With the COVID-19 (a.k.a. The Coronavirus) affecting so many people everywhere, schools are contemplating temporary closures to help thwart the spread of the virus. Long closures can really be disruptive, and schools are looking for ways to continue providing education for students on the QuickSchools platform while schools are closed. One such way is Online Learning.
Online Learning is typically in the domain of Learning Management Systems (LMS), which has a completely different set of features as compared to a Student Information System (SIS). And we’ve discussed this extensively in previous articles.
Adopting a new LMS can also be challenging, and requires strong commitment for the school. In the long run, adopting an LMS has many benefits, but it also introduces complications to your day-to-day processes. If you do decide on adopting an LMS, we recommend selecting one that readily integrates with QuickSchools. Check out some of of the following systems:
- Canvas: https://blog.quickschools.com/2018/03/02/updated-canvas-integration/
- Schoology: https://blog.quickschools.com/2018/10/04/quickschools-integration-to-schoology/
- Odysseyware: https://blog.quickschools.com/2019/06/27/odysseyware-integration-app/
- Google Classroom: https://blog.quickschools.com/2019/10/28/google-classroom-integration/
However, if you’re looking for a quick-and-easy temporary solution, just to tide you over, you might want to try using our Class Discussions module. QuickSchools is NOT an LMS, but we are slowly developing some basic LMS features for schools that need something simple to use, without necessarily adopting a whole separate program.
For example, you can post homework assignments, links and videos to a particular class/subject, and students can interact with other members of the class via a chat-like interface.
Teachers can select a class that they’re teaching, and review/post comments from all students. Teachers can also send out an email notification when a thread/topic is created:
Students can review/comment on posts from all subjects in glance. All threads and comments are arranged in chronological order. Each thread is labelled to indicate which subject it’s for:
Still missing from our feature set is the ability to upload homework assignments. This is something we’re seriously considering as a future improvement. As an interim solution, you could try using our Private Messaging module and allow students to send/submit homework assignments (i.e file attachments) to their respective subject teachers:
If there are other LMS features that you’d like to see in QuickSchools that you think would be beneficial to your school, please let us know. So far, we’ve received suggestions for live streaming or screen sharing (like a webinar). We’re open to suggestions.
Thank you for using QuickSchools, and we look forward to hearing from you over chat and email.
Stay safe!
[…] working on improving server performance, as more and more schools start relying on QuickSchools for Online Learning. Here are the latest […]
[…] more and more schools require students to log online to access homework assignments, schools will want to monitor students logging into their […]
[…] to the high demand from schools needing to implement Online Learning, we’ll be focusing the next several releases on improvements related to Learning Management (like […]
[…] whose services we use for our mailing servers.In today’s climate, as more and more schools employ online tools to provide learning materials online, there is more demand for larger files to be shared with […]
[…] Class Discussion – When posting messaging to the Class Discussions board, teachers can include an email notification to student and parents linked to the subject/course. […]
[…] more and more schools relying on QuickSchools to deliver online learning, we’re introducing a few new features in the coming months, the first of which is the new WYSIWYG […]
[…] environment. In addition to improved integration to Google Classroom, we are also developing our own online learning tools, like Homework Submissions, and Online Grading. We hope to release these new features over the […]
[…] mentioned in recent articles, our current focus for the near term will be on online learning. We believe this is something that most schools will need, as students are forced to stay home for […]
[…] students are not at school, you can use the Class Discussion module to discuss learning topics online. Share pictures, links and files. The Student Portal is a […]
[…] the strong push for online learning given the current pandemic, we’re working on building a few basic LMS features, for schools that […]
[…] In our last release, we gave you a sneak peak of our upcoming improvements to the QuickSchools Homework / Assignments module. We know schools need to adapt with the changing times, and so we’re beefing up our Online Learning capabilities. […]
[…] focus for this most recent release has been mainly to do with our Learning Management or Online Learning capability. This includes our ability to integrate with external LMS, as well as building our own […]
[…] be building a similar capability for the Student Portal too, as part of our efforts to enhance our Online Learning […]
[…] System (LMS). However, there has always been some overlap (i.e. Gradebook). But given the changing times, and a strong need for all schools to have an online learning capability, we’ve decided to beef […]
[…] We’ve added the ability for teachers and students to chat directly on an assignment (similar to Class Discussions): […]
[…] is just one of the many ways teachers can engage parents/students (in addition to Mass Messaging, Class Discussions and Homework / Assignments). Notice the new mail icon on the top right corner of the […]
[…] Class Discussions […]
[…] Class Discussions […]
[…] “Class Discussion” feature (part of the “Homework” and “Assignments” modules) is a great way to discuss […]
[…] Class Discussions – Discuss/Chat with all students in your class, in a group setting […]