Schools and other educational institutions have increased the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for hosting virtual classes, assigning homework, and hosting class discussions, among other things.
With the help of Learning Management Systems, which is a software application, educational institutions develop, implement, and deliver educational courses.
Additionally, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for accepting and using the LMS for educating the students. As the schools and colleges closed down, the management of educational institutions was forced to find a way to deliver the learning material and conduct online classes. LMS came as a savior.
Learning management systems are an important part of the online learning and development process. There are multiple benefits of using an LMS in schools and other educational institutions. The software presents a streamlined and cohesive eLearning platform for the ease of students, teachers, instructors, and administrators. Many businesses are using different LMS for training their employees, read more about these LMSs here.
LMS has proved to be successful in providing online learning and training. The overwhelming benefits of using an LMS have made it a permanent supporter of providing higher education to students across the world. Let’s look at some of the benefits of using an LMS for educational institutions.
1) Saves Money
To be honest, LMS is a very important and intelligent investment. Implementing an LMS will help cut costs in different areas and is a long-term saving platform. For example, you can digitally assign coursework and homework to students instead of providing them with written or printed material. This will help in saving significant printing and paper costs. You can even save on instructional material as you can reuse the same learning material for different students. You can eradicate the need for classrooms, desks, projectors, whiteboards, etc, which will also save a lot of money.
2) Flexibility
Traditional classroom training is controlling in many ways. Teachers convey the same information in the same way to different students. LMS helps in widening the possibility of the ways of providing information and learning. Students get more options for learning the coursework as they get a variety of formats, like webinars, podcasts, games, presentations, etc. The students also get the freedom to learn whenever and wherever they want and that too from any mobile device, such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
3) Efficient and Convenient
LMS acts as a centralized storage system or platform for the course material that is needed by the students for a particular course or subject they wish to study. LMS helps in streamlining the database that improves the learning experience for all the students. It lets the students upload assignments and take the assessments all with ease.
LMS provides hassle-free distribution of resources by the instructors to all the students, as they need to simply upload the documents on the platform, which can be accessed easily by the students. Using cloud-based LMS provides an additional brownie point as it makes the data accessible from anywhere.
4) Provides Multiple Assessment Options
LMS allows the instructors and teachers to take assessments online via multiple formats. For example, short quizzes, multiple-choice questions, other kinds of questionnaires, etc. These formats let the instructors deliver immediate feedback. Teachers can also refer to and include links to external sites, and video formats, and ask questions related to the topic from that stimulus. LMS lets the students upload their assessment work in diverse formats, like – podcasts, videos, screencasts, etc.
5) Facilitates Effective Communication
This is one of the most important benefits of using an LMS; the software allows streamlined communication between the parents and the teachers. The LMS enables the teachers to share the progress report of the students with the parents and make important announcements whenever required.
LMS makes sure that the parents are also on track with the kid’s performance and activities. Moreover, teachers can broadcast emergency meetings to parents using an LMS and share the kid’s assignments with the parents directly. LMS lets the parents access the child’s calendar and timetable to be in sync with the school curriculum.
6) Identifies areas of Improvement
Learner’s analytics tools in an LMS enable the schools and higher educational institutions to access more in-depth data to identify the areas of improvement amongst the students. However, in an orthodox school setup, the teachers could identify gaps or areas of improvement only by using grades, test scores, attendance in class, performance evaluation, etc.
There are different elements in an LMS to identify the areas of improvement, such as how are students following the course content, which mobile device they are using to take the course, how much time they are spending on different assignments, what courses they are taking, where they are clicking the most, etc. Along with these elements to track the performance of the students, the school management can add surveys which will let the students rate the courses and the teachers can revise the courses accordingly.
7) Create Personalized Learning Paths
Every student has a different level of learning and understanding as different students learn in different ways. With the help of personalized learning, you can create tailored courses for students, which will let the students go through courses in a way that suits them.
You can adjust the rapidity of the course based on the student’s capacity and capability. The students are allowed to create their personalized learning paths, can even learn collaboratively, and take up voluntary assessments as and when required to enhance their learning and build confidence.
Conclusion
One of the best things about LMS is that it easily joins together social learning and eLearning. You can incorporate Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and related social groups with LMS. Find the right and the best LMS solution that fulfills the needs and requirements of your schools and universities.
We recommend researching the various features and options provided by the different LMS vendors and shortlisting the ones that fit your requirements and are cost-effective. LMSs have a lot to offer, you must act picky and choosy when finalizing a one for your school. LMS is the most important tool that has changed the concept of eLearning permanently.