This was the question that we posed to all MIS providers:
“What features does your MIS offer to support remote learning and hybrid education models, especially in light of recent shifts in educational delivery methods and preparedness for another virus-based shutdown?”
As always, we ask all suppliers the same questions and we list MIS supplier responses received in strict alphabetical order. However, just because we can, the next three article responses received will be in reverse alphabetical order, being:
When the Covid-19 pandemic abruptly changed the educational landscape, Satchel One quickly adapted to help schools transition to remote learning, ensuring that students, teachers, and parents could stay connected and engaged.
Recognised in 2022 with the Learning Excellence Award for Response to Covid 19, our rapid response to the shutdown included offering our Homework app free to schools for three months, allowing schools immediate access to distance learning tools.
This included setup, mobile apps, remote training, and access to real-time support, ensuring that students
could continue learning without disruption.
Creating seamless remote learning our Homework app already enabled schools to communicate assignments, deadlines, and feedback directly to students and parents, who could view and submit work, access grades, and reach out to teachers for additional support.
Our platform’s remote capabilities allow schools to set tasks, view real-time insights on student engagement, and use interactive tools like quizzes and discussions to keep students involved.
In response to schools’ feedback, we’ve implemented additional features to better support remote
learning, such as:
● ‘Classwork’ is a new task type to differentiate classroom projects from homework.
● Integrated video links for seamless Zoom or Teams connections directly from timetables.
● Behaviour and praise modules to encourage positive student engagement in virtual settings,
including a ‘positive only’ view
● Flexible scheduling and submission options to accommodate the remote learning format.
● View and take Attendance on the move via the mobile app
● These features supported ~1 in 3 secondary schools in the country during the pandemic, maintaining an impressive uptime of 99.77% despite four times the usual traffic load.
Today, Satchel One continues to support schools in both in-person and remote learning environments.
All of the above classroom functionality is now available in our MIS.
Our aim remains to provide Schools with a flexible, reliable platform that adapts to any educational challenge.
SchoolBase cloud-MIS is designed to suit the modern needs of independent schools, including offering secure remote accessibility and tools to support hybrid education.
While this was an important development consideration before the 2020 pandemic, we’ve placed even more focus on remote functionality in recent years.
As our MIS can be accessed from any location by approved users, administrative duties are able to continue without needing to be physically onsite.
This means that alongside daily tasks, bigger projects such as end of term reports or exam management can run without interruption.
To facilitate strong communication, we offer a complete SchoolBase App plus Parent, Staff and Student online portals.
These modules, combined with the digital timetable, ensure education can be maintained via digital channels.
Teaching staff can also keep an eye on student performance via the Analytics tools which highlight performance and overall engagement. The software is also set up to securely connect to a selection of third-party tools using API meaning schools can connect a whole host of approved teaching programmes.
As the most customisable MIS available, we also regularly support schools in creating bespoke functions. As offering a remote and/or hybrid education model often requires some adaptations, our team regularly provides unique additions to features which schools need to work online more successfully. This means nothing is beyond limits with our software.
Remote work can be set and marks recorded in GO 4 Schools’ markbooks.
Being Cloud based, students and parents can view tasks and attached documents or follow links to online resources including to Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom. Remote work data, including marks, and the completion of tasks can be viewed and analysed by middle and senior leaders as well as viewed by parents and students.
So, everybody is aware what work has been set and is outstanding. Parental and student Notifications of work set and due in are also possible via email or notifications to our mobile app.
IRIS Education’s cloud-based Management Information Systems (MIS), IRIS Ed:Gen and iSAMS by IRIS, are specifically designed to support flexible, remote, and hybrid education models.
- A global MIS for international schools: Trusted by 1,600 schools across 90+ countries, iSAMS is a leading student information system built exclusively for private and independent schools. With 90 third-party partners, 113 API methods, and 1.6K API keys, it’s also easy for third parties and learning management systems (LMSes) to seamlessly integrate with iSAMS.
- Integrations for seamless remote learning: IRIS’s cloud-based MIS platforms, Ed:Gen and iSAMS, support uninterrupted remote and hybrid learning through comprehensive API integrations with popular Learning
- Management Systems (LMS), such as Canvas and Google Classroom, which enable teachers to conduct live or recorded lessons, track attendance, and monitor engagement in real-time. Both MIS systems also integrate with third-party vendors such as Zoom, Teams, PAGS, giving schools the flexibility to choose the best tools for their specific needs. Committed to interoperability, IRIS Education enables automatic, nightly data synchronisation between systems, allowing for parents, students and staff to gain access to vital information – on-demand.
- Parent and guardian communication: Both MISsystems are equipped with dedicated parent engagement apps accessible anytime, anywhere, allowing teachers, students, and parents/guardians to stay connected. The built-in homework and assignment modules synchronise automatically, enabling assignment distribution, completion, and marking in any learning environment.
- Data-driven insights: Additionally, IRIS Central, a centralised data platform for schools and multi-academy trusts (MATs), supports teachers and leadership in tracking grades and performance, enabling informed, data-driven decisions – even during remote periods.
- Preparedness for future disruptions: Recognising the need for agility in uncertain times, IRIS’s MIS solutions are built with security, resilience and continuity in mind. Schools can rely on these platforms to quickly adapt, communicate effectively with students and families, and maintain educational quality regardless of the environment.
Our Management Information System (MIS) offers a robust suite of features designed to support remote learning and hybrid education models, ensuring schools remain prepared for any future disruptions.
Compass is a fully cloud-based MIS, allowing school leaders, educators, administrators, parents, and students to access the tools and data they require anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
This flexibility ensures continuous learning and operational efficiency, whether in-person or remote.
To enhance communication and engagement, Compass offers a dedicated parent app that strengthens the connection between home and school.
The app facilitates timely updates, keeping parents informed of critical information about their child.
For deeper engagement, Compass Connect allows schools to organize parent-teacher meetings, share class information, and track homework assignments.
These features ensure seamless communication between teachers, students, and parents, even in a remote learning environment.
Overall, Compass empowers schools to remain agile and well-prepared, providing the tools necessary for efficient school operations, effective communications and learner support, and community engagement, regardless of external challenges.
The most important feature of our MIS that makes it suitable for remote learning is that it is cloud based.
Teachers and school staff always have access to a single point of truth wherever they are.
This allows both students and teachers to be able to access school data and our services from any device with access to the internet. Our parent, student, and teacher apps allow for comprehensive communication to take place both securely and timely, too.
Our student portal was particularly useful during the pandemic as it provided students with a way of accessing important school information including their timetable, calendar, digital homework, lesson resources, and class forums all from one place.
It even gave students the opportunity to directly message their teacher and tutor; this two-way feedback allowed the students to still feel that connection to school.
