With the onslaught of Covid-19, education shifted. Schools shut down, and, suddenly, children and educators were meeting online. Though this wasn’t entirely new for everyone, it wasn’t run of the mill either, and it certainly was tried and tested. It took some trial and error, and there are still bugs to work out. Schools are still trying to figure out their strategies to make their school years run more smoothly. Many of them are beginning to learn how an LMS can support a school’s EdTech strategy.

How Is an LMS Helpful?

My schools and colleges have an LMS, or a Learning Management System. Why? This is because of how helpful they are to the administration and educators. Not only can they support a school’s EdTech strategy, but they are one of the most inclusive EdTech solutions out there that administrators and educators have for creating education strategies.

1. An LMS Creates a Central Hub for All Learning Resources

When teachers create lessons, they can upload the digital files that they create for each. These files may include created resources or free resources that they’ve found. These resources may consist of audio, text, video, weblink, graphics, or more. They then have them available to draw upon for three reasons. One, they can make them available to the students when the time is right. Two, they can store them for future lessons, and, lastly, they can share them among themselves.

2. Having an LMS Raises the Interaction Levels of Students.

There are several reasons that a learning management system increases engagement. There are two reasons, in particular.

First of all, different students learn in different ways. Some students learn through hands-on (tactile). Others are visual learners. Some learn through hearing. With an LMS, you can provide multiple ways for your students to learn.

Another concept is the gamification that an LMS provides. Students love competition, and gamification offers just that. Through the badges, points, and trophies they can earn and the leaderboards they can strive to be on, they can compete against themselves or each other.

3. Some Learning Management Systems Have Adaptive Learning Features.

Students learn at different rates. Advanced students can learn so much more quickly than others. It’s the teacher’s job to support each student at every step of their learning. However, most teachers have upward of twenty and thirty students in a classroom at one time. This creates quite the workload for the teacher.

Every LMS allows educators to establish automated rules within the system. For example, you can set the LMS up to notify you when a student struggles with a lesson. But it can be more specific. It can tell you which concepts in that lesson the student is struggling with! Then, you can easily step in and provide extra guidance to that student in that area.

Some learning management systems have adaptive learning features. These systems not only notify you where the student is struggling, but they also give personalized recommendations automatically.

4. An LMS Can Evaluate the Student More Accurately

Teachers can spend hours each day just grading papers and evaluating students, and students need these evaluations to know how they are doing in their schooling and where they need to further focus their efforts. An LMS can report on the student’s progress and performance each time they use the system.

Educators can change up the types of assessments that they give in the system. These may be through word puzzles, interactive videos, quizzes, or more. The teacher can vary the types of assessments by student depending on their learning style and other factors.

5. An LMS Creates a Centralized Hub for All Student Data

Of course, if the student were the only one that received the feedback, that would only be half of the job. An LMS also generates reports, giving you a rundown of each student’s performance, and keeps those reports in one place. You can then make informed decisions regarding each student or the entire school!

6. Lastly, a Learning Management System Allows for Distance Learning

Teachers and students can connect anywhere there is an internet connection. This allows for distance learning, whether it be due to Covid-19 or just as an independent decision. Distance learning offers so many advantages, such as lowering the school’s overhead, allowing schooling to continue during the pandemic, and so much more! And having an LMS makes this possible.

Conclusion

Schools must have an effective EdTech strategy, especially amid this pandemic. Education technology is the education resource of today. 

An LMS can support a school’s EdTech strategy in so many ways. It helps not only the student but the teacher as well. It saves the teacher time and allows the teacher more time to spend with each individual student, offers crucial and accurate evaluations, and extends learning beyond the four walls of the classroom.