Method and apparatus for creating an online classroom community to facilate user participation

A system comprising:

• a memory configured to store computer-executable instructions;
• and
• one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to:
• establish a classroom user group including an instructor user and one or more student users;
• provide a feed to the one or more student users, wherein the feed relates to a subject designated for the classroom user group, wherein the feed is a social media style wall feed for the one or more student users to post content, and wherein the content includes graded content designated as graded within the platform by the instructor user associated with the classroom user group and non-graded content designated as non-graded within the platform by the instructor user associated with the classroom user group;
• monitor for feedback information by each of the one or more student users in response to the feed, wherein the feedback information includes posting a comment to the feed, replying to a post in the feed, or a combination thereof;
• attribute a participation credit to corresponding one or more of the student users based on the feedback information and the designation of the content as graded content by the instructor user;
• and
• generate a participation score for each of the one or more students according to the attributed participation credit based on the feedback information corresponding to the graded content designated by the instructor user.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to:

• establish a classroom user group including an instructor user and one or more student users;
• provide a feed to the one or more student users, wherein the feed relates to a subject designated for the classroom user group, and wherein the feed is a social media style wall feed for the one or more student users to post content, and wherein the content includes graded content designated as graded within the platform by the instructor user associated with the classroom user group and non-graded content designated as non-graded within the platform by the instructor user associated with the classroom user group;
• that are both specified by the instructor user;
• monitor for feedback information by each of the one or more student users in response to the feed, wherein the feedback information includes posting a comment to the feed, replying to a post in the feed, or a combination thereof;
• attribute a participation credit to corresponding one or more of the student users based on the feedback information and the designation of the content as graded content by the instructor user;
• and
• generate a participation score for each of the one or more students according to the attributed participation credit based on the feedback information corresponding to the graded content designated by the instructor user.