Do I Belong Here? Using Online Communities to Foster Learner Belonging and Success

Concurrent Session 3

Brief Abstract

A crisis of belonging is happening amongst learners, leading to poor mental health and dropout. This presentation considers the human need for belonging and describes how Yellowdig’s community-focused pedagogy allows you to create interactive spaces learners value. Discover strategies that improve belonging, motivation, and learners’ ability to succeed.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Brian Verdine, Yellowdig

Brian Verdine, Ph.D., is Yellowdig's Head of Client Success. He received his doctorate in Psychology from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the School of Education at the University of Delaware, where he was appointed and continues to be an Affiliated Assistant Professor. His research background involves learning from technology and informal-learning activities. In addition to overseeing student support, in his position at Yellowdig he mines data from instructors and Yellowdig's platform to understand how Yellowdig can be applied best and to make product recommendations that improve student and instructor outcomes.

Co-presenter: Tyler Rohrbaugh, Yellowdig

Tyler Rohrbaugh is the VP of Strategic Partnerships for Yellowdig, a Philadelphia-based EdTech company that works with some of the top institutions in the world to improve student engagement and retention. Having joined the company in Summer 2017, he prides himself on building strong relationships with the administrators, professors, and course designers he works with, and in identifying new ways that they can use Yellowdig technologies to see improvements across the KPIs that they care about most. Tyler received his MBA with specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management from Drexel University's Lebow College of Business, where he also completed his undergraduate studies and continues to guest lecture in undergraduate and graduate Marketing courses.

Extended Abstract

Only 12% of students reported that they feel like they fully belong according to a study conducted by Salesforce in 2022. That means that 88% of students are lacking a sense of belonging within their institution. An increased sense of belonging has been tied to better mental health and is related to motivation and educational attainment. Therefore, designing and delivering courses in a way that helps students meet this fundamental human need is essential to helping our students achieve their educational goals and being happier as they do.

In online or hybrid settings, or honestly even on a campus, building a student’s sense of belonging can become an exceptional challenge. In this session, we will explore how faculty who teach courses or help students with careers, mentoring, etc. can utilize Yellowdig communities to foster authentic connections between peers and faculty. Yellowdig is focused on driving meaningful connections throughout the student experience, from admission to alumni, with a community-building platform and paradigm-shifting pedagogy. The interactions and relationships that form within Yellowdig communities can have a profound impact on not only a student’s academic performance but ultimately their sense of belonging and wellbeing.

By getting learners truly interacting and working together in communities inside and outside of classes, the platform is designed to enable students to build a sense of belonging and access the help they need. In Yellowdig communities, students can dig into course-related conversations, support each other through challenging material, explore ideas that make their education relevant to their lives, share information and tips for succeeding in their education and future careers, and interact with instructors and advisors. These human interactions help build a true sense of belonging and camaraderie which often carries into other parts of their learning experience and helps insulate them from challenging circumstances that may derail their education. Data from Yellowdig's partners shows that these interactions and connections help drive retention and student success.

This session is focused on creating a different model by rethinking the common approach to online discussion assignments and discussing other opportunities to improve belonging and community engagement, which transforms your learners from mere consumers of information to motivated explorers of knowledge. The session is headed by Brian Verdine, Ph.D., Yellowdig’s VP of Academic Product Engagement and an affiliated Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Delaware. It will be co-presented by Tyler Rohrbaugh, Yellowdig’s VP of Client Partnerships, who has spearheaded various community initiatives outside of courses with Yellowdig’s largest partners. They will blend knowledge gained from college teaching experiences, interactions with professors and students, and lessons gleaned by data from Yellowdig’s 450,000+ active users over their combined 12 years with the company.

The presentation will start by focusing on understanding the conditions that are actually necessary for creating a vibrant online learning community (hint: it isn’t more posts). The presentation will then shift into understanding how instructor presence and expectation setting can help develop more tightly-knit communities that foster the interactions and relationship-building that promote belonging. We will present some of Yellowdig’s features that help instructors create the conditions that yield meaningful communities while also saving time and frustration. Dr. Verdine will go into detail about the pedagogical philosophy, psychology, and research data behind many of Yellowdig’s features and best practices, which will help attendees understand both why Yellowdig works and appreciate how they may be able to improve their own approach to online student interactions. Though the session will introduce attendees to Yellowdig, the expectation is that anyone using online communities or designing interactive assignments will find applications for much of the information presented, regardless of the platform used.