Create a New Yellowdig Community

IN THE ARTICLE 
Creating a Community (from within your LMS Course Page)
Creating a Community (from outside your LMS)

At Yellowdig, a community is not just a place to interact with each other, it is a place to build active, social, and experiential learning.

In this article, we'll guide you through creating new Communities from within your Learning Management System (LMS) and from outside your LMS. For instructions on how to integrate Yellowdig with your LMS and configure grade passback,see our complete LMS integration guide.

Creating a Community (from within your LMS Course Page)

1. Click on the link to Yellowdig in your course page (the link's location varies by LMS, but is commonly located in the Assignments tab or course navigation). More details about our different LMS integrations guidelines (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle etc.) can be found here.
2. Select the Organization for your Community. For example, if you are creating a philosophy course and your institution has a Philosophy Department network, choose "Philosophy Department" as the Community Organization. Placing your Community in the most suitable network is important for administrative and data-quality purposes.
3. Community Title: Create a name for your Community. This should generally include a notion of the date and a unique description so it can be differentiated from other communities at your institution (Ex: Math 101 Sec 001 Fall 2026).
4. Community Permission Level: Set your Community to either "Public" or "Private" based on the following criteria:
   
   
   • Private Communities: Only users you invite or students enrolled in your LMS course can access them.
     
     
   • Public Communities: Accessible to anyone within your Network. They are not accessible to individuals outside your institutional Network.
5. Display in the Discover Tab: Decide if you want your Community to be discoverable in the Discover tab. Discoverable Communities are visible to Network members, and their joining may vary based on the Community's privacy settings.
6. Optional: Paste a Template Link if you want to copy both content and settings from a specific board, you can paste a template link that you created or received from a colleague.
   
   To find a Community's template link, go to Settings → Basics and scroll to the bottom.
   
   If you wish to copy content and/or settings, but (a) you don't have a template link on hand; (b) you want to copy either content or settings; or (c) you want to copy content from one Community and settings from another Community, proceed to steps (1) and/or (2) below.
7. Optional: Copy Content From. Select a Community to copy Posts and Comments (if desired). 
   • Only Posts and Comments from Community Owners and Facilitators will be copied, and you will assume ownership of those Posts and Comments upon content copying.
     
     
   • If you choose not to copy the content, your new Community will inherit the default posts of your Network's default Community. If your Network does not have a default Community, and if no parents of your Network have default Communities, your new Community will inherit Yellowdig's default "Welcome to Yellowdig" posts, which feature how-to guides.

8. Optional: Copy Settings From. Select a Community from which to copy Community settings (if desired).
   

   • Community settings include point settings, the participation reset deadline, and topics with point values. Community settings do not include the board start and end date or the grading start and end date.
     
     
   • If you choose not to copy settings, your new Community will inherit the default settings of your Network's default Community. If your Network does not have a default Community, and if no parents of your Network have default Communities, your new Community will inherit Yellowdig's defaults.

9. Click SUBMIT. You're ready to set up your new course!

Creating a Community (from outside your LMS)

1. Click on the Communities in the left-most navigation panel of your Yellowdig home page.
   
   
2. Scroll to the bottom of the pop-up menu and select "View All Communities".
   
   
3. Click the CREATE COMMUNITY button.
   
   
4. Follow steps (2) through (6) from the section Creating a Community (from within your LMS) listed above. (Note: You will not have the option to place your Community in a specific network; instead, it will be placed in the network in which you are currently located. After creating your Community, you can move it to a different network at any time by going to the Settings → Basics page and selecting the desired network under Community Organization.)