25 Free School Learning Management Systems
During the days of COVID-19 peak, lockdown and the sudden shift towards online classes, I found myself lost in the world of technology. My school administration, like many others, was left scratching their heads looking for a school learning management systems that allowed us to conduct classes online productively and efficiently. The management software we had in place for administrative purposes was insufficient for online classes as well as managing the school remotely.
The top-notch school management software were very pricy and the free ones kept glitching and making it quite difficult for the teachers to complete lessons. But after a long and hard struggle, I was able to find a couple of school learning management systems that are not only free but also work amazingly. So I decided I should share them with more people because I know there are a lot more schools that are tight on a budget and cannot afford fancy expensive software, so they can all benefit from my weeks’ long research and trials of these various software.
Some of the high ranking and well-known schools including Harvard and Dalton school in Manhattan use a school learning management systems to run the college effortlessly and keep everything on track.
Before we discuss the various software, let us look at some of the key features a school learning management system should have
Key Features of School Learning Management Systems
- Ability to resolve student and faculty issues promptly
- Homework and assignment management
- Faculty communication with parents and students
- Online classes duration for at least 40-60 min
- Curriculum management and updates in lesson plans
All the school learning management systems that we will discuss here have the basic features of attendance, class schedule set up and customization according to your school requirements. This list of software will help schools effectively manage operations of online classes without paying a cent. The various operations a school needs management software for include:
- Salary distribution, fees management and staff scheduling
- Transport and administrative logistics
- Academic lesson planning, test grading and homework
- Teacher and students interactions and attendance
- Communication between parents, teachers and administration
So keep reading to learn all about free school learning management systems that you can use to constructively manage operations from anywhere and make the transition towards online classes very swift and convenient
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Salary Distribution, Fees Management and Staff Scheduling
This school learning management systems is automated; instructions regarding payroll management and attendance are handled by the software error-free. It can generate certificates and manage different athletics teams by setting up schedules and practice times. Management issues regarding teacher scheduling and student fees records can easily be automated through this software.
The website claims that TS school’s human resource management is one of the best in the market. It is best used for K-12 levels where parents and faculty interaction is a must and so you can easily set up various dashboards.
This school learning management systems is not only for online classes but can be adjusted to work well for in-person school classes as well. With its features of easily accessible student progress reports, student fees information and up to date communication it is effective for K-12 and also university levels. The software manages all information about student affairs to faculty schedules and overtime.
It offers various dashboards for different school programs such as coding, robotics, STEM education or poetry group etc. The school learning management systems is easy to lean based on the instructions and online support available 24/7.
This free management tool has software and an app for convenience. It is designed to work for schools, colleges and various private academies that have a lot of logistics to handle. It offers various modifications for the administration, teachers and students depending on who will be the primary user.
For principals, it offers remote working and managing of teacher scheduling, salaries and student fees. Teachers on the app can connect with the administration and the students, track assignments and class schedules. You can use it to schedule 30-minute meetings with parents or faculty. The user interface is quite simple and easy to adjust to.
This free school learning management app is designed to give access to all student logistics in one screen. Teachers, parents and students share information about progress, upcoming events and feedback. Administration can use it to set up attendance, time tables, notices and payment notifications and scheduling updates.
This free app is created to manage overall school operations but specifically to ease the parents’ involvement in student affairs. Schools use this app to keep parents informed at all times and save the time spent in in-person meetings to look at progress reports.
- Edugate– Application
This free school management app is the perfect example of what good STEM education can do. This app is created by students and has all the key features as in other management software. Faculty, administration and students can use this app by downloading on any device.
Admin can do everything from sending scheduling notifications to payment sheets. Teachers can even hand out detention to students with this app. Students can use it to check schedules or carry out student body president elections, or check fee notices.
Transport and Administrative Logistics
This is a free school learning management system for catholic schools. The features offered include transport tracking, library records updates where you can check records on the books issued and the categories of books available. It manages the student portal with minimum manual assistance.
The best feature is the user-friendly layout and easy to understand dashboards. There are options for manual updates and transcripts generation. You can learn the fundamentals by following the instructions from the website.
