We chat with Nick Duran (Assistant Professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University) about his recent experiences with Yellowdig. Topics include community formation, conversation quality, network structures, the impact of instructor interventions, and Yellowdig grades as participation grades. This episode has a companion case study.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE:
Nicholas Duran earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Memphis and served as a postdoc at the University of California Merced. He is the Director of ASU’s DynamiCog Lab, an interdisciplinary lab dedicated to applying cognitive research to real-world settings. Professor Duran works on coordination, deception, bias, and perspective-taking, among other topics.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS:
Brian Verdine is the Head of Customer Success at Yellowdig. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, where he taught undergraduate courses in cognitive and developmental psychology. He went on to a postdoctoral position in the Education department at the University of Delaware where he later became, and continues to be, an Affiliated Assistant Professor. His academic research and his now primary career in educational technology has focused on understanding and improving learning outside of classrooms, in less formal learning situations. At Yellowdig he manages all aspects of Customer Success with a strong focus on how implementation in classes influences instructor and student outcomes.
Samuel Kampa is a Customer Success Analyst at Yellowdig. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University, where he taught seven courses and nearly 200 undergraduate students. He brings to Yellowdig that teaching experience, an enduring interest in pedagogy, and data science training that has helped expand Yellowdig’s data analysis capabilities and improve instructor training materials.