If you’re a public school leader, you want to see your students succeed. Unfortunately, there have long been obstacles standing between your students and advanced learning outcomes.
Now, online learning is emerging as an effective tool to help public schools cover the gaps in education and drive deeper learning.
Wondering how?
In this article, we explore online learning and examine how the latest online learning platforms could be the best solution for public schools.
There’s plenty of room for improvement in the public school space. Luckily, by identifying some of the most immediate threats to public learning, it’s possible to chart a course to more in-depth learning. Here are some areas in which traditional public schools are struggling in the U.S.:
Overcrowded classrooms: Unfortunately, many public schools across the nation are simply overcrowded. Overcrowding puts extra pressure on instructors and leaves many students without the attention they need.
Dwindling performance: Simply put, performance is suffering in public schools. In fact, the most recent National Report Card revealed that only around a third of eighth graders are proficient in reading and math.
A lack of personalization: In the traditional public school setting, teachers can’t always meet with students on a personalized level. When students don’t receive personalized attention, they fall behind, lose interest in schooling, and miss out on learning opportunities.
Information chaos: Administrators, counselors, and other education leaders need easy access to information in order to improve student learning. However, chaotic online information systems and manual data entry make it difficult for leaders to do their jobs. Especially as education pros pick up subpar online learning systems, they’re being met with additional stress and confusion.
Public schools have long been toying with the idea of picking up online learning to fill the gaps in education. Of course, COVID-19 has accelerated the move to online learning, but the wheels toward online learning have been turning for years.
More and more, as schools look to online learning solutions, their true potential for plugging the holes in traditional learning is shining through.
More than ever, online learning is positioned to fill in the gaps in public school learning and push education forward. Here are a few benefits the right online learning programs have to offer public schools.
Most education pros understand that more targeted learning inspires positive student growth. Unfortunately, traditional public schools often have to decide between delivering focused attention and keeping excess pressure off of education leaders.
Online learning is able to bridge that gap. For instance, some online learning programs will adjust to the learner’s needs, allowing them to learn at their own pace. At the same time, online platforms that integrate with intuitive software, such as Zoom, make it easier for instructors to give learners the one-on-one attention they need.
When it comes to online learning, your school’s learning management system (LMS) has the potential to spark learning and drive continual progress. Still, if the online learning provider you choose gives you a clunky LMS, it will only hold up progress. Here are some advanced LMS features that can help public schools and students realize better education outcomes:
When it comes to online learning, it’s easy for a school’s student information system (SIS) to get overlooked. However, it plays a critical role if you want your school to make learning strides. In online learning, education leaders need to be able to access information and use it to make progress.
Now, advanced online learning platforms are building programs that simplify the information management process. For instance, SmartFox has designed a SIS+LMS integration that allows information to flow from multiple systems into a single data hub. Here’s how this setup improves the lives of different education leaders and sparks progress:
Curriculum is the engine that drives positive learning outcomes. Especially in online learning, curriculum needs to be engaging yet flexible. Unfortunately, with so many online learning companies flooding the market, it’s not always easy to know what to look for in quality online curriculum.
The cost?
In online education, your curriculum can affect everything from your school’s accreditation status and reputation to the number of students and parents it attracts.
As public schools explore online learning, it’s important to ask a few questions about an online curriculum:
Online learning can be a powerful solution for public schools, but it’s important that the system makes learning easier, not more difficult. The right online learning systems will lift the burden off of all education leaders, including IT pros. Advanced systems now make it possible to make educational progress without causing problems for the IT team.
For instance, SmartFox K12’s integrated systems free up IT staff members because they don’t have to waste time pasting together incompatible programs. In turn, those IT pros’ days are freed up, so they can focus on improving all of the school’s technology.
With the right online learning system, public schools can spark even more meaningful learning outcomes without the frustrations that come with implementing new online learning plans.
Ready to see how SmartFox K12’s online learning platform can help your team reach their goals? Schedule your walkthrough today!