Yellowdig is a 3rd party tool that integrates with Canvas and can be used an an alternative to Canvas' Discussions tool. A Yellowdig community has several features that help to enhance student engagement in online courses, creating a more modern interaction experience between classmates and the instructor. Features include accolades, a points-based system for topics, auto-scoring, analytics, and interactive tools for posts and comments.
Please contact onlinelearning@uml.edu if you'd like to learn more about Yellowdig and use it in an online course