When we set out to study pandemic-related changes in schools, we expected to find that learning management systems that leverage technology to improve teaching would make educators’ jobs easier. Instead, we found that teachers whose schools used learning management systems had higher rates of burnout.
Our findings are based on a survey of 779 U.S. teachers conducted in May 2022, as well as subsequent focus groups that took place in the fall of that year. Our study was peer-reviewed and published in April 2024.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as schools across the country were under stay-at-home orders, schools adopted new technologies to facilitate distance learning during the crisis. These technologies included learning management systems, which are online platforms that help teachers organize and track their lessons.
We were perplexed to find that teachers who used a learning management system like Canvas or Schoology reported higher levels of burnout. Ideally, these tools should have simplified their work. We also believed that these systems would improve teachers’ ability to organize documents and homework, primarily because they would house everything digitally, reducing the need to print documents or bring back stacks of student homework. home to go to class.
But in the follow-up focus groups we heldthe data tells a different story. Instead of being used to replace old ways of completing tasks, learning management systems were just another part of teachers’ jobs.
A telling example was seen in lesson planning. Before the pandemic, teachers typically submitted hard copies of lesson plans to administrators. However, once school systems introduced learning management systems, some teachers had to not only continue to submit paper plans, but also upload digital versions to the learning management system using a completely different format.
Asking teachers to adopt new tools without removing old requirements is a recipe for burnout.
Teachers who taught in the early elementary grades had the most complaints about learning management systems because these systems did not fit their students’ circumstances. A Las Vegas preschool teacher shared, “Now it’s true, my kids can’t really count to 10 when they arrive, but they have to learn a six-digit student number” to access Canvas . “I completely agree that…it leads to burnout.”
In addition to technology concerns, teachers identified other factors such as administrative support, teacher autonomy, and mental health as predictors of burnout.
Why it matters
Teacher burnout is a persistent problem in education, and it has particularly become delivered during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
If new technology is adopted to help teachers do their jobs, school leaders must ensure that it will not add additional work for them. While it adds to or increases the workload for teachers, adding technology increases the risk of burnout. This will likely force more teachers to leave the field.
Schools implementing new technologies must ensure that they are rationalize the work of a teacher by compensating for other tasks, not simply adding more work to their load.
The broader lesson from this study is that teacher well-being should be a priority when implementing school-wide changes.
What’s next
We believe our research is relevant not only to learning management systems, but also to other new technologies, including emerging artificial intelligence tools. We believe future research should identify schools and districts that are effectively integrating new technologies and learning from their successes.
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