Drupal is not a traditional Learning Management System. Drupal started as a community-building platform, and these community-centered roots inform the range of possibilities available within Drupal today.

Drupal provides a wide variety of useful tools for educators. For the instructor, Drupal can serve as a blogging platform, allowing teachers to communicate directly with students, parents, and the larger school and internet community.

Drupal also offers a flexible range of privacy options that allow users to keep some—or all—of the content within a site private. However, a Drupal site can be used for far more than a secure blogging platform. Within a single Drupal site, you can set up social bookmarking, podcasting, video hosting, formal and informal groups, rich user profiles, and other features commonly associated with Social Web Communities. Building your site in Drupal allows you to start with precisely the features you want, and expand as needed. This book provides the information needed to build, maintain, and grow your site.