Best Practices in Using LMSs

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today, we are going to be looking at some of the best practices when using LMSs, or learning management systems. For today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by the Buddha which states "There is no wealth like knowledge and no poverty like ignorance." And as always, as we are looking at these new technologies to use in the classroom, it's really helpful to take a look at some of the best practices, so that when you are using them, you are fully knowledgeable. By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to identify the best practices involved in using learning management systems.

So let's go ahead and take a look at some of these best practices. In terms of the best practices for learning management system selection, first and foremost, you're going to want to make sure that you consider the time to really implement this system and also the time that it will be involved in training for this system. It's great to get to the biggest and the best, but if it's going to take an exceptional amount of time to use it and to train for it, then it's really not going to help aid in your educational practices and those of the other teachers in your school community.

You're going to want to make sure that you consider the flexibility of the system, looking at your ability to customize various elements to make sure you're meeting the needs of each and every learner and student in your classroom. You also want to make sure that the flexibility helps to meet your instructional needs, and that you are able then to report out all of the data that you need to help meet the needs of the administrators in your building as well as the various people working for your district. The flexibility and ease of use is exceptionally important.

Finally, when you're looking at LMS selection, you're going to want to make sure that you have the opportunity to try out that system before you have to commit to it. Make sure that you are giving yourself the chance, especially if you are choosing a system for your entire district or a system that requires an exceptional amount of funding in order to use it, that you are absolutely sure it's what you want not just on paper, but also in practice.

Next, let's take a look at some of the best practices when it comes to learning management systems use by teachers. First and foremost, a best practice as a teacher is to make sure that you are well organized, that you are using that LMS to help aid in your classroom organization, and that you are directing your students to all of the key documents and important resources, so that they are able to stay organized in all of their resources and tools that are available on that LMS.

You want to make sure that that online space is clear and again, aiding in the educational process rather than making it more confusing. One really good way of ensuring this is making sure that you are avoiding using multiple learning management systems. You are going to really only want to stick to one. If you do end up going to like a duality approach, make sure that you have one major or predominant elements, and that the other ones are really just minor and supplementary.

Another best practice is making sure that the LMS helps to aid in collaboration and community engagement within your classroom. You want to use different tools that are available like the announcements elements or the discussion boards, ways that you can help use that elements to build the collaboration and the community within your classroom. Do not allow these digital tools to isolate your students.

Finally, you're going to want to make sure that as you as the teacher are using the learning management system, that you continue to review the analytics that are embedded within that system, helping to make sure that you are creating action steps and decisions as you move forward in your teaching practices. Once you have the LMS in place, make sure you use all of the things that are available to you as a teacher to really help individualize the education for each and every one of your students.

Finally, as you are using that LMS, it's important to look at the best practices when it comes to customer support and help. No matter how well you understand a system or how easily it's set up, there's always going to come a moment when you are going to need assistance.

So it's important when you are considering selecting a learning management system, that you ask yourself a couple of questions about their customer support and their help. First and foremost, you want to know can I reach customer service easily? Can I get to them through email or through even the LMS website? Can I contact them by phone if I need someone to verbally explain something to me? Do they have a chat or instant messaging software? Are there multiple ways in which I can receive help with any sort of problems I might be having with the system?

You also want to ask are there customer service representatives available? Perhaps people that are actually available for on sites visits for assistance in various issues, or even on the front end, people who can come in for training to help ease in that implementation of the various LMS software that you are looking at. If they're not available, how great of an impact is that going to have on your specific teaching environment?

Finally, you want to know are there other forms of tech support that are available? Are there organizations and lists serves or forums that are available for you to do a quick search of to get those immediate answers for tiny glitches, so that you don't have to stop class and call someone up, or stop class or what you're doing to take time to chat it out. Are there various online or other forms of tech support that you can easily access?

Now that we've finished the lesson, you are able to identify some of the best practices involved in selecting and using that learning management system. Before we end, I would like to take just a moment for reflection. Now that you have learned about some of the best practices when it comes to using learning management systems, what do you think would be the first best practice that you would want to make sure that you include as a part of your teaching techniques? Feel free to pause the video for just a moment as you think about your answer to this question.

For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the Additional Resources section that accompanies the video presentation. The Additional Resources section includes hyperlinks that are useful for applications of course material, including a brief description of each available resource. That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.