Move beyond compliance-driven discussion forums and foster true engagement in your courses. Learn a proven framework for leveraging community platforms to boost student retention, enhance social presence, and drive meaningful, measurable learning outcomes across courses and programs.

The traditional online discussion board—often structured around mandatory posts and replies—has devolved into a compliance exercise, failing to foster genuine engagement and social presence critical for success and retention in online education. Students are "discussion BORED," and instructors are exhausted by grading low-effort contributions that are increasingly (and sometimes quite obviously) written by AI.

This Solution Showcase Presentation will provide a powerful framework for transforming these transactional spaces into vibrant, organic learning communities using Yellowdig's collaborative platform. We will demonstrate how a shifted pedagogical approach, supported by modern community technology and proven best practices, leads to quantifiable improvements in student satisfaction, retention, and learning.

Our session will be co-led by Dr. Tawnya Means, a longtime Yellowdig user and advocate, who will share her personal insights and experience, and Dr. Brian Verdine, SVP of Academic Innovation at Yellowdig, who has helped educators build scalable, engaging communities that drive better persistence in online learning. This session will combine Dr. Means’ perspective as a senior-level university administrator with Dr. Verdine’s research and key data across more than 150 institutional partners. It will also include a short, focused platform demonstration of the collaborative features in Yellowdig.

Key Takeaways:
The Engagement Gap: We will first analyze the common pitfalls of legacy discussion tools, highlighting the difference between activity (posting for a grade) and authentic engagement (posting for connection and learning).

Measurable Impact on Retention and Success: we will share a real-world case study detailing institutional migration from traditional LMS discussion forums to Yellowdig that will cover:
-- The implementation journey and faculty training model.
-- Quantitative data on improved student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction levels.
-- Analysis of key metrics, including retention lift and higher final grades achieved in courses leveraging the community approach.

Beyond the Course: We will show how a dedicated community platform can extend learning and support beyond individual course sections, creating a scalable social layer for student services, orientation, and non-credit bearing programs, ultimately building a stronger sense of belonging for all online learners.

This session is designed for administrators seeking scalable solutions to retention challenges, faculty looking for innovative ways to increase social presence and reduce grading load, and instructional designers focused on maximizing the impact of online course design.

Attendees will leave with practical, immediately applicable strategies, inspired by Dr. Means' personal journey and Yellowdig’s demonstrated best practices for fostering connection and turning passive learners into active, thriving community members.
 

Dr. Tawnya Means

Strategic Innovation & AI Advisor to the Provost at Bowling Green State University

Tawnya Means is a leading voice in educational innovation with over two decades of experience guiding institutions through technological transformation. As Founding Partner and Principal of Inspire Higher Ed consulting firm (https://inspirehighered.com/), she has worked with universities across six continents on online learning strategy and AI integration. Her work focuses on where ancient educational wisdom meets cutting-edge technology, exploring how AI can create truly personalized, engaging learning experiences at scale. As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, she brings both visionary perspective and practical implementation experience to help institutions enhance the irreplaceable human connections that make education meaningful.

Tawnya is author of The Collaboration Chronicle: Human+AI in Education: https://tawnyameans.substack.com/

Dr. Brian Verdine

SVP of Academic Engagement at Yellowdig