4 Must-Have Folders for Your Learning Management System
These four folders will help new and veteran teachers clearly communicate the class organization and expectations to students and their families.
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Learning management systems (LMS), such as Schoology and Blackboard, offer numerous benefits to educators, students, and parents. From storing documents to aligning state standards to assessments, they provide numerous ways to enrich learning in the classroom. But are you truly maximizing the potential of this educational tool? If you are looking to boost the effectiveness of your LMS, four folders improve organization, communication, and create transparency.
To effectively implement a LMS, it should be updated weekly. This gives educators the option to run a hybrid class or a traditional class with paper and pencil. New educators and veteran teachers can appreciate this, as it gives them another way to engage learners and communicate with students and parents.
4 Folders Every LMS Should Have
1. Start Here folder. There is something special about the start of the new school year. For students, it offers the hope of a fresh start and new experiences. Keep that momentum going and set students up for success by creating a folder with all of the material students need to get started.
A Start Here folder welcomes students to your class and provides accessibility to important documents and materials. Handouts such as a syllabus, class schedule, and basic expectations will communicate what every student needs to know to successfully complete the course.
To add a special touch to your Start Here folder, consider placing a video that welcomes students to your class. This video can be an opportunity to showcase your passion for your subject and the excitement you have for a new year.
2. Resources folder. A Resources folder can play an invaluable part in your learning management system. If the folder is created correctly, it will offer learners a centralized location where supplemental materials are housed and easily accessible. For example, our English teachers utilize a Resources folder for writing tips. This folder is filled with items such as grammar rules, sentence structure examples, graphic organizers, and anything else that will help students improve their writing skills.
It can even be used as a digital anchor chart. For example, as students are editing their rough drafts on their devices, they can pull up transition words from their Resources folder and choose the appropriate words for their essay. This not only helps them with the assignment but also helps them remember the concept because they are interacting with it.
Resources folders help with scaffolding as well. Students can pull up a graphic organizer to give them extra support when they write an argumentative essay. As the year progresses, the teacher can alter the organizer, slowly removing sections. Keep important reference materials at your students’ fingertips by incorporating a Resources folder in your LMS.
3. Monthly and Weekly folders. A learning management system can be difficult for students and parents to navigate because they didn’t create it, and so they can have trouble understanding the logic and easily locating the material they need. The student also has other instructors, all of whom have most likely formatted their courses differently. It’s easy to see how one can get lost in the digital world of links, folders, and files.
As an administrator, I have received emails and calls from frustrated parents who can’t help their child with an assignment because the course material is so disorganized. To keep your learning management system from looking like a jumbled mess, try this logical solution.
Because most schools are divided into four nine-week sessions, create one folder for each nine weeks. Within each Nine Weeks folder, subdivide it again into weeks and days. Finish off the folder by labeling them with the appropriate dates. No need to worry about confusing assignment dates or projects, as most learning management systems send reminders of when items are due and where to submit them. Designing your LMS in this way will ensure that no one gets lost and students learn. If you are going to have assignments on your LMS, make sure students and parents can find it. After all, the goal of a LMS is to improve learning, not cause anyone to become irritated.
4. Daily Agenda folder. To increase communication and create transparency with parents and students, add a Daily Agenda folder to your LMS. A Daily Agenda folder will let all stakeholders know what is going on in the class day-to-day. Think of this folder as a digital journal entry. Simply write your agenda in a Google Doc and upload it to the daily folder.
This folder will create several advantages for your class. First, it will decrease the number of unnecessary questions from your students, which leads to a calmer start to class. Instead of students walking into class and asking, “What are we doing today,” they can check the Daily Agenda folder. Second, parents will appreciate this folder, as it lets them keep up with all the wonderful things you are doing in class. They can use your Daily Agenda folder to start conversations with their child about topics they have been learning in school. It can also help students who were absent easily catch up with work. Because students are not bound by the brick-and-mortar building, they can check the folder at any time and get a quick overview of what was covered that day.
Students and parents will need guidance during the school year. Creating an organized learning management system with key folders will provide students and parents the resources they need to have a successful year.