Columbia College Chicago created an online networking platform called theLoop to build community among its 12,500 students and extend student learning beyond the classroom. TheLoop allows students to interact, network, and share work through features like a calendar, classifieds, directory, and profile pages. It also helps streamline communications by targeting information to students based on factors like major and year. Initial challenges included integrating multiple systems, but early results showed increased applications, event attendance, and web traffic after implementing theLoop's communications and community features.