IN THIS ARTICLE
Earning Points and Keeping Track of Progress
Understanding Your Grade in a Course Gradebook
Weekly Point System Details (most common)
Freeform Point System Details
Establish Your Grade Passback
Yellowdig Grade vs Course Gradebook
Grade Passback Delay
💡Need help connecting grading to your course page?
See our troubleshooting guides for Instructors or Learners.
Earning Points and Keeping Track of Progress
Different actions and responses to your posted content in Yellowdig can earn you Yellowdig points if they are activated for your community. The Community Owner or Facilitators can configure rules for earning points. The rules can be seen at any time by clicking on the "Show details" section below the main points display (shown below).
💡Maximizing Your Points & Learning
If you take away one thing from this article, remember this: If you go into your Yellowdig community early and participate thoughtfully, you will get to your points goal faster, have better conversations, and learn more
You will normally have a long-term point goal for your Community. This goal is shown in the "Points earned" area. If you are seeing a "Your pace" area, you also have an average number of points you should aim to earn each period to stay on pace to reach the long-term point goal. Periods are usually one week long (see the "Show Details" section).
If you are in a community with earning periods, there is a maximum number of points you can earn each period. This is typically slightly higher than your target for the period so that you can earn ahead or make up for lower past participation. Any extra points you earn will count towards your overall course grade (though your overall course grade is capped at 100%).
This system was intended to give you a lot of flexibility to decide when and how you want to participate. We suggest earning the maximum you can at the start of your community so that you are ahead of pace and can take breaks later.
There are no "breaks" in the periods, which means you can earn points during school breaks if you need to, but you also don't have to if you have enough points. Just be aware that because there is a maximum for each period, you also cannot just "catch up" all at one time if you fall too far behind. You have to participate with your community. If you always try to earn the maximum number of points available each period, you'll find you never have to worry about not having enough points to ace Yellowdig!
Most communities also have a periodic buffer, but the option may vary depending on the setup created by the community owner or organization. We recommend taking advantage of the periodic buffer to catch up on missing points from past periods or earn ahead. This feature allows learners to earn extra points beyond their regular weekly points limit. For example, if the goal in your community is 1,000 points per period, and the buffer is set to 25% by your instructor (this percentage may vary depending on your school's setup), you can earn up to 250 extra points before the period ends. Earning those extra points in 4 consecutive earning periods can accumulate an additional 1,000 points (250 extra points x 4 earning periods = 1,000).
Lastly, if a topic has points disabled, the topic tag will appear white, and only the text and the dotted outline will have color. Please refer to our article regarding Topics.
💡Point Timing
All point adjustments in Yellowdig happen instantly at the time of the action that generates them. If your posts or comments meet the criteria to earn points, they are reflected in your total immediately. If another student comments on your post and points are on for receiving comments, your points are earned when the other student comments. The Participation Log in the "Show Details" section will show point-earning events and why some may not have earned points (e.g., didn't meet the word minimum; you were already at the point maximum for the period). Actions prior to the point-earning start date or after the end date are not shown in the log and do not earn points.
Understanding Your Grade in a Course Gradebook
If your instructor is using the grading feature, you should know that Yellowdig points are a different "currency" than the points you will see in your course page (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L, etc.). Yellowdig points will usually not match what is shown in your course gradebook. Yellowdig points are converted to a percentage, which is sent to your course gradebook about once per hour. There is also a sync button there where you can force it to sync to your course gradebook based on your recent activity.
Once the grade is sent to the course gradebook as a percentage it is converted into your course points. Note that your grade can fluctuate up or down. If you are using our point system with periods to help you stay on pace, your grade is recalculated at the start of each period and you will appear to "lose" points on the Yellowdig assignment. Don't worry! You did not lose Yellowdig points, the grade is simply calculated out of how many points you need for the current week to be on pace. Earn your points for the week and your grade will go back up. To track your grade and understand the updates along the way we strongly encourage you to check inside the "Show Details" section rather than your course gradebook. The grade calculations at the top, the Point Log details within, and My Participation will show point earning events and your grade changes a number of different and helpful ways. The sections below also help to understand more about how your Yellowdig points are converted to your course grade.
Your instructor has full discretion in adding or subtracting Yellowdig points, which will be shown in your Point Log during the course, or can edit your grade in your course gradebook once it has been finalized. Ultimately they are responsible for awarding your grades at the end of your course based on your participation and your final grade may be amended in your course page despite whatever Yellowdig displays as a grade.
