Northwestern University Innovates in the Classroom with Yellowdig

EVANSTON, Ill. - Sept. 28, 2015 - PRLog -- Yellowdig, the leading Social Learning and Analytics software for Higher Education Learning Management Systems (LMS), announced today that it has signed a contract with Northwestern University. The Institution signed up to the software-as-a-service upon completing a faculty evaluation pilot process which was led byDaniel Gruber, Assistant Professor in Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and Kellogg School of Management (Courtesy).

“Linking academic frameworks to current events is a central goal in my courses.  My initial intention to pilot Yellowdig was to increase engagement and learning in the classes that I teach,” explained Gruber.  I was excited to try Yellowdig because of its easy-to-use interface and integration into the Canvas Learning Management System. The pilot I did in the spring 2015 quarter, which was supported by a Digital / Online Grant from the Office of the Provost and Faculty Distance Learning Workgroup here at Northwestern, was very well received by the students across three classes in the Medill School.

Northwestern Information Technology was encouraged by the positive feedback from the students and put together this opportunity for faculty and learning communities throughout the University to use the tool. During my collaboration with Yellowdig and Northwestern Information Technology, I have discovered the vast amounts of data that the platform generates. This abundance of information allows for data-driven decisions for teaching and has opened up a stimulating new research frontier around learning analytics which I am eager to explore,” added Professor Gruber.

We are excited and looking forward to continuing our pioneering student level analytics-based relationship with Northwestern,” said Scott Barnette, EVP Yellowdig.

HigherEd institutions like Northwestern are becoming increasingly aware that the Yellowdig platform provides not only a far better student engagement platform, but also a way for them to fundamentally research new Teaching and Learning strategies. However, Yellowdig is not just about the student experience or enabling teaching and learning research. We are squarely aimed at helping Instructors to reclaim time spent on unproductive tasks --through the use of auto- grading, grade book integration and social network analytics dashboards,” Barnette added.