Remote school, e-learning, virtual classrooms, hybrid or distance learning— whichever way you look at it, the future (and let’s admit it, the present as well) of learning is more flexible than ever. There’s nothing we can do about this natural shift toward the digital, but one thing we can do is make sure our school districts, educators and students are equipped with the best resources out there so they can stay focused on what is important: education.

Learning management systems (LMS)— e-learning software that provides schools with administrative, documentation, educational, training and developmental tools— are not anything new. They have been around for years now and in 2019 it was estimated that there were over 73 million LMS users in the world. The difference is that now, learning management systems are no longer a bonus tool that allows teachers and students to connect on a virtual level, but a vital component of any functional hybrid or distance learning classroom environment.

Thanks to the widespread embrace of education technology and remote communication and collaboration tools, remote and hybrid learning is here to stay. To set yourself and your students up for success this year, read on for a rundown of the top learning management systems for schools in 2021.

Using Learning Management Systems for Schools

Although learning management systems seem like they were designed specifically to support distance learning, many industries have caught on to the extensive remote communication, collaboration and organization benefits of using a LMS and have integrated them into their standard practices. The inherent multifunctionality of LMSs lends itself to a variety of uses in, out and around the modern flexible classroom such as:

  • Maintaining attendance records
  • Storing grades
  • Calculating grade point averages
  • Managing curricula and eLearning coursework
  • Editing and sharing professional development modules and resources
  • Performing professional evaluations
  • Collaborating on remote and hybrid coursework
  • Video conferencing through LMS integrations
  • Asynchronous and synchronous communication and collaboration
  • Educational coursework, modules, materials and other resources
  • Deploy and track online learning initiatives

Learning Management System Benefits

Your chosen LMS will only be as useful as you allow it to be. Depending on your classroom type— fully remote, hybrid, distance learning— you can customize your learning management system and your use of it to fit the needs of your classroom and students. You can even stick with the same LMS year to year and tweak your use of it along the way to fit changing class sizes, classroom type and any other obstacle that needs navigating. 

Learning Management System benefits include:

  • Consolidation— a primary benefit of LMSs is that they allow you to keep a wide range of educational tools and resources in one central location, simplifying overall classroom organization practices
  • Easy access— when you choose to keep all of your resources in a central hub, students and educators alike can retire the headache of having to keep track of logins and information for multiple online learning tools
  • Virtual lesson building— for educators who may have a difficult time adjusting to virtual learning materials, many LMS offer lesson plan templates and similar resources to aide in easy digital lesson creation
  • Collaboration—  remote and hybrid collaboration so students can easily connect with one another for group projects and every day virtual classroom teamwork
  • Increased engagement— we all know how difficult it can be to engage students in a virtual classroom, especially students who are new to eLearning, with the plethora of quizzes and educational games provided by many LMSs you won’t have to worry about keeping your students engaged in classroom activities any longer
  • Digital memory/organized digital library— with the right LMS, collaboration is also available between educators who can easily share educational materials and resources from current and past years to one another
  • Assessments— many LMSs include an assessment tool that allows educators to create assessments to gauge student progress and the really intuitive ones even include recommendations based on the outcome of the assessments
  • Automation— once you input all student grades into one source your LMS can calculate final grades for you, other automate administrative tasks that many LMSs offer is report generation and attendance tracking
  • Caregiver involvement— for students who need caregiver support, you can provide caregiver login codes to allow parents to oversee homework and track their children’s progress independently
  • Accessibility— like any modern technology, the more accessible the software, the better. The vast majority of LMSs can be accessed from any device, at any time, giving students and teachers the opportunity to #LFA (Learn From Anywhere)

 

Top Learning Management Systems 2021

Think of your LMS as an educational Swiss Army knife. They have the potential to be used in a seemingly endless variety of ways and can be tailored to fit just about any of your educational needs. However, unlike a Swiss Army knife, learning management systems are not one size fits all. Instead, you’ll need to analyze your classrooms specific needs and choose the right LMS for your learning environment.

As a bonus, all of these featured LMS support video conferencing integrations, so you can easily hook up your smart video camera of choice (personally, we’re partial to the Meeting Owl) and start connecting in no time.

TalentLMS

talentlms learning management system for schools

Source: TalentLMS

This award winning LMS was designed to support online learning. Offering multiple compatible native and third-party integration opportunities, as well as an intuitive internal training hub, TalentLMS was made for our increasingly flexible times.

TovutiLMS

tovutilms learning management system for schools

Source: TovutiLMS

As soon as you get started working with TovutiLMS you’ll realize why it is consistently ranked as the #1 online learning LMS. By incorporating the best aspects of both asynchronous and synchronous educational, communication, and collaboration resources this platform allows educators to create engaging virtual lessons for students of all ages and capabilities.

Adobe Captivate Prime

adobe captivate prime learning management system for schools

Source: Adobe Captivate Prime

Speaking of integrations, the latest LMS offering from Adobe is a comprehensive virtual learning tool that includes integrations with all of the leading video conferencing solutions including BlueJeans and Zoom. Oh, and did we mention that Adobe Captivate Prime was also awarded as the Top Cloud-Based LMS for 2021 by eLearning Industry?

Google Classroom

google classroom learning management system for schools

Source: Google Classroom

A familiar name you can trust, Google Classroom serves as one of the preemptive LMSs to be directly created to support online learning. As a highly user-friendly LMS, Google Classroom can easily be used by students of all ages and teachers of all different levels of tech-savviness.

Schoology

Source: Schoology

Speaking of LMS designed to support educational success, Schoology has been in the virtual classroom business for over a decade now, providing them with ample time to perfect the educational LMS lifestyle. And with over 200 unique integrations available, Schoology is one of the more customizable LMS options out there today.

Learning management systems are a necessary tool for any successful hybrid or distance learning environment. The best ones help teachers to teach better and help students to learn at the top of their potential. For more info on how to create a sustainable, effective hybrid classroom, here is How to Setup a Hybrid + Flexible “HyFlex” School Environment.