PowerSchool Dashboard Helps Teachers Track Student Online Participation
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/18/20
One
education technology company is using the data generated by online
student activity to try to help teachers keep their kids on track.
PowerSchool
announced "Unified Insights Student Learning," a program
that combines data from its student information system, PowerSchool,
with its learning management system, Schoology.
The dashboard offers educators a bigger view of student behaviors and
interactions with their online classes.
According
to the company, the Schoology LMS has seen a 400 percent increase in
student interactions--more than a trillion--in the last seven weeks,
compared to last year. That included 145 million assessments, as well
as more usage of course materials, assignments and discussions.
Overall, however, just over half of students (52 percent) have
participated in those online activities run through the LMS.
The
new dashboard is intended to show LMS adoption levels, engagement and
the effectiveness of distance learning initiatives at a district,
school, grade, course and student level.
The
company said that the integration with the SIS data will help
district officials identify gaps in equity, access or distance
learning engagement by demographics, socio-economic level and special
education status. The goal: to identify at-risk students and do
intervention planning.
"We've
never before had the ability to combine LMS data with core SIS data
in this way including ethnicity, attendance, [individualized
education program] status, health information, standards mastery and
more. Being able to visualize these trends in the data...will be
critical as we close this academic year and look toward the next,
ensuring we keep kids on track," said Tony Harvey, CIO of
Muncie Community Schools, in a statement. "This is data I need
and would use all the time to help students reach their potential,
not just in this time of the COVID-19 crisis."
PowerSchool
Unified Insights Student Learning will be available initially on Jun.
1, 2020 to customers who have both Schoology Learning and PowerSchool
SIS. A demonstration of the new dashboard is available with
registration on
the PowerSchool website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.