Digital Schools and the New Normal in Education

This year has brought forth many questions that have existed in the background of education for many years. Are educational institutions adaptable to the change in the academic environment? Are they prepared for alterations in their everyday operations? These are some of the questions that were asked in the year 2020.

This year has proven that change and adaptability are vital for the continuation of teaching, learning, and education in general.

The digital tools needed for the successful transition of educational institutions to distance learning have been there for at least 5-10 years. Why are they so important now? The pandemic has shown that even in the worst of times, education can evolve and can carry on. The greatest issue is not if there are digital tools to help but if teachers, students, parents, and administrators can adapt and change their daily routines, as the times may require.

Classter is here to say that yes educational institutions and all their stakeholders can adapt tο what is described by many thought-leaders as the New Normal. Classter offers institutions the ability to replicate operational and academic functions from the physical world of the classroom to the digital environment of distance learning.

Classter and the Digital School

Classter is a cloud-based (MS Azure), modular SIS and LMS system that aims at creating a digital environment that educational organizations may adapt to easily.

Classter offers advanced functionality that can help educational institutions manage three main operational processes, 100% remotely. These are:

• Online Admissions: We offer the ability to use an online admissions portal for applications and application management. Keep track of all the processes from the sign up to acceptance.
• Online day-to-day school management: With Classter admins can manage student, teacher, parent and school data in a system that serves as the single source of truth. Academic tasks such as marking, absence taking, timetabling, and many more can be done easily from our intuitive interface.
• Online Billing: the accounting department can create tuition fees arrangement plans students or parents can pay online and recurrently through advanced payment gateways. You can also issue invoices and receipts for all transactions in order to comply with accounting standards.

But, the New Normal doesn’t affect only operation and back-end processes. It affects heavily the core of the learning process which used to be related to physical attendance in the classroom.

As a result, creating a distance learning capable institution requires the implementation of distance synchronous and asynchronous learning tools and processes. Classter has partnered with the most popular tools in the industry. These integrations create a powerful distance learning infrastructure with Classter as the backbone that allows educational organizations to continue the learning process uninterruptedly.

Distance synchronous learning integrations

• MS Teams: Microsoft’s platform for teams’ collaboration like many popular platforms of its kind was not originally designed for educational institutions but is adaptable enough to moonlight as educational tools. MS Teams is an easy to set up system fully integrated with Microsoft’s Office 365 suite and is a favorite for integration with Classter which complements with its SIS functionality. Users can create classes and sessions on Classter and sync them with MS Teams. A great feature for teachers is the ability to record meetings and then automatically store them on the cloud and share with students asynchronously. As Microsoft Silver Partners, Classter team has extensive knowledge in tailoring the extensive product offering of Microsoft O365 (and MS Teams) to the specific needs of each educational organization.
• Zoom: Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom helps universities and schools improve student outcomes with secure video communication services for hybrid classrooms, office hours, administrative meetings, and more. As we have monitored the increasing usage of Zoom across educational organizations of all sizes and types, Classter is not only providing a deep integration, but we’re also proud partners for Zoom for Education.
• Cisco WebEx: Webex has been a go-to solution for many academic institutions because of its relative ease of use and stability. Classter offers an out of the box integration with WebEx Classrooms that allows teachers to reach more students in more places through remote access and distance learning.

Distance asynchronous learning integrations

• Moodle: It is a free, open-source Learning Management System that gives teachers, students, and administrators the ability to create personalized learning environments. Our team has extensive knowledge in helping clients customize their Moodle environment and integrating it within Classter’s configuration.
• Brightspace: It is a learning management system with functionality that allows users to create, host, and edit online learning materials and other resources. It includes a variety of tools for creating custom content for academic institutions, courses, and users of all types. It is but another option for LMS integration with the Classter SIS.
• Apple School Manager: For institutions that rely on the Apple device ecosystem, the Apple School Manager helps to connect all devices and shared content with all users throughout the Apple product line (iPads, iPhones, iMacs).
• Canvas: Is a unique learning management system that allows for video collaboration between students and teachers and offers a flexible educational environment. This tool is specialized for higher education. As Classter covers the needs of all levels of education, we offer integrations with specialized LMS tools for specific levels of education.

Partnership with BlueSnap payment solution

Classter has initiated a partnership with BlueSnap payment gateway and offers a powerful integration that allows educational organizations to have a friction-free, global payment processing solution.

The benefits for educational organizations that will integrate their Classter SIS with BlueSnap are:

• Customized Payment Options
• Seamless Mobile-first Experiences
• 100+ currencies and payment types, 29 languages
• Robust Consolidated Reporting
• Built-in Security

Integrations with payment gateways

Additionally, Classter offers integrations with the most popular payment gateways out there.

• Stripe: This is another American payment processing platform, for payments of tuition fees and other charges from the Classter platform. All major credit cards are accepted.
• Braintree: Braintree is a division of PayPal that specializes in mobile and web payments systems. It helps clients safeguarding customer’s information and providing a secure online payment environment.
• Paypal: Probably the most popular, yet simple, payment gateway solution for simple transactions. It offers low rates and simpler compliance tracking making it the ideal solution for small schools that do not have an accounting department.

Increased control through Mobile Devices

Most teachers, students and administrators in schools and colleges are familiar with mobile applications downloadable to their phones/tablets or other mobile devices (Android and IOs). Going digital may have you thinking of your traditional PC/Laptop computer but nowadays almost everyone is completing business and recreational tasks on their mobile devices,

We have created the Classter app for Android and iOS mobile devices so that in addition to the value gained from the use of the Classter platform, teachers, students and parents are able to have easy access to portal functions on their mobile devices.

• Teachers can access their messages and institutional announcements, mark assessments and enter absences directly from the app.
• Α student can view their calendar of classes, homework and monitor their absences with ease.
• The parent is in a unique position to monitor their children from anywhere anytime, homework, absences, announcements and more.

Wrap-up

All the tools are there for the success of all educational institutions. The use of these systems and platforms can seriously impact and improve the capabilities of educational institutions to perform their normal functions in this new online environment.

With built-in tools and a variety of integrations, Classter is truly an all-in-one Student and Learning Management Solution that serves as the backbone of your distance learning environment and digital back-end operations.

Classter team is here for helping you deal with New Normal in education, allowing educational organizations of all types and sizes transitioning to the digital era.