With the in-depth integration of information technology and education, booming online education has become the new normal of the education informatization process and generated massive amounts of education data. However, online education also faces high dropout rates, low course completion rates, insufficient supervision, and other problems. How to mine and analyze the massive education data is the key to solving these problems. A learning community is a learning organization with learners as its core element, and it emphasizes the interactive communication, resource sharing, and collaborative learning among the learners in the learning process so that common learning tasks or goals can be completed. This study reviews, analyzes, and discusses the prospect of the research on learning communities in the online education environment. Firstly, the background and importance of learning communities in the online education environment are outlined. Secondly, the definitions of a learning community in different disciplines are presented. Thirdly, the construction methods for three types of learning communities, namely, homogeneous, heterogeneous, and hybrid learning communities, are summarized. Fourthly, the management mechanism for learning communities is discussed from the three aspects of sharing, collaboration, and incentive. Last but not least, directions for future research on learning communities are suggested.