the top navigation bar) for tips and info on different features.
If you have any technical questions or are having trouble, use the Help button at the bottom-right within the Yellowdig platform to contact their support, or reach out to support@yellowdig.com.
Take advantage of features like #hashtags and @mentions to bring the discussion to life!

Since you have viewed this assignment, your Yellowdig information should be in sync with the grade book in Canvas, so from now on, you should access Yellowdig from the left menu. Note that your points will build up over the entire term and you need to participate regularly to earn full credit.

If you have any issues, please visit this link: https://help.yellowdig.com/hc/en-us/articles/208041337.

In addition, each week has discussion guidance to give students a starting point:

Think and Discuss

For this week's Yellowdig discussion, focus on the four key questions for the balanced scorecard:

How do customers view us?
How do we create value?
What core competencies do we need?
How do stakeholders view us?

Share a link to something online that your organization has done (or to another organization if you prefer) that aligns well with responding to these questions. Perhaps a link to an article about how a company creates value, or how it does something to impact customers' view... Here are a few examples:

Is Burger King helping McDonald's? (Links to an external site.)
Delta focuses on customer experience (Links to an external site.)
Peer to peer insurance, Lemonade, is disrupting the industry (Links to an external site.)

Along with sharing the link, you can write about what question(s) from the balanced scorecard you think that this organization is addressing, and how you think they are doing. Share any suggestions you would make, or critiques you have about their approach. Make sure to respond to at least a couple of your peers.

For more information on Yellowdig, visit their certification site: https://yellowdig.com/certification-log/yellowdig-instructor-certific/module-one