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​hiladelphia, Pennsylvania
The E
​arly Adopters​
Edition
$5.00
________________________________________________________________________________________
__ Breaking News: Visualizing Peer Learning
From Northwestern’s ​
TeachX​
: “Building on our prototype and great ideas from the student brainstorming
session, the latest version of the Yellowdig Visualization App highlights user selected subgraphs, showing
the selected node, its author, related comments, and their authors.”
Professor Dan Gruber
Discusses Network
Visualization & Natural
Language Processing For An
Incredible Yellowdig
Visualization App
_______________________________________ Introduction: Professor Dan Gruber
teaches courses at Northwestern’s
Medill School of Journalism, Media,
Integrated Marketing Communications,​
as well as the K
​ellogg School of
Management.​Professor Gruber’s
research has been published in
numerous management and
communications journals, including
Organization Science, Business
Horizons, The Journal of Management
Inquiry ​
and ​
The International Journal of
Sport Communication.
On using Yellowdig:
_______________________________________ It’s a very exciting tool for engaging
students here in 2016. [Yellowdig] has
been a tremendous addition to the
courses that I teach because, for each of
the classes that I teach, there is a part of
it for the last decade that focuses on ‘In
the News’, what’s going on in the news
related to the class topics. And the
evolution of what I’ve used has gone
from using examples from newspapers
and magazines, and highlighting them in
a PowerPoint slide to using Twitter fairly
extensively for a number of years, with
hashtags to share articles and have
students share. And then to Yellowdig​
. And what Yellowdig has done, it has
helped to both elevate the volume in
terms of engagement and its also
allowed for all the students in the class to
participate in a way that felt comfortable
to them because of the integration of the
platform within our campus learning
management system (Canvas). So I have
been very excited, I’ve been an
ambassador for Yellowdig here at
Northwestern because I brought it for a
pilot that I did for a few classes last
spring and it was very successful and
well received and became a
university-wide pilot and, as a result of
that, I had a chance to talk to colleagues
all across the campus, all across the
university, and present the tool to
different audiences.
And now that we have a longer term
relationship with Yellowdig, it’s exciting
to build on that, both in terms of
encouraging others to use it and see how
they use it for their specific learning
goals in their classes, as well as some of
the work that I’ve been doing with our
Information Technology Department at
Northwestern (Bill Parod, Patricia
Goldweic, and Phillip Burns) in
collaboration with Yellowdig around
learning analytics.
1 I was wondering if you could
explain some more on how you
got your students involved with
the [learning analytics] project.
It’s been a wonderful collaboration
between Northwestern Information
Technology, Yellowdig and myself. And
what started out as an interest in
understanding some of the data that was
being created from Yellowdig has evolved
into this visualization tool. The initial idea
was to take some of this discussion and to
see if there was another way to help
students see how they were participating
on these boards, and what some of that
opportunity would allow them to do from a
learning standpoint.
So by looking at how different
conversations are forming or whether or
not certain pins are generating more or
less discussion, it allows them to see
Yellowdig in a complementary way. So I
think that the frontend of Yellowdig is an
incredibly engaging social-media like
environment and this tool is kind of
opening that up and seeing what’s going
on there, what’s going on with all these
discussions, how are people learning from
each other and what does that look like?
So we worked on this tool for the better
part of last year and it started it out as a
network visualization, a fairly traditional
network of graphs and what’s interesting
is that we’ve workshopped this example
with the students to get their
[perspective], so: How would this tool be
more interesting to you? And what can we
do to make this more engaging? And so, it
has evolved from that traditional network
to a network that is visualized by the
parallel images in Yellowdig, so you can
see the student images and the images
from the URLs of the specific pins that
Yellowdig scrapes, and those are also in
that visualization tool. We ​
recently
presented a digital poster​
at a teaching
​
innovation event at Northwestern that
gives a good sense of the tool and the
development process
On introverts and warm calls:
And I think that’s one of the big things
for students is that, whether the student
is in my actual classroom or in Yellowdig.
I want everybody to feel comfortable
contributing. And I think what’s really
nice about Yellowdig is that it allows for
that digitally but then also, it allows for
this idea of warm calls and that’s
something I think a lot about in my class,
which is giving students a sense that
they are going to be called upon to
either elaborate on the relevance of
something they said or to extend
something they’ve already been thinking
about. And that warm call is just a great
way to bring some students who might
not be comfortable in a 50 or 60 student
classroom, bringing them into the
conversation in a way that they feel
ready to go. I think that’s another neat
pedagogical innovation that comes with
Yellowdig, thinking about it as a catalyst
for warm calls.
