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Importance Learning Management System to Students During Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged the world into uncertain times. Learning institutions across the globe shut down temporarily in order to protect staff, instructors, and learners from possible infection. Actually, research conducted by UNESCO shows that around 1.2 billion learners in 143 nations are adversely impacted by Covid-19.
Thanks to an increase in virtual learning during the Coronavirus pandemic, students will continue their studies. Universities, colleges, and schools are changing from face-to-face classrooms to online learning. Recent research indicates that schools are ready to capitalize up to $350 billion on learning technology by the end of 2025. This comprises tools such as learning management systems, virtual tutoring, and video conferencing.
Learning management systems are software solutions that assist in managing the administration, monitoring, and reporting of virtual courses and learning programs within schools. An LMS serves as an online classroom where instructors can collaborate with learners and also conduct educational activities virtually.
Learning management systems are important during this time, where lockdown and social distancing are the order of the day. In this article, we explore why learning management systems are important to learners during Covid-19.
1.Enables Student to Continue With their Education
Covid-19 has made many schools across the globe to shut down in order to minimize harm on their staff, instructors, and students. However, that does not mean that the school calendar year ought to be put on hold. With the advancement in technology, online is the best place for students.
Learning management systems for high schools serve as online classrooms. Irrespective of the distance, learners still study and learn from their homes. Similarly, instructors can continue teaching students. LMS offers accessibility and flexibility they require to make sure that there is normalcy in their daily routine.
With an education learning management system, learners do not have to spend a year out of their learning. Students only require a laptop and internet connectivity in order to attend classes. Through this, location and a physical distance would not be an issue for instructors and learners.
2.Ensures Safety and Health
Safety and health are a priority during this period of the pandemic. The learning sector has not been behind. Thus, many schools are searching for the best online school, where they can continue with their studies while also ensuring the safety and health of every individual.
With the learning management system, staff, educators, and learners do not have to brave out the risk of Covid-19. They do not have to go to schools as well as other learning institutions. There is no assembling in one location. Similarly, it secures and observes social distancing. Through this, they lower the danger of being infected with the virus.
A learning management system provides students and teachers with a way to interact, like in a face-to-face classroom during the lockdown period. Students and educators do not have to get out of their houses. They can learn or teach from the safety and comfort of their houses.
3.Ensures Effective Online Learning
One major concern regarding virtual learning is the guarantee of effectiveness. Studying from home is a different experience than learning inside a traditional classroom. Educators and learners can be easily disrupted and not able to focus from their homes.
Luckily, learning management systems offer features and tools to assist in stimulating activities and experiences that typically occur in a face-to-face classroom. Instructors can upload course materials on the LMS. Also, teachers can distribute additional educational materials to learners, administer tests, give assignments, and post reminders.
A Learning management system is efficient and effective than traditional methods. It allows integration of content like live conferences, document sharing, links, and videos. Similarly, learning management systems store learning materials that relate to the course, hence making them easily accessible, downloaded, and copied by all those enrolled in the class.
4.Monitor Performance and Progress
Although conducting online lectures is crucial in the current situation, it is difficult to track the performance and activities of every learner. Hence, the major advantage of having a learning management system is its reports and analytics about the effectiveness of virtual courses.
Learning management systems assist in monitoring the performance and progress in the course. LMS has a built-in feature that tracks submissions, grades, records, and engagement of learners with their courses. Similarly, LMSs collate crucial documents and files shared by learners in the platform. As a result, this measures their progress. Also, you can create milestones that learners require to achieve with time so as to make sure that they are on track.
5.Increases the Engagement of Students
The major challenge for educators and learners during this period of the pandemic is distance. Thanks to different communication tools that are provided by technology that enable both sides to interact.
Learning management systems provides learners with communication tools to keep them engaged. These tools are in the form of blogs, posts, forums, and chat boxes. This motivates learners to interact when they are in and out of class. Similarly, a learning management system enables learners to seek clarification, post reminders, and ask questions relating to their course. Also, this enables students to collaborate with others.