Open SIS is free school learning management system with limitless students and faculty logins. It can manage information not only related to courses and curricula but also about the admin side of education including graduation updates, home addresses, students’ progress, records on the faculty, transportation time tables etc. This software is best for K-12 levels to incorporate specialized courses such as STEM education.
The best feature is the real-time updates and notification systems and a separate portal for parents. The website offers easy to understand demos and customer support for schools.
This free school management software is designed for higher education institutions such as colleges and universities. With the massive number of students enrolled in colleges, this system offers easy to use setups to manage student transportation on campus, dorm housing, meals distributions, faculty information and much more. The software offers options to upload prerecorded tutorials on the various subject including coding, robotics and STEAM education.
The best feature is the centralized system of operations where students, faculty and alumni can all collaborate for a great academic experience. Understanding the software can take a little while due to a variety of features offered.
- Asana-Application
Asana is a free school management system app that promotes collaborations between teachers. Not only that but you can organize trips and add in all the transport information. By forming collaboration boards with various teams you can keep everyone updated in real-time.
You can create tasks from the admin office and assign them to various teams or individuals. Also, you can track progress to ensure it all runs smoothly. Education institutions can use it to submit forms and requests to various departments without hassle. To learn how to use the app, download it and follow the simple instructions.
This free school management website is designed to work for all levels of schools, from K-12 to universities. The automated system handles the admissions, attendance, transport and buses schedules, exams and student progress reports. Since it is online, you can access from anywhere at any time.
Teachers’ requests or subtitle teacher schedules can be updated here and real-time notifications are sent to all relevant parties. The best feature is that you can use animations to give feedback to students and add illustrations to the report cards.
While you are here, also check out the best platforms for teachers to earn online.
Academic Lesson Planning, Test Grading and Homework
School can use this management software to create lesson time tables, manages student test scores and homework updates. There are different portals for various departments including finance, STEM education, robotics and coding, new student adjustment etc.
It is a powerful school management software suitable for high school or college level. It is easy to learn based on the demo videos available on the website and the round the clock customer support available. So parents and teachers with the least bit of tech experience can easily manage this. There are discussion areas to ask questions during and after class.
This free school management software is designed to work for all educational institutions. The system offers a central database shared by the teachers, students, admin and the parents. Students can upload assignments and teachers can add grades and feedbacks. With 24 hour access to the software, students and teachers can check the dashboard and review the homework and lesson plans anytime.
With a fully automated system for attendance and customizable scores format, it is a great tool for schools K-12, specialized STEAM education, mental math activities and college. You can easily learn how to use it by following the instructions given at each step when you first get started and demo videos are available as well.
This is a student management tool that is free for individual teachers. You can use it to log in to the student portals and grade assignments, plan lessons, give homework and receive notifications. Teachers can use it to manage student attendance and class performance.
Not only can the teacher and student communicate at any time, but there is a record of chats, assignment, tasks and lesson plans for either party to access at any given time. For teachers sifting to online classes, this website and the free teacher account can be very beneficial.
Evernote is a free school management app that is unique due to its versatile features. You can work from anywhere with this app. It allows you to save various text, images and even handwritten notes and assignments. Teachers or students can edit and format the notes, give feedback and make adjustments however they like. It is a great management tool for homework or academic planning.
For education curricula of STEAM education, robotics, coding etc. the teacher and student collaborations via handwritten notes and drawing are imperative. For that reason using Evernote management app can be very useful for effective sharing of information.
This free school management app allows teachers to track student response, behaviors and progress. You can mark the attendance of a class of 25-30 students in under 2 minutes. For teachers of STEAM education, robotics, music etc. this app provides an option to mark if the students brought assignments, instruments or experiments given as homework. Teachers can upload academic lesson plans for students.
It is very convenient as you can download on multiple devices and operate from anywhere, the working is easy to understand, and the developers are constantly sending out new updates to make the experience better.
Teacher and Students Interactions and Attendance
School tool is user friendly and a great option as your first school management software. It offers customizations according to the requirements of the school, such as grading systems, attendance and student-faculty interactions can be managed easily.
The best feature is the option to share assignments and repots with parents in just one click through the portal. So this system works best for younger students especially, although it is designed to work for all levels of education.
feKara is a flexible and very customizable school management software. It offers the option to arrange various features from day to day classes to new student enrolment. You can manage attendance or interact with teachers on courses such as STEAM education, arts and music classes, AP classes etc. very efficiently.