I think it would be really interesting to do
a more rigorous analysis of those
specific questions. Are more introverted
students doing more because of
Yellowdig? My intuition and my
anecdotal experiences would suggest
that it certainly does help. It can also be
challenging for students for whom
English is a second language. Yellowdig
gives a practice for communication but it
also puts [them] out there in a different
way. So, overall I think it’s a great way to
bring those students in, both for
introverted students and for students
where English is a second language to
contribute to class.
I think it also allows us as faculty to just
be aware of what’s going on with
students, and the digital tracking and
data around it is super helpful because
you might see that a student hasn’t
participated in Yellowdig for a week or
two and it allows you to say: Hey, what’s
going on? I haven’t seen you here. Or
whatever it might be, it really kind of
creates that awareness.
“It’s been a wonderful collaboration
between Northwestern Information
Technology, Yellowdig and myself.
And what started out as an interest
in understanding some of the data
that was being created from
Yellowdig has evolved into this
visualization tool. ”
On classroom interactions
versus virtual interactions:
I think [Yellowdig] helps to create new
relationships, so the students might see
something and they might say, “This is an
interesting article and I remember her
article or his article....” And so it might
lead to more informal conversation
between some students who might not
have as much opportunity to engage. So
that’s something I’ve been thinking about
in terms of what that allows for, and in
terms of building a broader sense of
community.
What do you think might be the ideal
balance between simplicity and
complexity in terms of data
visualization?
I think that’s kind of the magic of what
you guys have to figure out and continue
to evolve on, without losing the simplicity
but giving the complexity to complement
[the platform]. When I think about
learning analytics, I talk about it in
different contexts. I talk about it terms of
a mechanical watch and what happens
when you pry the front end of the watch
off and look at all the different
mechanisms, in terms of how things are
moving.
And I think it’s the same with Yellowdig,
where you want that beauty of the face
of the watch or the face of the tool to be
very clean and seamless and easy to
navigate and very easy to use. And then
giving the faculty and/or students just
different ways to understand what’s
going on and bringing some of those
things to the front, but not clouding the
simplicity of the interface.
2 A Conversation with Brandi
Beals On Building A Strong
Community and the
Importance of Grit.
know what to do— because [the courses]
move in a social-media platform, they
sometimes get lost and confused with
where their pins or comments [are
located]. At the beginning of each
course, it’s sometimes a little
overwhelming for students but we work
with them to push that it’s kind of like
social-media in the sense that [content]
gets streamed for them, and as they
comment, [posts] get moved to the top.
[We teach them] to not be intimidated by
it but to look at it as a community
social-media style platform.
Introduction: Brandi Beals is the
Healthcare Education Manager at Bryan
University, helping students to discover
their full potential. She has been
instrumental in implementing creative
virtual learning at Bryan University and
collaborating with Yellowdig in these
efforts. _______________________________________ On memorable discussions and
conversations:
_______________________________________ On her experiences with
Yellowdig:
[We] use Yellowdig quite a bit in every
course. And we use it as a discussion and
a community board. There’s one board for
every single course that we teach in the
Bachelor’s program, as well as other
programs that we have here at Bryan
University. We use it for students to build
a community within that course, use it as a
tool for them to communicate with one
another about topics in that class and
topics in health care regarding their
program as a whole.
On engagement trends during
the semester:
Typically, in the very first course that they
take, they [get] their initial board. Students
are intimidated by it because they don’t
Because we use Yellowdig as our only
classroom discussion board, it is where
they have their discussion questions
(what we call Sparks to spark
conversations between classmates, as
well as between the instructor and
classmates). One of the first courses
revolves around mindset and academic
grit and perseverance and really learning
how to be a student all over again.
There was one student in particular who
pinned about that, he called it “Be You at
BU”, so he was expressing how he can
be himself at Bryan University through
Yellowdig and build his community— and
make the community what he wants it to
be, while still allowing other students to
make it what they want it to be. And so
that was an important game changer for
us at Bryan [University], as far as how we
use it. Students come into the board
when other students are in the middle of
that same exact class. And students
leave that board, but still come in and
talk to students that are currently in that
class, even though they are no longer
there. They will find articles or trends or
situations in the healthcare industry and
they enjoy sharing it and having that
discussion. It builds learning.
____________________________
TED: ​
Every Kid Needs a
Champion,​A Talk by Rita
Pierson.
“You know, kids don’t
learn from people they
don’t like.”
____________________________
Good Reads
In the constant quest for
personalized content curation, we at
Yellowdig recommend a few great
reads for your academic pleasure.
Enjoy!
____________________________
Scientific Vision:
What Are The Odds We Are Living in
A Business Simulation?​
, The New
Yorker.
Global Economy & Business:
Where The Smart Is: The Internet of
Things,​
The Economist.
