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How to keep parents engaged in school activities using an LMS

A key aspect of the wellbeing of students is the involvement of parents in their academic life. Parents need to be aware of what is happening with their children in school, how they are progressing in classes, and they need to communicate with teachers frequently. Parents can get really busy with day to day activities, and may struggle sometimes to keep up with how their children are doing in school. That’s where technology can offer a helping hand.

Many schools are now using an LMS (learning management system) for online classroom activities, so why not involve parents as well? An LMS is a great way for parents to contact teachers, check their children's grades, and stay connected with everything that is happening in school.


Read more: Best practices for supporting parents with remote learning


How to keep parents engaged in school activities using an LMS

There are many platforms available nowadays that provide parent accounts with plenty of great features tailored to this audience. Here are some ways in which you could take advantage of the school LMS to engage parents and make them part of the school community:

Instant insights on student progress

An LMS encourages parents to become more involved in academic activities by providing quick access to important insights into the academic progress of their children. Parents can instantly see in the platform details about student activity within classes and groups, any awards or certificates received, their grades, their attendance records, and more.

Using the LMS, parents become more proactive about their children’s education and be the first to find out important school-related information. For example, parents have access to information such as assignment deadlines, dates for upcoming school events, deadlines for submitting important papers to school, and so on.


Read more: Keeping parents in the loop with edtech


Effective communication between parents and teachers

An LMS makes it simple for parents to stay in touch with teachers. Parents can easily send direct messages to teachers and administrators directly from the platform. In these times, when everyone is busy, being able to use technology to support teacher-parent communication is very useful.

If the LMS allows it, schools can use automation to send custom notifications to parents. By setting a simple flow, teachers can send, for example, automatic notifications to the parent, whenever a student completes a class, receives an award, receives a low score on an assignment, and more. Parents enjoy receiving regular updates and this helps keep everything transparent.

Building a community for parents

A great way of getting parents more engaged in school activities is to build a group for them within the LMS where they can connect with fellow parents and faculty. Having an outlet where they can exchange ideas and express concerns about their children will make them feel part of a community with the same goals and interests.

You can do this by creating a group dedicated to parents within the platform. This can either be an informal group just for parents to share ideas, but you can also have a separate group where teachers and administrators are included. To make sure that parents have access to these groups, use automation to enroll them when their LMS account is created.

Get parents to use the LMS

The LMS is not just a tool for teachers and students. Parents can also benefit from using the school LMS and it’s a great way for them to put themselves in their children’s shoes, by familiarizing themselves with a tool that students use daily in the classroom.

A good example is to create online courses specifically for parents. Schools can put together short courses for parents on various topics and deliver them through the LMS. Maybe you want to do a micro class with tips on how parents can support their children during exam times, a class on how to work with children to improve their grades or training on how to communicate effectively with teachers. Parents can also use the LMS digital library to share files, videos, and other important items that need to be sent securely to teachers and school administration.


Read more: How edtech boosts parent engagement in schools


Wrapping up

These are just a few ways in which the school LMS can be used to engage parents. Using technology to set up an interlinked ecosystem between the school, students, and their parents, where there is regular communication and transparency, requires just a bit of effort at the beginning and the right platform to support this. However, doing this will make a positive difference for everyone involved.

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