LMS Accessibility and Inclusivity : A Key Factor for Indian Education

06 Sept 2023

Education is the most crucial way to elevate oneself, providing the ultimate pathway to learning skills and gaining knowledge. However, inadequate and unequal education structure prevents children from accessing educational opportunities.

Children with disabilities and those from diverse socio-economic backgrounds are primarily the ones who encounter major issues. Therefore, institutes must take the necessary measures to ensure equitable access to education for all children through tools like a learning management system.

Let’s find LMS accessibility and inclusivity a critical factor in Indian Education

1. Adaptive Learning Approach

"One-dimensional and exam-centric" are the two words that we can use to describe the traditional educational system that has existed for a long time. Although it served its purpose, it did not provide a holistic learning experience for ‘’all students’’.

It might have been easy for those who are capable of grasping concepts faster than slow learners. But what is the point of education if it does not cater to the learning needs of everyone, irrespective of their understanding levels and abilities?

That is where the LMS can make a difference in terms of facilitating an adaptive learning system, enabling teachers to create personalised learning plans through the following ways:

• Designing the learning and teaching sessions according to the individual learning levels.
• Developing classroom sessions that adhere to the principles of universal design for learning( UDL), helping to create a responsive, flexible learning environment.
• Motivating learners to present the learning content in different ways; for instance, they can choose video or pictorial formats to complete their assignments.
• Besides, giving the freedom to choose tools and formats that suit their abilities and preferences allows them to explore, discover and create without hesitation.

2. Inclusive Educational System

Not being able to type words on the keyboard or having eyesight issues can hinder learners from obtaining information. Fortunately, the system comes with integrated features and functionalities, ensuring convenient user access.

Furthermore, what makes the best LMS software in India lies in the accessibility features such as :

• Text-to-speech and Speech-to-text - The former allows learners to convert text into spoken audio, while the latter allows them to convert speech into text.
• Screen Readers - It allows visually impaired students to read or learn the text on the computer screen via automated speech.
• Screen Magnifiers - It allows users to enlarge the text or objects on a computer screen.
• Contrast Settings - It allows learners to adjust the colour and tone of the user interface as per the requirement.
• Language Translation Settings - It allows the user to translate the educational content from English to any local language.

The software’s accessibility features ensure that students with disabilities can access, create and edit learning content. Besides, NEP 2020 pointed out that one of its objectives is to provide equal educational opportunities to all children with special needs.

The software plays a significant role in enabling schools to establish inclusive educational culture through infrastructural support. Also, they can make corresponding changes to the curriculum and pedagogy to cater to the needs.

3. Varied Assessment Alternatives

We put a lot of stress on examinations, and rightly so because it helps to assess student learning. However, the paper-and-pen method is not relevant or appropriate for differently abled students; that is where alternative assessment methods are useful.

The LMS software provides varied mechanisms for continuous assessments, allowing teachers to monitor their progress and identify specific problem areas. For example, be it through text-to-speech or vice versa, teachers can use it to conduct their knowledge assessment.

Moreover, the software allows them to provide timely feedback and intervention according to the student’s performance. On the other hand, students can also send their feedback on the ongoing lessons and express their thoughts. Hence, teachers can make suitable adjustments.

4. Reduce Drop-out Rate

Will India ever succeed in overcoming the learning gaps and substandard education quality? The question is relevant, especially when the quality of education comes into question. There is a stark difference between the educational approaches we find in cities and towns and in remote villages.

Many underlying factors go into the instructional practices; understanding them and figuring out appropriate mitigative strategies is crucial. Therefore, the new educational policy is a great initiative to introduce adequate changes.

Furthermore, one of the most important issues has been the drop-out rates. According to the official reports of 2021-22 dropout rate at the secondary level in 2021–22 was 20.46% in Bihar, 17.85% in Gujarat, 20.3% in Assam, 16.7% in Andhra Pradesh, 17.2% in Punjab, 21.7% in Meghalaya and 14.6% in Karnataka.

The learning management system is an advanced ed-tech solution that helps the institute track academic and overall performance and attendance. Consequently, it can help the teachers and institutes determine at-risk students.

Moreover, teachers can create personalised lesson plans, conduct counselling sessions and collaborate with parents and faculty to devise plans to retain students.

5. Gamification

Teacher's hard work and efforts would amount to little or nothing if students don’t respond actively. Lack of interest and attention are some of the common indicators that cause low in-class engagement.

Besides, continuously utilising the same teaching methods without any modifications makes it monotonous and uninteresting. Therefore, teachers can implement varied techniques to improve classroom teaching and student learning.

Moreover, the best LMS software in India comes with all integrated features, allowing teachers to create gamified content, such as the following:

• Creating leaderboards and point systems helps to keep track of student activity.
• Incorporating game elements into different subject-specific exercises, including mathematics, science, history, etc.

It helps to increase engagement levels and motivates students to complete their assignments, projects and homework.

6. Real-time Analytics

How are the students responding to the curriculum? What is the engagement rate of a particular class? What factors led to the poor performance of a class? These are some of the questions whose answers institutes need to find out.

The LMS solution provides an analytics platform that provides real-time data about the weekly or monthly class performance, assessment reports, etc.

Additionally, it provides learning metrics, helping to assess the efficiency of teaching methodologies and engagement rate.