Schools rely on document platforms amid COVID-19 outbreak

Across the country, tens of millions of kids from preschool to college are trying to complete their school work from home. Closures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic are forcing schools to change their plans on the fly.

That means teachers, students and administrators need to use document management platforms that allow them to quickly and easily share documents and information with everyone who needs it, according to San Francisco public radio station KQED. Many school districts likely use at least some sort of technology to communicate with parents and students, but now is the time to make sure everyone uses them on a daily basis to ensure kids keep up with work – and that parents and staffers can stay in communication.

Finding the resources
Of course, many districts have been forced to make such adoptions on relatively short notice, and there are plenty of free resources online to help districts get up to speed quickly, so that there's nothing lost in translation as the process goes on, the report said. On the back end, however, more may need to be done to make sure all documents are being ferried to the professionals and families who need them, and setting up automated workflows will likely go a long way toward ensuring this is a smooth process.

Rapid adoption
Given how quickly these issues arose, it's also important to make sure those document sharing and management options are aligned with virtual learning programs, according to Cincy Inno. It's not just enough that kids need to be able to hand in homework and tests; they also need to be able to learn the material that will allow them to excel with those assignments.

"Right now, the current circumstances require teachers, students and parents to be more reliant than ever on their school's software systems," Damon Ragusa, CEO of the edtech platform Abre, noted. "Superintendents and directors of communication need all the tools available to push messages out in an effective way and to direct users to their digital learning tools."

The more educators can do to make sure this process is as smooth as possible, the better off all involved will be during this trying time.