{"id":1029,"date":"2018-12-15T14:27:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T14:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2024-04-21T15:00:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T15:00:48","slug":"learning-management-systems-lms-k-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2018\/12\/15\/learning-management-systems-lms-k-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Management Systems (LMS) – K-12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In my last two posts, I talked about the popular online learning and behavior management systems of Google Classroom<\/em><\/a> and ClassDojo<\/em><\/a>.  In this post, I’m going to delve a little further into Learning Management Systems (LMS) for the K-12 education market. Whether you’re an online teacher with 1:1 students, or operate a network of schools, there’s likely a Learning Management System that will meet your faculty and student needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learning management systems (LMS) are software platforms for instructors to manage and organize educational courses online and provide students a single location for all course material. 
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If you enroll in or plan to teach an online higher education class, it’s highly probable you’ll interact with an LMS platform. Some courses integrate online work and in-person courses.  Others are fully online and rely on a mix of real-time and pre-recorded lectures, activities, and assessments.  There are also free online courses with unlimited participation known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC); <\/a>educational programs that rely on intermediary software for managing content and interactions for millions<\/em> of participants.  For those of us old enough to remember mail-in correspondence courses, welcome to the 21st century!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance education was the driving force in the early development of LMS platforms with institutions like The Open University and NKI Distance Education Network.  Blackboard Learn<\/em> in the late 1990s and D2L (Desire to Learn) Brightspace<\/em> in the early 2000s were early pioneers of e-learning platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, K-12 adoption of LMS platforms faces a unique set of challenges. School districts tend to embrace online education via in-person instruction with a combination of paper-based and digital work often referred to as a blended<\/em> classroom.  Unlike tertiary education, teachers, rather than administrators, are driving the adoption of digital tools and platforms.  LMS-lite platforms such as Google Classroom<\/em>, Schoology<\/em>, Edmodo<\/em>, and Quizlet<\/em> have made significant inroads into primary classrooms with the important factors of cost, safe access, interoperability, and ease of use determining adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are brief descriptions and introductory videos for some of the bigger players.  Many of the systems are free or offer a freemium<\/em> business model for teachers and students to sign up and get started.  For schools and school districts, integration can come with a hefty price tag.  It’s also interesting to note that many of the more extensive reviews I found online were not from the education sector, but software and financial media, e.g., PC Magazine<\/em><\/a> and Forbes Magazine<\/em><\/a>.  With e-learning expected to become a $325 billion dollar industry by 2025, we’re talking BIG business in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Schoology<\/a> Focus on K-12.  Integrated with BrainPop, Google Drive, Khan Academy, YouTube, Nearpod, McGraw Hill, and many more.  School administrators can request a demo for pricing for schools and district-wide LMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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