Chapter 5: From Learning Management Systems to Learning Community Systems: Enabling Social Constructivist Learning

Learning management systems (LMSs) have been useful in supporting online course delivery and a host of administrative tasks. However, in this era of social media and learner-centered instruction, these systems fail to support communication and student interaction in a manner that students have come to expect, and that is needed to foster an online learning community. Recognizing the value of online learning communities, Florida State University's Program in Interdisciplinary Computing (PIC) examined existing LMSs in search of one that includes features common to today's social media applications in order to promote student interaction. PIC believes that the time has come for the LMS to evolve into an LCS—a learning community system. The solution that PIC settled on is an open source application called BuddyPress, which it uses to complement its institutional LMS.