LearnBoost is a completely free online class management system that consists of a group of apps to manage a single classroom or a whole school. The apps can help manage grade books, lesson plans, class roster, seating plan, schedules and attendance. LearnBoost is primarily designed for teachers, but the grades and attendance part of the system can also be used by students and parents, which is a great way for students to evaluate themselves, and parents to keep an eye on their children’s performance on a daily basis. LearnBoost’s interface is easy to use and provides complete control over every option there is. The web application has much to offer, so we will briefly go through its salient features.
Signup is completely free and can be done using a Facebook or Google account as well. During the registration process, the web app asks you to specify the kind of account you require (Teacher, Student or Parent). Teachers start by logging in and creating a class, providing the information like class name, subject, course number, school session, start and end date, grade level, maximum number of students and a brief description. This information is editable by the teacher at any time. The bar at the top allows teachers to navigate to their accounts’ settings, view their portfolio of lessons, create a new lesson and view/add events to the calendar.
Under each class created, there are four main tabs, Administration, Gradebook, Attendance and Reporting. It is from within the Administration tab that teachers can view and edit basic class info, the class roster, seating plan, schedule and policy, and can choose what information will be accessible by students and their parents.
The Gradebook tab lets the teacher easily input students’ grades for assignments and quizzes separately, and automatically calculates the final grade for each student. The grade scale used for calculations can be edited according to the school’s policy.
The Attendance section, as its name suggests, can be used by teachers to log student attendance. The special thing about LearnBoost’s attendance menu is that, in addition to the conventional list view, it shows students’ names in a chart laid out according to the seating plan, making it easier for the teacher to mark students absent or tardy.
The Reporting tab displays a detailed graphical representation of all the stats for grades, assignments and attendance, making it easier for the teachers to assess the disciplinary and academic progress of the entire class or individual students (Student view).
Now, let’s see take a look at what LearnBoost offers parents and students. Students, after logging in, can select a class to view its grade and attendance information, and print it out if required. Basic information regarding the teacher and class policy is displayed in the right column.
The parents account has options almost identical to those found in the student account. It shows their children’s grades and attendance for every class they take.
LearnBoost is a very good way to manage things around a school. All the features it provides to teachers, students and parents are very practical and easy to employ, and its being completely free is a huge bonus. If I ever think about starting a teacher’s career, I’ll be sure to remember using LearnBoost to make my life easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment