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Tips to choose the best Student Management Software

Student Management Software, with its unique characteristics, is hugely popular in the educational sector and has helped innumerable schools and higher educational institutes. From proficiently maintaining and updating student data to analysing and creating reports, the software has helped change the way educational institutes operate. However, it is extremely important to get the right SIS to meet the requirements of an institute.

The end goal of every educational institution is to enhance the performance of the students. This is done using competent analytic tools to analyse the performance of each student. According to the results obtained, effective and corrective measures are taken to help them perform better and reach their potential. 

Student Information System (SIS) helps institutions manage every single detail about students in a holistic, organized, and cost-effective way. It eliminates the need for faculty members or other staff to spend a lot of time compiling student data and allows them to focus on the students and their performance enhancement.

An SIS helps to manage efficiently the huge amount of data an institute generates. It maintains a student’s life cycle and helps teachers to track assignments, tasks, performance, attendance and leaves, academic planning, activities, timetable, and exams. This student database management software enables data to be accessed from anywhere by students, teachers, and other stakeholders and helps them make informed decisions.

In the present dynamic educational scenario, the requirements of education campuses are changing. A proficient and productive student management system software will leverage the best of technology and allow faculties and staff to track all kinds of student-related data.

Let us look at some of the features and capabilities to look out for while choosing the RIGHT Student Management Software:

  1. Maintenance of Student Records

With the right SIS, the huge amount of information generated for every student is efficiently updated on the student data management software, ready to be used as and when required. Updated report cards can be issued effortlessly, student’s transcripts managed, and any kind of information obtained on the go. The ideal SIS should help to effortlessly track a student’s progress with the help of various analytic tools and dashboards, along with various types of filters. 

  1. Cloud-Based ERP

It is crucial to have a cloud-based education ERP that is customisable and flexible that will be suitable for all kinds of institutions with varying requisites. Cloud-based software does not require the institute to appoint any engineering staff to oversee it, making it almost maintenance-free and cost-effective. In a cloud-based ERP, the limited/no hardware required on campus is maintained by the software vendor.

  1. Online Admissions & Registration

An efficient SIS enables students to apply and register online for admissions. The students get timely notifications and emails informing them about admission processes taking place online. The data can be customised by the administration allowing themselves to be transparent in their allotment process while keeping confidential data secure. Students also have the facility to keep track of their applications.

  1. Online Fee Payment

The right SIS provides a secure fee payment platform for educational institutes. An ideal student management system will enable fees to be paid online by parents and students through any mode of payment ensuring hassle-free and error-free fee payment without any of the staff getting burdened. Automated receipt notifications are sent keeping the transaction transparent and secure or reminder SMS alerts are sent for pending payments. 

  1. Seamless Communication

A good SIS makes communication effective, transparent, and quick. It ensures communication between administration, faculty, students, and parents are fast and reliable, allowing any member to reach out to anyone at any time with just a few clicks while keeping the information exchanged private and safe.

  1. Analytics tools and Dashboard

A good set of analytical tools help the management to make decisions quickly. Organized data is an asset when it is required to be processed in different ways according to different requirements. An SIS helps in presenting the data in a simpler, easier, and coherent form and the various filters help to sort further sort the data according to the users’ specific needs.

  1. Mobile App

A well-built SIS enables access through a mobile phone which tremendously helps to take care of all communication needs. With packed schedules, it becomes convenient for teachers, the administration, and students to do away with offline mails and notices and communicate quickly and easily.

  1. Organised with Reduced Paperwork

SIS software is designed exclusively for academic institutions and helps educational campuses to streamline and manage all tasks involved in student administration. It saves time and reduces paperwork considerably by digitising processes.

Academia SIS is trusted by some of the leading educational institutes in India and abroad. Academia solutions have a track record of being reliable and compliant. With decades of experience and expertise in working with various institutes, Academia understands that every institute works differently, and hence the requirements are also different. 

Academia offers customised Student Management Software which is developed to meet the specific needs of an institute keeping in mind the administration, teachers, and students.

Call us for a detailed demo on Academia SIS.

Interdisciplinary Universities: Need of the Hour

As the world evolves, it has become necessary for education to keep pace. Interdisciplinary courses are allowing for more context-specific programmes, and preparing students better for the future. While it has become crucial for universities to become interdisciplinary and universities are moving in that direction, technology is the vital tool that is making it all come together.

 In the new dynamic world of education, the significance of interdisciplinary studies is being recognised by the industry, and universities are switching over and developing their own programmes. Interdisciplinary studies is a complete package that allows multiple disciplines to be combined. It allows students the advantage of learning by making connections between concepts and ideas across different disciplinary boundaries. This makes it possible for students to apply the knowledge gained in one discipline to another discipline and enhance the learning experience. Interdisciplinary studies benefit academics too, as research councils shy away from funding research in a single discipline. They look for broader views and sharper insights that come from the combination of different disciplines defining new territory, for the purpose of allotting research funds. 

The need for interdisciplinary studies

Today, more and more universities are offering interdisciplinary degrees as the challenges the world is facing or will be facing in the future, are inter-related and cannot be solved by single-domain expertise. These problems or challenges need an understanding of the bigger picture and need expertise across domains to be utilized in order to get solved.  

To optimise interdisciplinary teaching and learning, it is important for professionals from different departments to work together towards a common purpose. These interactions allow new knowledge construction and a deeper understanding of ideas.

Benefits of interdisciplinary studies for students

  • Students are greatly motivated as they get a chance to pursue topics that are interesting to them. The content is more often than not rooted in life experiences, which gives students a real purpose to learn and relate to real life.
  • Students explore topics more deeply by comparing and contrasting, which enhances and develops critical thinking skills.
  • Interdisciplinary studies can be great for students with specific interests that cannot be met through a traditional degree.
  • Sometimes, between the traditional disciplines, there could lie some worthwhile topics of research.
  • Interdisciplinary studies can make graduates more sought-after in the workforce. A lot of interdisciplinary studies graduates have a range of skills suited and required for employment in a particular position.
  • Creative thinkers can thrive with interdisciplinary studies as it allows them to explore and make connections between different ideas, methods, and ways of thinking. Instead of being passive recipients of knowledge, students of interdisciplinary studies become active contributors to the learning process.

NEP 2020 calls for interdisciplinary studies

In India, the newly introduced NEP 2020 is set to revolutionise education, while advocating interdisciplinary studies. The primary focus of NEP 2020 in Indian higher education is to transform HEIs into large multidisciplinary universities, colleges, and HEI clusters, with 3,000 or more students each. The policy foresees all existing HEIs to evolve into three categories of multidisciplinary institutions by 2040 –

  1. a)     Research-Intensive Universities (RUs)
  2. b)     Teaching Universities (TUs)
  3. c)     Autonomous Degree-granting Colleges (ACs)

NEP 2020 is designed to generate interest among students in the specialised area of research which will lead to new discoveries. It is meant to develop a versatile learning system, with the freedom for students to learn at their convenience which will create open-minded and well-rounded individuals. With an end to high stake examinations and allowing a student to choose different subjects and move out at any exit point, the system will motivate students to follow their passion in their chosen field.

Conclusion

The shift to interdisciplinary studies, will completely change the business models of universities in the future, along with their curriculum and delivery methods. The changes in the overall ecosystem will bring new challenges for universities. All through, technology is the integral support that will help in this seamless shift. 

With a majority of universities set to offer interdisciplinary studies programmes, it has become even more crucial to have the right ERP from a reliable and experienced company. Academia provides University ERP, which equips universities to transition to an interdisciplinary model. Schedule a demo with us to learn more.

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