Community for students

Sistema B is a global community of leaders who use their businesses to build a more inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for people and the planet.

Problem:

When we were approached, in the middle of the pandemic, Sistema B was running its Multipliers program in person. Given the challenges of the time, they asked us to build the online platform in a way that let students interact with each other.

Solution:

We used BuddyBoss to create the communities and integrated it with LearnDash. The challenge was to connect the forums to the courses so that each course created its own independent community. On top of that, there is a general community that brings everyone together.

Technologies used:

• LearnDash
• BuddyBoss
• H5P

A living community.

We chose BuddyBoss as the community technology because it integrates natively with LearnDash and is easy for platform administrators to customize. We customized it only to match the Sistema B brand and made the adjustments needed for accessibility. In a few weeks, Sistema B had a complete platform ready to use. Each course creates a new forum, so when a student registers, they automatically join the matching community while also taking part in the general one.

A timeline for students to interact.

With a timeline, members could see updates from other forums without opening each one. It was also a great way for students to share resources and ask questions. We had considered building these communities inside each course, which is a valid option. However, students would have to open every course to see whether there was anything new and, if so, reply there. We thought that would create a lot of friction, so we centralized everything on a single page.

A messaging system to streamline support.

We used the BuddyBoss messaging system for messages and support between students and advisors, and between users and platform administrators. That made support easier and more convenient for students, who no longer had to rely on email or other channels. It also gave our client a single point of contact with students. < See other projects