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Challenges in Adoption of LMS by team members in schools
While the LMS providers can lay out the benefits, not much can be achieved without the push from senior management of schools & institutions
The covid-19 pandemic has led to forced adoption of learning management systems in schools and institutions. But there are multiple challenges faced by the academic and administrative team which has built reluctance in adhering to the shift. The first and the most important point that needs to be recognized by companies building LMS is that the team working in schools & other academic institutions are not necessarily from the IT background or technical enthusiasts. While they portray extraordinary skills in managing the educational environment, working with digital systems isn?t even expected of them when considered for joining.
Thorough training and demos - Thorough understanding, training and demos are a must while setting up LMS so that the stakeholders become advocates of the system itself. In order to provide a successful training experience, it is crucial for LMS providers to first identify where they need to start. A one solution fits all approach is not practical in the course of the training program. They need to be on the same page with regards to not just roles and processes but the functioning of the modern computing systems. What seems like basic to one may not be known to the other.
Reluctance - By virtue of nature, inertia is an inherent property thus making transition to a new way of doing things a little bumpy. Here lies the role of senior management of schools / institutions to promote & build need & acceptance of LMS. While the LMS providers can lay out the benefits of the tools and automations, not much can be achieved without the push from senior management of schools & institutions. Like any other sector, the introduction of automation in regular operations creates a fear of being replaced by it while this is not true. LMS aims to take care of the mundane tasks and act as a helping hand to team members, not a replacement. This belief again can be instilled by school management only.
Expectations vs reality - Learning management systems currently aid at building transparency and automating routine tasks which are aligned to a defined process. Educational teams enjoy the benefits of data processing, analysis and reporting. This has built some expectations specially around the idea of bulk. If it is done by a piece of code, do it with a single click ? this often comes up in discussions between LMS providers and academic team members and here lies the gap. The expectation of instant materialization and development of automation around tasks which are not well defined creates a bit of a problem where both the sides of the table need to understand or at least empathize with complexity of systems in physical and digital world.