Weekly Point System Details (most common)
If your community uses the period-based point system (most common), all of your Yellowdig points add up to one total for your community, but your grade is based on how many points you need to be on pace to getting the total goal by the point earning end date. Because of this, your grade will fall backward at the start of each week to account for the points you'll need to earn that week. As long as you earn up to the value shown in the "Your pace" area, you will always be able to get your grade up to 100% by the end of each week. Any "extra" points you earn will still count toward your Total Goal and will be calculated into your grade in the next week (i.e., your grade will not go down as much at the start of the next period).
With this system it is possible (and indeed expected!) that if you participate the expected amount in week 1, your grade will be 100% in Yellowdig and your course gradebook will show that you have all of the points for your Yellowdig assignment for the entire semester. However, until you actually reach your Total Goal, that grade will go down a little at the beginning of each week because you need to earn more points in the current week. To get your grade back up to 100%.
We again strongly recommend seeing the "Show details" section of the main points display and following your progress there rather than your course gradebook.
Most communities also have a periodic buffer, but this option may vary depending on the setup created by the community owner or organization. This feature allows learners to earn extra points beyond their regular weekly points limit.
💡Point Hack
If you receive an accolade from your instructor, you can exceed your Period Max! For example, if your current Period Max is 1,000 points, and if you receive an accolade worth 100 points during the current Period, you can earn up to 1,100 points during this Period.
Freeform Point System Details
If your community uses the freeform point system, all of your Yellowdig points add up to one total for your community, but your grade is calculated as a percentage of the Total Goal, and there is no notion of a weekly rollover or maximum. If, for example, the Total Goal for your Community is 10,000 points, and if you earned 1,000 points the first week, your grade would be 10% (1,000 out of the 10,000 Total Goal).
Still not making sense?
If the period point system still doesn't make sense (or you're just a math nerd!), this might help! Here's the formula that produces your participation grade:
And here's how your participation grade converts to points in your course gradebook:
Establish Your Grade Passback
💡Important things to know
- If you join a Yellowdig Community from outside your course page (with an email invite or share link invite), grade passback will not be configured to your course page.
- If you are a Canvas user, clicking a link to Yellowdig in the sidebar will not establish grade passback (unless your program uses a 1.3 integration). You must click the graded assignment link. (For more information, see the section at the bottom of this article.)
To configure your grade to pass back to your course gradebook, you must first launch into Yellowdig from your course page. In most Learning Management Systems, you must click on the one graded assignment link established by your instructor at least once per course (most often located in the Assignments or Modules tab of your course page). If you do not know which link is the graded assignment link, ask your instructor.
Regardless of the point system used, Yellowdig only passes back a percentage for your grade (not points) to your course page, and that percentage is multiplied by the number of points allocated to Yellowdig in your course gradebook.
The video below is an example from Canvas. The location of your graded assignment link may vary depending on your course page and your instructor's course configuration. Please reach out to your instructor if you're not able to find the correct link.
Yellowdig Grade vs Course Gradebook
If your instructor has Yellowdig synced with your course gradebook in your course page (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), it is important to know that the proportion Yellowdig sends to your course gradebook is the percentage shown in blue at the top when you enter the "Show details" area beneath the main points display. Since Yellowdig sends a proportion (not a point total) to your course gradebook, the points in your course gradebook column will usually not be equivalent to your Yellowdig points. The points in your course gradebook will be the value of the course assignment multiplied by the grade percentage from Yellowdig. (For example, if you have a 75% in Yellowdig and your assignment in your course page is worth 200 points, your gradebook will show that you have 150 points).
Grade Passback Delay
A grade sync from Yellowdig to your course grade book happens about once per hour. So your current grade in Yellowdig will sometimes differ from the grade in your course gradebook.
We also recommend that you continue participating in Yellowdig even if your course gradebook isn't updating. As long as you see that you are earning the expected points in the Yellowdig platform, the course grade should automatically be updated in the future. If all else fails, your instructor can manually assign grades in your course gradebook to match what you have in Yellowdig.
NOTE: The Yellowdig platform and support team can't modify points, participation deadlines, or extensions for assignment deadlines. These elements are managed directly by your school's faculty, who have the authority to implement any changes. If you're facing any challenges concerning points or deadlines, please reach out to your instructors or faculty members. They're best positioned to assist you and make any necessary adjustments. We appreciate your understanding and are here to support your learning journey.