A WordPress site is a great way for instructors to broadcast information to students, but is not ideal for student-to-student interaction. The BuddyPress plugin allows us to turn our course site into a fully-functioning social network. By employing BuddyPress as our social network, the site administrator has full control over the content and forms of communication that occur. This makes BuddyPress an ideal way to encourage online student collaboration.

I have used BuddyPress in courses where I would like to quickly share information with the class. I can post a link or file through the BuddyPress activity stream and students are able to access them in real time. BuddyPress also makes student research collaboration simpler, allowing students to easily share links and resources with their classmates.

By using BuddyPress, students and instructors have the ability to seamlessly communicate and collaborate with one another directly through the class site. In this chapter we'll cover how to install BuddyPress, use the BuddyPress activity feed, create student groups for collaboration, use the BuddyPress forum option, and protect the privacy of our students.