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Author: Hemant Mahajan

School Management System Trends in 2023 to watch out

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Stay abreast with these school management trends and capitalize on their benefits. Here are 4 themes in education technology for the education sector that are likely to evolve and develop in 2023. 

  • Cloud Technology

Cloud-based school management systems are more scalable and efficient. They give you access to data from anywhere and anytime and secure it through end-to-end encryption. 

Using a cloud-based School Management System would allow education authorities to utilize data to its full potential and stay flexible in operations. Data management, real-time updates, and cross-platform usability of data can be increased through cloud-based education ERP solutions. 

  • Effective and timely analysis

Access from anywhere and anytime does not mean compromising data security. With a strict focus on GDPR compliance, and the use of modern data protection strategies school management software such as Academia ERP provide guaranteed security to the personal and financial data of students, parents, staff, and organization. 

Authorized users can securely access information to perform a variety of operations digitally. This includes getting granular reports on admissions, attendance, finances, student performance, resource allocation, maintenance, etc. The system updates the information in real-time and improves decisioning significantly. 

  • Integrated systems

Easily integrated school management systems would be very popular in 2023. Right now, a school may be using a number of educational technologies in the ecosystem. The problem arises when they work in silos and do not share a centralized data repository to function in a unified manner. 

Hence, modern school management software is likely to resolve it by offering a greater degree of integration. School management systems would become a centralized database, a unified platform that to and fro share the data with authorized users and tools to provide a wholesome work experience and improve communication, and data usability while reducing operational time. Check out complete Academia ERP integration options.

  • Automation

Automation is going to take a centre stage this year. There are tens of activities that tie up your resources in routine tasks every day — hampering their efficiency and productivity. With automation, you can pivot these tasks to technology and allow your resource to contribute towards the betterment of students and schools. Also, this significantly reduces your operational cost and time. 

Are you ready?

If your current school management software misses any or all of these features it is time you think about change. Connect with our ERP experts and learn how Academia ERP can help you utilize modern technology trends and improve your institute’s functioning. 

 

Five reasons to use paperless admissions at your school

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Technology is advancing at the speed of light. However, most K-12 schools still use massive amounts of paper in their day-to-day operations. 

It is estimated that a school uses up to 2000 papers per day, which adds up to 360,000 papers over the course of 180 school days. 

The number easily goes up to cause a major dent in the productivity and efficiency of a school during admissions. Not only is admission one of the most labor-intensive processes but it is infamous for eating up a large chunk of a school’s resources and funds. 

As the days between you and the next admission cycle close, as an admission director in India, you must start thinking about changing your methods. One way to do it, using education ERP software to end-to-end digitalize your admission process and go truly paperless. 

 5 Reasons to have paperless admissions at your school

  • Go paperless and cut costs

Education institutes in India are already battling overstretched funds. Needless to say, every penny counts and you need a sure-shot solution that can increase your admission rates and reduce your operational cost. 

Education ERP solutions come with an admission module, which allows you to digitalize your pre-admission and admission phase. You can use the toolset to manage campaigns, and inquiries, covert inquiries to applications, receive online payments and manage receipts, manage multi-staged admission processes, and so much more. It also comes with highly-configurable reports that can provide you with real-time insights on a number of requirements, conversion rates, admission rates, demographic reports, campaign spends, and more. 

Right from receiving an application to releasing admission results to enrollment an education ERP with an in-built admission management system can help you digitalize the process end-to-end. Hence, significantly reducing the cost spent on paper-bound operations. 

  • Save time and space

Working with papers is hugely time-consuming. They are hard to organize, eat up a lot of space, and make it very difficult to find any key information at the right time. 

When you have an education ERP, you can easily retrieve information about any applicant in seconds, and assist your applicants better. This not only accentuates the experience of an applicant with your school but also increases your admission rates. You don’t have to manage the bulky files at all and worry about keeping them safe and organized. The software sorts things out for you and gives you an enormous amount of cloud space to store information securely. 

  • Improve Security

If you are storing confidential information in form of papers, you are risking your privacy. Go for education ERP software that follows GDPR compliance and provides end-to-end encryption of information. They are more secure and provide role-based access to information along with multi-layer security. 

All this would ensure that only authorized person is able to access the information. Login would require users to undergo multiple layers of authentication and user verification, and most of all the information is stored securely in the cloud, hedged from a range of cyberattacks. 

  • Keep track

You may not be able to track who has accessed documents as papers but when it is digitized you have complete control. Track who has viewed, accessed, changed, or restored and saved documents with education ERP. the advanced solution keeps a log of all the actions that are taken using the application and allows you to avoid data duplication and ensure data security. 

