1. A method implemented on a computing device having a processor for designing an academic course, comprising: using the computing device having the processor to perform the following: selecting a natural interaction forum; attaching a rubric to the selected natural interaction forum, wherein the rubric is a template used for assessing the learner's knowledge of the topic; assigning to the learner a natural interaction assignment in the selected natural interaction forum to assess the learner's knowledge of the topic; creating tags for the learner's posts in the natural interaction forum that matches information in the learner's posts to topics in the rubric; assessing the learner's knowledge of the topic with the natural interaction assignment to generate assessment results based at least in part on the created tags for the learner's posts; and computing a final score of the learner on the natural interaction assignment from the assessment results.