Yellowdig Review Summary

Summary of Usage Data and Trends

Usage data for Yellowdig from the past three years was collected in December 2025. The dataset includes the number of courses and faculty who used a Yellowdig, as well as the number of students who were active in each course community.

Faculty Users

Student Users

Course Sections

*Data was collected in November 2025, prior to the end of the semester.

The usage of Yellowdig grew steadily from 2023 to 2025, with the most significant expansion occurring in 2024 across courses, faculty and student participation. Course adoption increased each year, and learner participation more than doubled over the three‑year period, reflecting broader institutional adoption.

Usage data for Yellowdig over the past three years was also aggregated by college, showing the number of courses and students using the platform.

Course Sections by College

Student Users by College

Usage by college shows that Yellowdig adoption varied across the institution but was strongest where discussion-based engagement is central. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences accounted for the highest volume of student use, driven in part by large enrollment courses such as Psychology. The College of Education showed the broadest course adoption, reflecting widespread faculty willingness to integrate the platform across multiple programs, while the College of Health and Human Sciences demonstrated steady use within nursing and allied health courses. Adoption in the College of Business was more selective but remained consistent over time, and usage in other NIU units was limited. Overall, Yellowdig was most heavily utilized in colleges where large enrollments, online or asynchronous delivery, and community building goals align with the platform’s strengths.

Description of Current Usage

To better understand how Yellowdig is being used at NIU and assess its overall effectiveness, Yellowdig conducted an impact analysis covering the past three years. The report (PDF) examines patterns of faculty and student engagement and evaluates the extent to which the platform is being leveraged to support meaningful interaction and achieve its intended outcomes.

The findings suggest that Yellowdig is not currently being used in ways that fully leverage its advantages over traditional LMS discussion boards. Most communities at NIU are implemented as weekly, assignment style discussions, resulting in participation patterns and engagement levels that closely resemble standard discussion boards while offering few additional benefits. In these cases, sustained peer interaction is limited, collaboration is reduced, and student satisfaction gains are modest. However, the analysis also demonstrates that when Yellowdig is used as an ongoing, course long learning community—supported by consistent, visible instructor presence—it produces stronger outcomes, including higher quality dialogue, greater voluntary participation and healthier engagement patterns than typical discussion board use.

If NIU elects to continue using Yellowdig, the evidence indicates that improvement should focus on both course design and faculty practice. Specifically, Yellowdig should be positioned as a continuous community rather than a weekly task; faculty should be supported in maintaining a light but visible presence through comments, accolades, and reactions; and targeted faculty development should emphasize how Yellowdig's features enable interaction that exceeds what traditional discussion boards can support. Without these intentional changes, the instructional value added by Yellowdig may remain limited, raising questions about its cost effectiveness relative to existing discussion tools.

Faculty Survey

To gather faculty input for NIU’s online learning tool review process, a survey was distributed in fall 2025. Faculty who had installed any of the evaluated tools in at least one Blackboard course during the previous year were emailed a direct survey link, while additional access was provided through the CITL website. The survey was open from November 17 to December 3, 2025, and was sent to 400 faculty members who collectively represented users of Respondus (LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor), VoiceThread, and Yellowdig. In total, 101 faculty completed the survey—97 via email invitation and 4 through the CITL website. Respondents completed only the tool sections relevant to their teaching, resulting in 52 VoiceThread responses, 33 Yellowdig responses, and 33 Respondus responses.

A total of 59 faculty members who used Yellowdig were surveyed and 33 of them completed the survey, resulting in a participation rate of nearly 56%.

The survey focused on five areas: usage patterns (how long and in how many courses each tool is used), reasons for use (such as academic integrity, engagement or multimedia needs), perceived effectiveness (including ease of use, reliability and instructional impact), challenges and potential alternative tools and the overall importance of each tool, including whether NIU should renew its license.

Survey Response Summary

Most faculty use Yellowdig across multiple courses and rely on it to build community, boost engagement and replace traditional Blackboard discussion boards. Overall sentiment is very positive—most agree that Yellowdig increases interaction, improves online discussions and supports their teaching goals. Many view it as valuable or even indispensable and most recommend renewing the license. While some note challenges with the points system or managing high‑volume participation, the general perception is that Yellowdig strengthens online engagement and contributes meaningfully to course design.

For a detailed breakdown of the survey results see Yellowdig faculty survey results.

Feedback and Comments

Faculty comments further illustrate how Yellowdig supports engagement and interaction in practice. Faculty emphasized the platform’s flexibility, student‑driven discussions, and strong student response as key reasons for using Yellowdig.

When asked about limitations or challenges, faculty noted student confusion during initial setup, a learning curve with the point‑based auto‑grading system and grade passback issues with Blackboard that can result in temporary grade inaccuracies during the semester. Some faculty also cited the time required to manage large volumes of posts, limited usefulness in face‑to‑face courses and the need for additional training and clearer guidance to fully leverage the platform.

Licensing Cost

NIU is in the final year of its three-year Yellowdig license, which will expire in summer 2026. The licensing fee was based on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students, with an assumption of 15,000 FTEs at NIU.

Recommendation

Based on three years of usage data, faculty feedback, survey results and licensing costs, NIU should not continue a centrally funded, institution-wide license for Yellowdig. Instead, NIU should explore the feasibility of a reduced or limited license model that supports clearly defined instructional use cases and is funded at the college, department or program level where the tool provides demonstrable value.

Although Yellowdig adoption increased steadily from 2023 to 2025, overall usage remains concentrated in a relatively small number of courses, faculty and colleges. Faculty survey responses reflect strong satisfaction among current users, particularly in large, asynchronous and discussion-intensive courses where community building is a primary instructional goal. In these contexts, faculty report that Yellowdig enhances interaction, improves student engagement and supports a sense of connection that is difficult to achieve with traditional LMS discussion boards alone.

However, institutional usage patterns and Yellowdig’s own impact analysis indicate that the platform is frequently implemented as a weekly, assignment-style discussion tool rather than as a sustained, course-long learning community. When used in this way, Yellowdig offers limited instructional advantage over existing Blackboard discussion tools, diminishing its value relative to its cost. This concern is amplified by the steady increase in annual licensing fees, which rose substantially over the current three-year contract period.

Given these factors, continuing a centrally funded license does not represent the most fiscally responsible or scalable approach. At the same time, eliminating access entirely may disadvantage specific programs or courses where Yellowdig demonstrably supports engagement and learning outcomes. A more balanced approach would be to pursue a smaller-scale licensing option—if available—that allows targeted adoption for high-impact use cases, with costs borne locally by the units that elect to use the tool.

Under this model, continued use of Yellowdig would be most appropriate in courses where:

• Large enrollments or fully asynchronous delivery make community building challenging
• Faculty are prepared to implement Yellowdig as a sustained learning community rather than a weekly discussion substitute
• The instructional benefits clearly exceed those provided by standard LMS tools

This approach aligns institutional spending more closely with demonstrated instructional value, preserves flexibility for faculty and programs with specialized needs, and reinforces expectations for intentional, high-impact use of third-party learning technologies.