  • Sustainability 

If the ‘Go Green’ agenda is still on paper in your institute, education ERP can help you realize it. Embrace sustainability and work towards going eco-friendly by digitalizing institute processes. 

On average a school produces 22 Kg of waste per year, which is large and generated from paper. As an admission director, you can significantly reduce it by embracing paperless operations and supporting a great cause. 

Wrapping Up 

Here are 5 reasons to go paperless in the admission process through School Management System/School ERP. But it is only the start, learn how each process at your institute can be digitalized to help you reduce your paper expenses by 95%. Connect with our ERP expert today. 

Admission Management Software for Chain of Schools in India

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Technology has tweaked how we interact with the world. And as technology continues to disrupt the education sector, it is only practical to seek ways to transform the most crucial times of an academic year — admissions. 

Changing Admission Discourse: Traditional Vs. Academia Approach

From how students seek admission to your institute to how you manage your admission process, things are changing rapidly. Technology has managed to pull off the impossible — it has unified the most scattered operation of an education institute. Multiple stakeholders are involved in the admission process, and each department works in silos. Result — mismanagement, human errors, delayed processes, tangled operations, and so much more.

The situation is direr for chains of schools in India as most organizations are yet to adopt technology. Modern education technologies such as education ERP and Student Information System help an institute unify the data across all departments organization-wide. They have specific features to manage the pre-admission and admission phases in a school or group of schools. This helps super admins to manage and monitor the admission process across all their centers.

Furthermore, using technologies such as ML, AL, and Business Intelligence allows institutes to not go by hunch but make informed decisions while admitting any applicant into the institute and efficiently battle increasing dropout rates. 

Introducing Comprehensive App Suite for Admission Management

ERP with CRM features 

Up until now, not only did the various departments in education institute work in silos; most software were following the same suit. Unifying the data was nearly impossible for the education institutes, as most worked on old technologies. But modern technology systems are built to render a unified experience. 

Furthermore, since education ERP software serves as a centralized database, having in-built features to manage various operations is only practical. This helps an education organization put all the business intelligence to use. 

Efficient education ERP solutions such as Academia ERP now come with in-built features of Customer Relationship Management, such as:

  • Enquiry Management
  • Marketing Automation
  • Strategic Remarketing
  • Campaign Management
  • Lead Management 
  • Lead Nurturing
  • Omnichannel Communication
  • Pipeline & Admission Process Management
  • Applicant Support
  • User Management
  • Reports & Analytics
  • WhatsApp Business Integration

Pre-admission 

Pre-admissions are the most ignored phases of an academic year. We need to understand the importance of preparedness. The better we strategize to take on the challenges of the admission phase, the more likely are our chances of winning better prospects and applicants.

Academia ERP brings you a plethora of features for the pre-admission phase. Right from setting up an online application page to setting up marketing campaigns, we do it all. The efficient software helps you in centralizing the enquires from all the market channels and helps in the systematic management of leads. You can use the software to filter leads for follow-up, attend to applicant inquiries, track your spending on marketing channels, and manage appointments with prospects. 

  • Application Manager
  • Advanced Form Builder
  • Student Admission Portal
  • Payment Manager 
  • Query Management System 
  • Reports & Analytics

Admissions

Automation is one of the best things that has happened to many industries. It is convenient, cheap, and reduces time, cost and effort significantly. In the admission process, Academia ERP automates most of the admission-related tasks and operations. This includes token fee collection, appointment slot booking, evaluation scheduling, notifying applicants, providing real-time updates to the applicants on their application status, and much more. Some of the salient features of the Academia ERP admissions module are:

  • Admission Settings
  • Application Creation
  • Form Management
  • Selection Process Setup
  • Final Admission List Generation
  • Reports & Analytics

 

Communication

Seamless communication between various stakeholders in the education ecosystem (internal & external) alone can take the applicant’s experience several notches high. In fact, it also plays a key role in ensuring higher admission rates. At Academia, we ensure seamless communication by unifying all the modes of communication at one single dashboard. 

Meaning whether you want to connect or notify an applicant over email, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, or any other leading communication mode — you get to do it from a single dashboard. 

To reduce efforts, there are bulk messaging options as well. Recently, we have incorporated Multimedia Messaging as well to make communication more creative, engaging, and eye-catchy. Following are some modes of communication we offer in the standard solution, you can also connect with our ERP experts to learn about other integrations. 

