Educators Say 'Meh' to School LMS Choice

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/05/21

According to a recent survey, while nearly nine in 10 schools have adopted a learning management system that every teacher is supposed to use, fondness for functionality is hit-and-miss. While 85% of respondents said their schools have adopted an LMS, only two-thirds (64%) reported being satisfied with the current choice.

The survey collected responses from 173 K-12 education professionals, including administrators, technology directors, principals and teachers. The project, done in May 2021, was a joint effort of Edsby, which produces an LMS, and marketing and PR firm C. Blohm & Associates.

Exactly half (50%) of survey participants said they were "satisfied" or "most satisfied" with the classroom management functionality of the program, including being able to set up classes and students automatically; print class rosters and seating plans; and facilitate live video conferencing, whiteboarding and chat.

A higher share (58%) said they were satisfied and most satisfied with the course content functionality, including being able to produce or import content with multimedia; centrally manage course models for reuse; and generate an audit trail of changes to course content.

Similarly, 57% of respondents said they were fairly happy with the assessment capabilities of their LMS: creating, customizing and grading tests in various formats; getting support inside the LMS for setting up assessments; and being able to capture and tag evidence of learning through formative artifacts, such as audio or video.

In the area of group collaboration functionality — the use of mandatory staff moderators, the ability to set up collaborative areas that can be viewed by school personnel; and an option to auto-assign users to groups based on role or grade — 54% of people reported being satisfied or most satisfied.

Just 44% of people said they were happy with reporting capabilities of the official LMS, such as the ability to push report cards digitally directly from the LMS or share learning artifacts with parents.

Parent outreach was one area where the largest share of respondents (33%) was most satisfied. Another 25% were satisfied. This category encompassed the ability to give parents and guardians logins, 24/7 access, and "instant" grade or attendance alerts.

While overall happiness with the respective LMS was 64%, according to Edsby, 85% of its own customers gave its platform high marks.

"As schools and districts plan for a mix of remote and in-person learning this fall, it's important that educators know and trust their LMS platforms," said John Myers, Edsby CEO, in a prepared statement. "A strong LMS platform makes all the difference."

A report with results is openly available on the Edsby website.