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Arizona State University
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Level of Course:
Undergraduate and Graduate
Instructor:
Nicholas Duran
Course Subject:
Psychology and Cognitive Science
Number of community participants:
~130
"In large online courses, I really emphasize Yellowdig participation as it's the only way students can really get to know and interact with each other. I also make it the least demanding component of my overall assessment each week, where there is a lot of room to explore the big themes for whatever content I might be covering."
Between Fall 2017 and Summer 2019, Professor Duran used Yellowdig for 7 graduate and undergraduate courses in psychology and cognitive science. Professor Duran teaches a mix of online and offline courses with large enrollments. Teams of graduate TA’s help Professor Duran moderate his high-enrollment Communities, and he encourages his TA’s to kickstart conversations by posting articles and sharing their views on course topics. Professor Duran also uses Yellowdig as an opportunity to familiarize his graduate students with subject matter outside their areas of specialization. He even finds that using Yellowdig helps him keep abreast of recent developments in his field. Finally, Professor Duran uses Yellowdig to identify promising undergraduates to work in his lab.
Yellowdig was a graded component of Professor Duran’s courses, and students’ Yellowdig grades were typically worth 20-25% of their final grades.
By The Numbers
46
Posts + Comments per Student
2.67
Conversation Ratio
34
Connections Per Student
Results
On average, students in Professor Duran’s Communities created 46 Posts and Comments and earned 99% of the 100% participation goal. The average conversation ratio (Comments / Posts) was 2.67, which could be increased by adding social points. In Professor Duran’s most recent undergraduate course, students were well-connected to each other despite the large class size; the average Community member responded to or received responses from 34 other active Community members.
The Yellowdig Network Graph for Professor Duran's course, showing the interconnectedness of students and members within the community.
The abbreviated network graph depict Prof. Duran’s most recent undergraduate cognitive science Community (S19). The red nodes in the network graph represent students; the green nodes represent TA’s; and the blue node represents Prof. Duran. Overall, our data suggest that Professor Duran and his TA’s fostered strong and engaging Communities. One way for Professor Duran to further strengthen his Communities would be to increase the value of social points, which tend to increase high-quality posts, peer interactions, and student engagement.
Here at Yellowdig, we are thrilled to learn what Nicholas has shared above. Nicholas structured his course to facilitate discussion in a large virtual class, where he did not think that it would be possible. This interaction is all about who we are at Yellowdig.
With these online students, there is a good number of them that are very introverted and they don't feel comfortable being in a face to face classroom. They're the ones that never ask questions because they're shy or they're nervous, but in this environment they're free rein. They feel much more emboldened to express their opinion.
~
Professor Duran
About the Instructor
Nicholas Duran
Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Professor Duran earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Memphis and served as a postdoc at the University of California Merced. He is the Director of ASU’s DynamiCog Lab, an interdisciplinary lab dedicated to applying cognitive research to real-world settings. Professor Duran works on coordination, deception, bias, and perspective-taking, among other topics.
About the Institution
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (ASU) is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves (https://www.asu.edu/academics/colleges-schools).