Engineering the Future:
Brain To Brain Communication Is
Closer Think You Think,​
Popular
Mechanics.
Artistic Vision:
The Pac Man,​
Kill Screen
Lifestyle & Culture:
Campuses Debate Rising Demands
for Comfort Animals​
, The New York
Times Magazine.
____________________________
“It’s really promoted
communication in general. One
of the things we have found is
that students who are most
intimidated by it or
overwhelmed by the platform
are actually the students that
will engage in it the most.”
3 You mentioned that students would
come back to the boards after taking
those classes. Would they become
leaders in the board or more of a
support system for current students?
As of right now, they are taking on that
support role. So if they see a pin that’s
interesting, they will comment on it. We
haven’t seen a whole lot of students
coming back and pinning new things to a
class they are no longer in. However, I
post right when there’s a transition that’s
going to happen, when student’s are
going to be leaving a class and going onto
their next set of courses and new students
are coming in. I post: It’s that time again,
time to make a transition. What tips or
tricks do you have for students who are
going to be coming into the board to
prevent or reduce that anxiety? How can
you help students prepare? It provides
instructor-led mentorship as to what
students need to do to be successful in
the course.
On diversions:
There were some diversions, but still
relevant in the sense that they were
motivating. If a student was struggling and
didn’t have the motivation or they were
confused or they didn’t know what to do
or where to go or they just needed that
support— then that would be the branch
they would take, where they would post a
motivational video. One topic that we give
students every single week in their
discussions is “Confused or Confident?”.
So students can post if they are confused
about something.
We really leave it open to them to discuss
things that they think is important, based
on their textbooks or their assignments.
And the only time it went off on a tangent
is when somebody needed motivation
and they would post something saying
that they were confused, struggling, they
didn’t want to do it anymore or just
needed that generalized motivational
support.
On trends with the students:
It’s really promoted communication in
general. One of the things we have
found is that students who are most
intimidated by it or overwhelmed by the
platform are actually the students who
will engage in it the most. So it’s kind of
an odd trend to see, but exciting to know
that we can get those introverts out and
talking, and they are comfortable
because they are looking at it like it’s
Facebook.
They’re pinning what’s interesting to
them but still relates to the topic, and
then they can connect with friends and
classmates that they didn’t expect to
connect with, because our students are
across the country. It’s built a lot of
interesting relationships and brought
those introverts out. And the people that
are intimidated by it, it’s made them go
outside their comfort zone to advance
their learning abilities.
And did that put them on the
radar to get on track?
The students are really quick to rally
around each other, which is really the
intent from my perspective for Yellowdig,
to build that community. So that when
somebody does need help then other
students are right there to provide that
support.
On being okay to fail:
Failure is scary and actually the very first
course that we teach, we teach them
about that. We teach them that it’s okay
to fail as long as you continue to try. So
the first course, “Student Success and
Technology”, they are learning about the
technologies that we have available at
Bryan University and how to be a
successful student. We have a whole
course that talks about that mindset, that
grit, creating successful habits and
overcoming obstacles.
Would an orientation through
Yellowdig before courses begin
help?
I think a simulation or lab environment
would be excellent. We are actually in
the process of developing a “Week 0”.
It’s a course that [the students] would
automatically be enrolled in that’s just a
blank course shell for them to learn how
the classroom is set up and how
Yellowdig is set up. Using Yellowdig
within that class is kind of a “tell us about
you” and “get to know your community”,
and all of the students across campus.
We also promote that growth mindset.
More on ‘Week 0”:
The way we are setting it up is for
students to share who they are, so “Be
You at BU” or how are you going to be
who you are at Bryan University? The
student success coaches are in there and
providing some motivation for them—
encouragement and to let the students
kind of run with it, that ability to have the
freedom in their discussions so that it’s
not so rigid.
The plan is that we will actually have the
student success coaches, who help them
get started at Bryan University once they
finish with the admissions phase, take
control of the course. We are also
working on getting student ambassadors
and identifying who some of our top
students are in Yellowdig. The student
ambassadors will also be in there, driving
conversation— because students are
often more comfortable with a peer more
than an advisor.
“The way we are setting it up is
for students to share who they
are, so “Be You at BU” or how
are you going to be who you
are at Bryan University?”
4 On memorable moments:
The students who use it the most are
some of the top performers. And some
students are intimidated still to make their
pins, but when they actually start making
their pins—that’s what is most memorable
to me, because you know that they’ve
finally gotten out of that comfort zone. All
of our most profound learning is done
through trial and error. When you’re
comfortable you’re in the same place over
and over and you can’t increase your
abilities. For me, it’s most memorable
when you see those students that
struggle because they aren’t comfortable
making pins. They only comment, and
then all of a sudden you see them pin
things—that’s really exciting to me.
5