A supportive and collaborative learning community helps students acquire and retain knowledge, instilling a sense of belonging and camaraderie that keeps them engaged and motivates them to persevere. Removing barriers to learner participation by eliminating time-wasting navigation between systems allows organizations to enhance these critical social learning aspects of their education, certification, and mentoring programs.

"Higher Logic has worked with WBT Systems to build one of the most comprehensive integrations between online learning communities and an LMS to date", said Bobby Kaighn, Director of Partnerships at Higher Logic. "This two-way information flow between TopClass LMS and Higher Logic will allow organizations to track and analyze community engagement metrics and learner data together to gain greater understanding of member needs and behaviors in these learning communities."

"Applying the detailed insight into learner data made possible by our integration with Higher Logic will give associations the ability to improve recruitment, retention, and revenue through the delivery of truly engaging, collaborative learning experiences. The flexibility of the integration creates a unified learning experience across TopClass LMS and online communities that will transform learner participation in education, certification, and mentoring programs", added Linda Bowers, CTO of WBT Systems.

The partnership between WBT Systems and Higher Logic is underpinned by a turnkey integration that allows TopClass LMS to write learner data and activities back to Higher Logic when a course is completed or when credits or certificates are earned. Once written to Higher Logic, these learning activities can be shown on a user's profile and can be used with Higher Logic's automation rules to award ribbons, send emails, or add users to communities.

Learners are able to move easily between the two platforms thanks to single sign on functionality that shares user information and permissions from Higher Logic to TopClass LMS, removing the need for learners to remember or re-enter their login information. Both platforms offer the ability to synchronize user information and learner activities with an integrated AMS or CRM, creating a single valuable resource for analyzing learner data and engagement metrics.

Going beyond basic single sign on and write-back functionality, this extended integration includes seamless, two-way connectivity that enables learners to fully participate in specific Higher Logic online communities that are linked to a course in TopClass LMS. Learners will be able to see and reply to all postings in linked communities in real time from within their course in TopClass LMS.

To further enhance connectivity to professional networks and learning communities, regardless of whether learners are signed into their LMS or online community platform, the integration will eliminate the need for navigation between systems. Organizations will be able to display a feed of the latest posts from their Higher Logic communities using a widget embedded in the learner dashboard in TopClass LMS and also have the option to embed a TopClass course widget in their community homepage.

WBT Systems will be a gold sponsor of the 9th Annual Higher Logic Super Forum taking place in National Harbor, MD, USA, 05-08 November 2018. Attendees will be able to view demonstrations of the enhanced integration between TopClass LMS and Higher Logic online communities at booth 10 in the exhibitor area.