Social Learning

The new Social Learning Tools in LearnJCU allow you to connect and collaborate with your personal learning network online. It does this while also letting you keep your academic life separate from your social life. This network connects users at Blackboard Learn institutions around the globe and enables them to learn from each other in a more social, informal way – complementing the more formal classroom and online course experiences.

With the addition of Social Learning Tools, you can discover, connect, and communicate with a global learning network.

Features include:

Profile and Profile card
You now have an enhanced profile that not only includes your picture, area of study or focus, and an “about me” description, but also includes a profile wall for communication and the ability to message and follow other users to make connections and build your learning network. You will also have the option to link your profile to your Facebook and/or Twitter profiles, so that others can easily find you on those social networks.

People
The People tool is the access point to your global learning network. It is where you can see who is in each of your Subjects and Communities with you, view an institution-wide directory, and now (with the addition of the social learning tools) you can search the global learning network to connect with others who have similar academic interests at Blackboard Learn institutions around the globe. The People tool is also where you can view and manage your connections – the people you are following and those who are following you.

Messages
The Messages tool provides the ability to quickly and easily communicate with other users at your institution or at other institutions in the global learning network. You can send one-to-one and one-to-many messages that are similar to the messages you utilize through today’s social platforms. From the Messages tool, you can compose, read, reply, and delete messages. You can also send a message to someone from his or her Profile or Profile Card and the conversation will appear in your Messages tool.

Spaces

The Spaces tool allows you to create communication and collaboration group spaces – for study groups, group projects, interest groups, clubs, or other learning purposes. Each Space contains a wall where the members of that Space can post and communicate with each other. These wall posts are then aggregated in each member’s Posts tool (which also consolidates Profile wall posts as well as posts from Discussion Boards, Blogs, Journals, and Wikis), so that you can always stay up to date on the conversations going on.