In our last Teaching Tips post about discussion boards, we shared several frameworks that can be used to help facilitate better discussions with online students. In this post, we will share several tech tools that can be integrated into Canvas to facilitate discussions and enhance student engagement. These platforms can help you and your students take discussions to the next level. Information about Yellowdig, Piazza, and Packback can be found below.
Tool #1: Yellowdig
Yellowdig is a discussion platform that functions and feels more like a closed social media platform. Students can post and comment on the platform allowing students to foster relationships, skills, and knowledge. Yellowdig has many options for promoting student engagement in class discussions.
The single-scroll feed will place the posts with the most engagement at the top of the discussion area. This is updated regularly based on the posts that students are engaging with the most – this structure mimics many social media feeds. This dynamic page design increases student interest in the discussion and encourages them to revisit the discussion often.
Posts can be text-based or students can record audio/video clips for their posts. Posts can include images, links, polls, emojis, hashtags, and topic tags. Topic tags are set by you as the instructor, which can be used to help organize the discussion and ensure the discussion stays on focus. Topic tags tend to be large, overarching themes found in the course.
Instructors can utilize a points system that calculates student interactions on the discussion board. Various interactions can be set to earn points. For example, students who make an initial post will receive a set amount of points. Students who reply to their peers will receive points. Additional behaviors can also be awarded points, such as receiving a comment from a peer as well as receiving a reaction on a post. These various ways of earning points within the platform help to promote student engagement. Student progress towards earning their points is updated weekly by the platform throughout the semester so students will always know where their grade for discussion stands.
Pros: Yellowdig integrates into your Canvas course shell and gradebook, is easy for students to use, and feels more dynamic than a standard discussion board.
Cons: Yellowdig does not create separate discussion areas for separate topics. The posts can be sorted by topic tags, but otherwise, the discussions on various topics are all lumped together in the single-scroll feed.
To explore Yellowdig more, watch this Demo Webinar from the vendor.
Tool #2: Piazza
Piazza is a wiki-like Q&A discussion platform. Using Piazza, students can post questions and collaborate to edit responses to these questions while instructors have the option to answer questions, endorse student answers, and edit or delete any posted content.
Piazza’s two-paned interface allows users to easily follow discussion threads. Students can add hashtags and like posts. Posts that have received student responses get an “sr” icon while posts with an instructor or TA response get an “ir” icon. These icons help students to find the questions with an instructor approved response quickly.
A unique feature of this platform is that students can post anonymously. This allows students who may be more timid or self-conscious about their question to still post while relieving their concerns about having their name attached to their question.
Another feature of Piazza is that students can easily post code or equations. Posts can also include multimedia links, images, and polls. All of these functionalities lend to the overall engagement of students by providing them with many means for posting.
Pros: Piazza integrates into your Canvas course shell and gradebook, is easy for students to use, and promotes students responding to each other’s questions without having to wait for an instructor to email them back.
Cons: Piazza is best used as a Q&A board rather than a full discussion forum (where initial posts are created with the intent for all students to reply).
To explore Piazza more, visit the YouTube playlist of tutorials for ideas for implementation. Penn State also has a page on Piazza in their Advanced Canvas Learning Path.
Tool #3: Packback
Packback is an AI-supported online discussion platform that improves student curiosity, communication skills and critical thinking. There are many options and interactive features that can be used to promote discussion and student curiosity via this platform.
Packback allows instructors to highlight feature posts, which may be used to showcase responses that answered the question particularly well or make an important contribution. Featuring posts is a way that instructors can guide the discussion and provide exemplars for other students to strive to mimic in their own work.
Faculty can also leave “praise feedback” on posts. This helps students to see your active contributions to the board as well as helping students to see the feedback that peers have received that earned them a positive accolade.
Posts can be pinned so that specific contributions are found at the top of the discussion. Instructors use this at the beginning of the semester to pin community guidance or instructions. Then, later in the semester, different posts can be pinned, such as a good question from a student that you’d like other students to see.
Pros: Packback integrates into your Canvas course shell and gradebook, is easy for students to use, and feels more dynamic than a standard discussion board.
Cons: A drawback for Packback is that there is an associated cost per student. Each student must pay $29 for Packback use.
To explore Packback further, visit the Educator Resources page.
If you’d like to discuss how to incorporate any of these tech tools into your courses, reach out to the Center for eLearning Initiatives at our Consultation Request page.