To some extent, learning management systems for schools are better as compared to having video conferences between instructors and learners. It is difficult for the voice of every participant to be heard. With learning management systems, instructors can ensure engagement with all those enrolled in the course.
6.Personalizes Learning Experience of Students
With an LMS, learners can personalize their educational experiences. Because virtual learning offers flexibility in regard to when, how, and where to access, learners can learn anywhere and anytime they want. Also, students can access course materials any time they want. They can learn independently or watch live streams with their colleagues.
Additionally, instructors have total control over how to interact with and teach their learners. They use various tools to support their best styles of teaching. Similarly, teachers can upload modules, PowerPoint presentations, videos, and other supplementary course materials. Through this, learning management systems customize online learning content and personalize learning experiences. This personalization and flexibility serve both educators and students.
How Can a Learning Management System can help in students’ skill development?
The role of a learning management system in any educational institution cannot be undermined as it helps to track the course progress of each and every student who is registered with the institute, through an online/offline learning platform. One can monitor what new concepts have been introduced to students, when they were introduced, how much and what concepts are being worked on, which students have not yet completed their assignments, etc.
One can also monitor whose performance is good or bad as the reports show where a student stands in the class and who has performed well or badly. This makes it very easy for the teaching staff to take necessary action in time to help students who are performing badly and keep track of the performance of those who are doing good.
Research shows that a learning management system can help to understand students’ preferences which help to align the courses effectively to match student needs.
This helps in timely intervention for those who are not getting it so that they are not left behind. The online system helps to track their performance by showing them the areas they have to improve and help to reinforce what they are good at.
Once a student is enrolled in one of the courses, he can access the course material anytime and anywhere without worrying about having a paper copy with him/her. This is another area where a learning management system is very useful as it keeps students up to date with the latest information on any subject by giving them access to all course material online.
Learning management systems have also simplified the way in which teachers integrate various tools into their classes, including blogs, wikis, presentations, and video lectures. This helps the teacher to stay more organized as well as keep track of what their students are doing.
Any additional information and feedback on any subject can be delivered instantly to the student through these learning management systems as it also provides an online forum where a teacher can communicate with students effectively and easily without having to personally meet them. This helps in improving the overall performance of students by enabling them to get help from the teacher at any time. A learning management system is an important tool that integrates the entire educational operations of a school like:
- Manage online/offline enrollment, registration, and payment process.
- Manage comprehensive Student Information records with which every student can be tracked throughout his academic career by updating personalized profiles with vital information such as contact information, academic history, and grades.
- Manage online assessment process for both teachers and students. Improve student performance with periodic assessments of concepts already taught, provide them immediate feedback, track individual progress, and gauge achievement in the class overall.
- Provide interactive technology that can be used to facilitate effective learning and collaboration among all members of the educational community.
- Manage complex class rosters, schedule group activities.
- Provide reporting and analysis of all student data such as academic performance, attendance, and grades on a real-time basis with full control over the output format to suit any preference or requirement.
The advantage of using a learning management system is that it can be accessed online from anywhere at any time which makes it very convenient for students as well as the teachers.
A learning management system also gives greater control over all data to the school administration and its faculty, giving them better reports on student progress and focus on the most effective teaching practices, etc.
One can find out who has been doing poorly in a class by looking through certain report cards on the learning management system and also intervene in time to help them.
Learning management systems are designed to be easy to use so that students and teachers can easily access their materials anytime from anywhere.
In today’s era of globalization, all learning management systems are designed with security as an important consideration for safeguarding data against malicious attacks. With the advent of Cloud Computing, a learning management system can be implemented in an effective way with adequate resources.
A learning management system is one of the most important tools for all learning institutions to facilitate the process of education. The use of such systems has been recognized as a positive step and it has helped teachers in organizing their data well so that students can benefit from it in the long run.