As a Yellowdig user, you can create a Community to start sharing thoughts, ideas, and content with your community. Only Network Administrators, Community Owners/Facilitators, and Community Members can create Communities within a host network. Here, we'll guide you through the process of creating new Communities from within your LMS and from outside your LMS. For instructions on how to integrate Yellowdig with your LMS and configure grade passback, see the LMS documentation.

Creating a Community (from within your LMS)

1. Click on the link to Yellowdig in the Assignments tab of your Learning Management System (or wherever you placed the graded assignment link to Yellowdig during LTI integration).
2. Community Title: Give a name to your Community. Your Community Title need not match the title of your LMS course.
3. Community Permission Level: Set your Community to "Public" or "Private".
   • Private Communities are accessible only by users you invite or by students enrolled in your class.
   • Public Communities are accessible by anyone in your Network. They are not accessible by anyone outside your institutional Network.
4. Paste a Template Link: If you wish to copy both content and settings from one specific board, you can paste a template link that you produced yourself (see screenshot below) or that you received from a colleague. 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, fill out (5) and/or (6) below.
5. Copy Content From (optional): Select a Community from which to copy Posts and Comments (if desired). 
   • You will only see Communities of which you are a Member in the drop-down selector.*
   • 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 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.
6. Copy Settings From (optional): Select a Community from which to copy Community settings (if desired). 
   • You will only see Communities of which you are a Member in the drop-down selector.*
   • 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.
7. Community Organization: Place your Community in the appropriate network within your organization. If, for example, you are creating a philosophy course, and if your institution has a Philosophy Department network, you should select "Philosophy Department" as your Community Organization. For administrative and data-quality purposes, it is important that you place your Community in the most appropriate network.
8. Click SUBMIT. You're ready to set up your new course!

Creating a Community (from outside your LMS)

1. Click on Communities in the banner at the top of the page.
2. Click the CREATE COMMUNITY button on the upper-left hand side of the Communities page.
3. Follow the steps outlined in the section below. 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 → Community Settings page and selecting the desired network under Community Organization.

From there, you can invite Yellowdig users to your Community, create new Posts, edit Community settings, and do anything else your heart desires.