Empirical Investigations on Community Building and Collaborative Work inside a LMS using Proactive Computing

Today learning is becoming more of a social process; traditional e-learning platforms
like Learning Management Systems (LMSs) need to rapidly evolve in order to offer users not only
conventional learning tools but also a flexible environment to collaborate and share ideas. Current
LMSs are difficult to use, collaboration and interaction is limited within courses and they lack the
option for customization to allow users a personalized learning environment. In order to satisfy the
increasing needs of learners, Communities of Practice (CoPs) were automatically and dynamically
developed on our local LMS, Moodle™, with the help of Proactive Computing. During the summer
semester at the University of Luxembourg, we recorded and observed how communities were
created, how they evolved over time and what role they played in facilitating the learning process.
Our findings support our hypotheses that integrating social aspects into a LMS makes learning
more accessible, captivating and personalized.