The best feature is the ability of the software to handle a high number of logins at a time. You can access feKara from a laptop, tablet or even a mobile phone. You can select the option to receive notifications via SMS for convenience. The software is designed for use by K-12 schools and even colleges and universities.
- My Class Campus– Application
My class campus is a free app and web-based school management software that is as good as some of the paid ones. It offers eco-friendly biometric attendance systems and online admission forms to make it the process of enrolment time efficient.
It offers virtual classroom and exam management. By setting up the lessons for the week, students can prepare in advance and read up on the topic ahead of time. It offers tracking of assignments to maintain deadlines. Schools can learn to use it by following the instructions on the website or call for assistance at any time.
EduWonka is a free school management website. It also has a premium version which is paid. It is a comprehensive management tool offering services for certificates, syllabus tracking and faculty management. You can track student attendance for the year by simply accessing the class portal open to the faculty and the administration. Teacher student interactions are made convenient with this software.
The best feature is the convenient system of report cards and grading. It offers an automated system of grading students taking multiple classes all while keeping the parents in the loop. To deliver announcements, you can put the message in the dedicated announcement section and enjoy the efficient management.
This is one of the best attendance management software available. Schools can update holiday information and student or faculty information and the rest is handled by the software. It is user friendly created to make it easy to manage all the management related issues of students and teachers.
It also offers alerts and reminders via text, email or desktop notifications. Teacher and students can interact and communicate via dashboards. Grade link is a top-rated free school management software and has received various awards including leader summer 2020 award. You can learn to use the software by following the free demos and step-by-step instructions available on the website.
Communication between Parents, Teachers and Administration
With its minimalistic design, the software has accomplished something not many software can. It offers a platform to create a community of faculty, students and parents much like the in-person schools. It offers automatic classroom planning for various subjects such as STEAM education, biology, social studies etc.
The best feature is the one-on-one communication and chat facility with comes in handy for guidance counselors and high school students especially. Overall this learning management system is ideal for all levels from schools to universities.
Gibbon is a free school management software that gives the paid software a run for their money. The software has various portals for admin, teachers, students and parents to communicate and manage extra-curricular such as school news and updates. It supports the right-to-left text and UTF-8 coding so it is compatible with various languages.
The software guarantees error-free attendance records. It can generate calendars for special school programs such as robotics and coding, gifted education curricula or STEAM education.
This school management tool is one of its kind. Not many other software offer the screen share function. This management tool not only offers schools management that but also allows remote screen control sharing to work with all devices and operating systems. The separate discussion boxes allow effective communication between the faculty, students and parents.
The best feature includes its compatibility with various languages and real-time screen share and access to students’ assignments.
Alma is a school management system that allows communication between the administration, teachers and the faculty. It has features for real-time emergency notifications, grade book management and attendance tracking. It generates student transcripts automatically and error-free.
Management can even schedule meetings and handle walk-ins without appointments by managing the time of various members of staff.
This free school learning management system is great for interactions between the principal, teachers, parents and students. It eliminates the need for parents to schedule meetings with teachers to ask about the progress of their kids. Through School plus parents can access progress reports and lesson plans with one click.
It even has a notification option to inform parents about upcoming events and sports practices, mental math activities, STEAM education classes etc. This app is available for various devices and compatible with different operating systems. The way to use it is very simple due to the visible and easy to access options for various tasks.
The Bottom Line
Every school needs a school management tool to organize the classes, courses, quizzes, attendance and much more. Without one, the school simply cannot function efficiently. For better education, the management systems always have to be updated in due time.
If you are a part of school administration or faculty, then you should introduce your school to these free management software so classes can be conducted efficiently. Student will not miss a lesson just because your software can’t handle a large number of logins. Get these software so your teachers can enjoy teaching again and the students can learn just like they did in classes at school. Our students deserve the best from us so by using these websites, apps and software you can help your student receive a quality education and a great experience.
Don’t wait too long to start using one of the 25 outstanding free school management tools. Install one today and see the ease it creates and the difference it makes for everyone involved!
