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Online Learning Services
As online high school education has become our new normal, it is crucial to select a Learning Management System that is tailored to the goals and mission of your institution. Nevertheless, with many options available nowadays.
Online studies seem to have attained the sloping point. According to the Distance Education Enrollment Report from Digital Learning Compass, 30% of learners at the United States higher-education learning institutions registered in at most one online program, and around half of the populace enrolled completely in online programs. A study conducted by the Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology established that 42% of learning institutions taught a completely virtual program for credit.
But what precisely does virtual education look like? Online learning takes different forms, unlike traditional face-to-face classrooms. Some online school course feature flipped or blended classes which incorporate online task into traditional courses. Other courses are completely online and depend on a blend of asynchronous and real-time (synchronous) lectures, assessments, and activities. Additionally, other courses make individual courses that are offered in the absence of academic credit, such as MOOCs.
Whatever type of online learning you undertake, administrators and instructors typically depend on some form of Learning Management System (LMS) in order to track the progress of learners, assess and report outcomes of learners, develop course content, and assign course content. The market for educational Learning Management systems has grown significantly over the years. The market consolidates a few main sellers, and with this kind of attention, there is uniformity in features and design. Currently, most Learning Management Systems (LMS) are cloud-hosted, extremely interoperable, and responsive.
However, instructors and students may still select from a wide range of Learning Management Systems, especially in the K12 education system. Online education platforms encompass both educations Learning Management Systems, including learning platforms and tools that integrate with these systems or act as alternatives.
Any discussion regarding online studies should be grounded with the recognition of the limitations and strengths of every platform or tool. Importantly, you must consider well regarding the resources, values, and cultures of your school.
Higher Learning
In higher learning, the change towards online education is possibly less a testimony towards innovation as compared to the response to demand. Besides, as states de-invest in public schools, parents and students have stood rising service and tuition costs. Lawmakers have embraced online learning programs and community schools as vehicles of driving down costs, expanding access to education, and increasing curricular flexibility.
When adopting online learning programs, school administrators need to balance integration with innovation. A significant number of schools have invested in high-tech infrastructures. The Learning Management System (LMS) arose from higher learning with online learning efforts.
Most universities and colleges implemented Blackboard Learn and D2L Brightspace. Shifting to other educational platforms needs supports for as well as maintenance for the current courses. Gratefully, a change to greater interoperability implies that learning institutions do not inevitably have to pick. For instance, online assessment, tutorial, and homework products might be incorporated into LMSs. The main educational Learning Management Systems include Instructure Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Blackboard Learn.
This “big four” to a more considerable extent, represent the Learning Management System higher-learning market the way it is in the United States. According to the latest report of Phil Hill, 87% of learning schools and 91% of learner enrollment depend on either D2L Brightspace, Moodle, Canvas, or Blackboard. Whereas Blackboard is the most common Learning Management System (37% of enrollments and 28% of institutions), Canvas LMS is becoming popular with 21% of learning institutions as well as 27% of enrollments. Although Moodle is utilized by many schools as compares to Canvas (25%), it has only 12% of enrollments, implying that it is common among smaller institutions. In the meantime, D2L Learning Management System continues to attract new adopters, whereby it is utilized by 13% of institutions and 15% of enrollments.
K-12 Education System
The K-12 education system faces numerous issues. Besides, school districts embrace online learning through in-person teaching modified with a digital job, unlike middle and high schools and higher education. Instructors, instead of administrators, drive the adoption of platforms and tools, making decisions depending on eases of use, application, and cost.
The K-12 system is embracing Google G Suite for learning, which is employed presently by around half of all United States middle and high school learners. Besides, Google markets services to instructors, a tactic that has been proved to be less efficient in higher learning.
Educators have proven to be the most friendly to “Learning Management System-lite” tools or platforms like Quizlet, Edmodo, Schoology, and Google Classroom. All these tools may be utilized in tracking and assigning online tasks related to blended studying, which in some instances correlates enhanced learner education outcomes. Such platforms have fewer features compared to Learning Management Systems, which dominate higher learning: A small number of ambitious instructors utilize these platforms to provide their learners with complete online courses. Rather, these services are tailored towards the end-users – parents, learners, and instructors – in regard to both ease of utilization and cost. An inquisitive high school or middle school educator might experience these platforms at no cost.
It is for this reason that these platforms are universal. Schoology brags over 20 million users in 130 countries and in 50 states across the United States. Google brands Classroom aims at controlling over 70 million educators and learners who utilize G Suite in learning. Also, Edmodo has over 87 million users. Additionally, half of the high school learners in the United States utilize Quizlet based on the CNBC release.
The rich learning and enormous popularity communities that use these platforms tend to have distorted lines between K-12 as well as higher learning spaces. For instance, a third of United States college learners utilize Quizlet, which faculty might be integrated with an online curriculum employing any of the major four Learning Management Systems. Moreover, Schoology provides both corporate versions and higher education versions of this platform. Additionally, Moodle might be the most common among universities and colleges, but it is accepted by schools looking for a modular, open-source tool that might scale beyond Edmodo and Schoology.
Selecting Your Learning Management Systems
The three Editors’ Choice winners crisscross boundaries between higher and K-12 education. There has been a rise in the rating of Instructure Canvas over the years. Currently, it is among the best platforms offered on the market, thanks to a fresh new interface, extensive integration with other platforms and tools, and native cloud hosting. Also, teachers provide an open-source and bridge (corporate) type of the platform that competes with the second winner of the Editors’ Choice, Moodle. Schoology offers compelling third-choice learners searching for an LMS and a learning social network. Schoology has advanced features that enable administrators to blend it with current platforms and tools.
Nevertheless, the top platform is not necessarily the Editors’ Choice; it is the best to address the requirements of your school. For example, the updated Blackboard Learn has a notable step from the popular brands in the industry due to its cloud-hosted Blackboard Ultra. Notably, D2L Brightspace becomes better every time it is reviewed. Institutions that have an interest in competency-based learning usually opt for Brightspace compared to other winners. Quizlet and Edmodo have attained popularity since they can be added to the existing curriculum easily. Despite the fact that Google Classroom would not substitute a standalone Learning Management System, teachers can consider it as a G Suite for Education, which is the most common learning productivity suite.
Luckily, you do not have to select one platform. The major benefit of the Learning Management System is a change towards greater interoperability through public APIs as well as help to Learning Tools Interoperability, via which managers may link an online platform to a prevailing Student Information Systems (SIS) or Learning Management System (LMS). Learning Tools Interoperability is a major standard for university administrators based on the comparisons. Besides, it is increasingly pervasive, but Google Classroom and Edmodo acks the standard.
The other significant consideration is the inherent web hosting that spares managers from the configuration of servers as well as the self-hosting of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Notably, this is the other aspect that is becoming more popular. Even Blackboard, D2L, and Moodle provide optional hosting through Blackboard Ultra, Brightspace Cloud, as well as MoodleCloud, respectively. Factors like teacher-led training, mobile support, and gamification features have become justly abundant in all types of Learning Management Systems.
Lastly, it is important to note that the clarity of the comparison chart is accompanied by the contextual nuance costs. For instance, even though the base type of Schoology does not support the importation of prevailing, packaged courses, Schoology Enterprise does. Even though Blackboard does not bundle a dedicated e-commerce element, managers might attain such functionality via the voluntary Building Blocks. Due to these reasons, readers are encouraged to go through all reviews.