Community Learning Platform

In 2010 the Gilfus Education Group proposed combining existing technology capabilities with the practices and theories of learning communities to develop a vigorous community learning platform which enables a richer set of educational experiences and facilitates the positive effects characterized by researchers.

The concept of collaboration among students and between instructors and students was not a primary or essential requirement for the LMS or academic portals. By nature of their historical design and development, LMS’s focused on content first, context second and community third. More often than not, brochure-ware flat content such as PDF documents and PowerPoint slides is the core of the learning experience, with the context being the course, and the community, the class of students.

A cohesive Community Platform for Education required a major shift in perspective from content as the primary organizing principle to the community as the primary organizing principle.

In fact, with a community-centric learning perspective, there may no longer be a need to make a major distinction between the capabilities of an LMS and social groups. Moreover, the concept of CPE could supersede and altogether displace the very notion of an LMS.