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Writer's pictureValerie Akbulut

3 Actionable Tips for Instructors to Foster Engagement in Yellowdig

Close your eyes. (Okay, don’t close your eyes but take a moment to imagine.) Imagine a fun, engaging community where students dive into deep conversations, engage in critical thinking, and develop community with their peers and you. That sounds AMAZING, right? Here is the good news! It is 100% possible.


Whether you are new to using Yellowdig or have been using it for a while, creating a space for collaborative learning can feel daunting and overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. To help you, here are three things you can do to see an immediate impact on your Yellowdig communities that will make your communities fun and engaging, student-driven, and develop community. 


Let’s break it down: 


1. Empower Students to take the lead!

There will be a strong temptation to take control of the community and provide mandatory prompts for discussion. Avoid the temptation. I know what you are thinking. If I don’t give my students mandatory discussion prompts, how will I know if they are learning the course material? How will I get them to engage? The answer might shock you, but it is simple: Empower your students to take the lead. Give students the power to drive conversation and take ownership of their learning. Making the change from an instructor-led community to a student-driven community starts with you! Start by shifting your mindset from the traditional discussion board of posting mandatory prompts and instead, offer suggestions of topics students might want to explore. You can post questions but don’t make them mandatory. Set the expectations right away that the community is for them and encourage them to talk about things of interest that enhance the learning community. You will be amazed at how students can connect with the course material when given the freedom to do so. Plus, it is a more enjoyable learning environment for students and for you as the instructor. No more reading the same variation of an answer to the same questions over and over again. That’s a win for both the student and you!


2. Don’t Post and Ghost!

Letting students drive the conversations doesn’t mean being an inactive participant. Don’t post once a week and then ghost your students. By doing so, you have created an environment that implies students should post and ghost. Be active! You want to be present in the community. Instructors who actively engage in their communities help those communities thrive. Now, that does not mean you need to interact with every student’s post. Your goal is to engage in conversation and community building. Log in at least 3 to 4 times a week and jump into conversations. Look for students who you didn’t interact with the week before, have few responses on their posts or are genuinely intrigued by what the student has to say and want to add to the conversation. Don’t feel like you always have to post a comment. You can use emojis like a thumbs up to acknowledge the student’s contributions.


3. Teach Through Comments

When interacting with students, don’t comment with “Good job” or “Thanks for sharing.” Use this as an opportunity to teach through comments and enhance the learning experience. You can reply to students in a variety of ways that encourage critical thinking. You can ask follow-up questions, play devil’s advocate, share resources, or share an example that relates to the content shared. Teaching through comments motivates students to engage with the material and dig deeper into the content for more critical thinking. A bonus is that it models the behavior for students of what it looks like to be a member of a social learning community.


Let’s recap shall we? By empowering students to take the lead, being active and not posting and ghosting and teaching through comments, we can achieve the types of learning communities that encourage collaborative learning that are fun and engaging. Now that rocks!




 

About the Author:



Valerie Akbulut is the Faculty Success Manager at Bryan University. Her passion is aiding faculty to reach their teaching and professional goals through creative training, professional development, and consistency in faculty policy development. Valerie has played an instrumental role in developing and implementing a quality control rubric that supports the student experience and gives faculty the tools they need to be confident in their roles. She earned her master’s degree in Interpersonal Communication at the University of Central Florida and is working towards her EdD in Education with a focus on Performance Leadership Improvement.

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