Since 2016, the Wayne Township Metropolitan School District in Indianapolis has successfully used the itslearning learning management system (LMS) to access digital resources, manage curriculum, and deliver digital assessments and professional development services.
Before switching to the itslearning LMS platform, district leaders had been satisfied with the teacher use of the district’s previous curriculum design platform outside of its LMS. The district had used an LMS since 1999 and had already established two virtual schools and written hundreds of digital courses.
Making the Switch
After seeing how well the itslearning LMS had served Houston ISD, both Pete Just, chief technology officer of Wayne Township, and Judy Stegemann, M.S.D., Wayne’s assistant superintendent for academics, realized the district could meet its long-term LMS goals and expand its use of the LMS by moving its curriculum and assessment system into itslearning and directly tie it to instructional practice and professional collaboration.
The district rebranded their LMS portal to the Wayne Learning Hub and spent the next year working to ensure the system was properly set up and their faculty was fully trained on the new instructional options. Throughout the spring of 2016, teachers made updates to the district curriculum to take full advantage of the system’s personalized learning and electronic assessment capabilities.
The Wayne Learning Hub
With the Wayne Learning Hub, teachers in the district can send assessments to students electronically and easily access the data. This helps teachers to monitor student progress and understanding of specific standards. The LMS even offers the ability to create online professional development and student learning opportunities to address areas that need improvement.
Wayne Township has also favored the platform’s integration with the district’s student information system, which saves teachers the time and energy of manually adding students to the system. Additionally, single sign-on is a feature that saves teachers and students time and keeps them from having to remember multiple logins for digital resources.
Success with an LMS
One of Wayne Township Metropolitan School District’s main goals with the itslearning LMS was ensuring that all students would benefit from the digital learning resources and features offered by the platform. As an urban school district, it was important that the LMS provided equitable access to high-quality digital content, allowing students to take control of their learning.
For their use of the itslearning LMS to support student-centered learning, Wayne Township along with itslearning received a Bronze Medal in the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s 2018 Learning Impact Awards. Their entry in the Established Projects Category, Using LMS Interoperability to Power and Drive Student-Centered Learning, was recognized by the 2018 annual Learning Impact Leadership Institute.
The bronze medal-winning entry highlighted the five key goals of their LMS partnership that ultimately led to success in creating equitable and accessible digital content to support student-centered learning including:
- Curated resources
- Digital community
- Safe, collaborative learning spaces
- Individual learning paths
- Readily available access
