Using Your LMS to Improve the Student Experience

Before I decide to tackle learning new technology, I first ask myself "How this will make my life easier?" Working in higher education, I quickly learned that when it comes to EdTech, I really need to ask myself, "Will my faculty and students actually use it?" Nothing feels worse than working hard to learn and manage a new technology that faculty and students simply don’t like. When this happens, you end up spending a lot of energy trying to get by rather than actually training users and managing the system. As you can imagine, when the product is an LMS it can make managing your medical curriculum exponentially more challenging. At DaVinci Education, we view our clients as partners as we work alongside them to provide the support and resources they need to make the Leo platform an invaluable tool for their program - and especially their students. So let’s talk about some unique features we see our clients utilize to enhance the student experience while minimizing their administrative workload.

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Leo’s Calendar: Simplifying the Student Calendar

Time management is critical in any graduate education program, but it is particularly important for medical students. Your students are already juggling rigorous coursework, clinical experiences and high stakes exams so the solution for making it easy for them to keep track of it all is important. With Leo, managing course materials and sessions is easy. Administrators can build comprehensive courses with all the course materials, activities and event details in one place and that information will feed into the Leo Calendar. This means students can sign in and view content with just a couple clicks. Right from the homepage students can view their academic calendar, access materials for upcoming sessions and even view alerts and assignments for courses they are enrolled in. Plus, with Leo’s iCal feed students can connect their Leo Calendar to their personal calendar platform. This ensures that they never miss a deadline or learning event. When I was administrative staff, this would have been a dream come true. Less scanning, fewer clicks and I only have to put my course content and events in one place. Sign me up!   

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The Academic Portrait: Capturing the Student Experience

With most record keeping occurring electronically these days, it seems like keeping track of student accomplishments and records would be easy. Unfortunately, though, that is not always the case. A lot happens each academic year in medical school, so how can you help your students keep track of everything? Leo has you covered.  With our Academic Portrait feature we can simplify this process for everyone, including your faculty. The student Academic Portrait allows users to upload important documents such as awards, letters of recommendation and so much more. Beyond storing documents, Leo's Academic Portrait features a snapshot of everyone’s academic journey by pulling in records of academic history, demographic information and assessment information. This feature is also configurable based on what each school wants to use and build. The feature also serves as an advising tool for students and their mentors as they share documents, record meeting notes and even collaborate on noteworthy characteristics. The Academic Portrait can even be exported to an organized zip file of everything on the student’s individual portrait. I know if I were a student, I would appreciate a simplified resource to keep track of my academic journey!

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The Leo User Guide: Simplicity and Clarity for your LMS

High quality customer support and resources are always at the top of my list when I consider using a new technology. At DaVinci Education we want to make the lives of our clients partners easier. This is why we invest a lot of time and energy into providing resources and support to meet your needs. One of the most comprehensive and user friendly resources we have is our Leo User Guide. Leo users can access a robust library of articles with the latest updates and releases of our platform. We organize each User Guide by primary roles in the Leo platform, which seamlessly connects any relevant topic or chapter so users can quickly navigate between articles. Beyond this intuitive structure, articles include detailed screenshots, brief video tutorials and past webinar recordings, all with simple instructions. This makes the Leo User Guide a must have on your bookmark list! Just use a keyword search to get what you need so you can get on with your work. Plus there is no login required. Users can visit the public link to search for specific articles or review whole chapters on whatever feature they want to learn more about. So the next time a faculty member asks how to upload event materials or a student wants to create a discussion board, you can simply share a link to the relevant User Guide article or chapter. Not only are you reducing the time you spend responding to their inquiry, but you can trust that the resource you provide will guide them step by step through the process.

While medical education can be complex, using your LMS shouldn't be. Streamline student use of Leo through the easily shareable User Guide, enhancing their learning experience by allowing them to focus their time on what matters most - learning course content.