  • Email
  • Chat
  • WhatsApp 
  • In-App Calling 
  • SMS
  • Push Notifications

Dedicated Applicant Portal

One of the most important parts of automating admissions is the applicant portal. Using the portal, applicants can apply to the desired courses, track the progress of their application, connect with the support team, pay fees and manage receipts and get real-time updates on the portal through push notifications. In the times such as COVID-19, when commute was halted online applicant portals have worked wonders for many institutes. For dire times such as the pandemic and to evolve from the traditional shell, it is important for institutes to have both digital and traditional processes for admissions. 

Academia ERP applicant portal consists of the following features:

  • Applicant Registration
  • Inquiry and Admission Form
  • Declaration and Assessment
  • Fees and Receipts
  • Support 

Wrapping Up 

Education ERP software with dedicated features to manage admission can reduce the need for having multiple software for managing admission operations. Solutions such as Academia ERP offers a multi-faceted approach to institute management. It comes with a variety of features to seamlessly manage the pre-admissions and admissions phase of an academic year. The multi-center capabilities allow you to manage an unlimited number of academies you have across the globe. Most of all it helps you amplify the applicant experience. It provides timely updates to the applicant, updates information in real-time, personalizes your communication with the applicant, and helps manage thousands of enquires you get during the admissions phase. For more information about Academia ERP and how it can help you increase your admission rate, connect with our ERP experts here. 

Manage School Branches using Academia multi-school management system

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education institutions around the world are evolving from their traditional image and are emerging as big businesses. Some of the best names in the education industry have followed the concept of running their organization as a business and then moving on to become a center of learning. And if you ask us, there is nothing wrong with it. A profitable education system earns good money, which is further invested into facilities, affording the best teachers, providing for extracurricular activities, etc., thus ensuring the overall development of a student. 

Once this theory tests out, education organizations start to branch out. They open their academies in multiple locations and ensure more students are getting access to quality education. However, there is one problem that is very commonly seen with institutes branching out. They lose control and find it incredibly difficult to manage and monitor multiple branches. 

This is where multi-school management systems come into play. 

Multi-school management system

A multi-school management system is an ideal solution for education institutes with multiple branches spread across different geographical locations. The software gives more control to the administrators and allows them to have a 360-degree view of all their branches on a single platform. 

These are efficient and robust web applications that can be accessed over a browser and come with a super administrative portal. It provides super admin, and rights to access information, and perform tasks for multiple academies from a single platform for which they are authorized. These apps are also highly secure and efficient to handle bulk queries at the same time, rendering a high-end user experience. 

  • Fundamental difference between School Management System and Multi-School Management System 

The fundamental difference is in efficiency. If you are an institute that is already using a school management system, you must ask yourself — would you go on buying new subscriptions to the software each time you open a new branch? 

It is economically non-viable and very difficult to manage. Most of all, it would put the data into silos, where a super admin does not get the benefit of accessing data to make important decisions. Hence, if you are thinking about branching out, it is time to switch to school management software with multi-center capabilities. 

  • Helps maintain hierarchy and improves reporting

Typically, if your school organization has started to branch out, it is likely that you would set up a central administration team. This team is responsible for monitoring and managing academic and non-academic operations in all the academy locations. 

A multi-school management system thus allows you to assign roles and responsibilities to this central team. You can manage their access to data, and assign them rights for the assigned school branch. You can also choose to provide selective access to manage security and synergize hierarchy within the software that reflects your organization. 

    • Financial management 

Schools rely on the timely collection of fees to fund their operations. Also, it is very important to track the overhead expenses and increase transparency in financial operations. A lot of schools lose out on money because there is no way to digitally track their experience. This causes discrepancies while financial reporting and account management. 

A multi-school management system offers tools to digitally manage financial accounts and transactions. It also comes with dashboards and reports to monitor and administer the financial tasks of all the academies they are authorized for. Also, they get real-time updates on fee submissions, pending payments, automatically send out fee reminders to students and parents, centrally manage fee receipts, and more. 

  • Centralized Monitoring

Central monitoring of all the operations is one of the biggest benefits you get with a multi-school management system. Centralized administration allows you to ensure uniformity in quality and operations across all the academies in your organization. Using software instead of relying on traditional methods of management brings more transparency to operations and increases accuracy in the reporting.

Furthermore, it is a great toolset to increase accountability and positively impact the productivity of your employees. It also improves resource planning and optimization. For example, a digital library would ensure access to knowledge resources for all the students in the organization rather than waiting for books to be available. Similarly, it reduces manual work and ensures efficient and faster working. 

  • Branch Performance Analysis

Using School Management Software with multi-center capabilities allows you to track the performance of all the branches. You can get real-time updates about admissions, attendance, student experience, student success, student performance, parent experience, student satisfaction, everyday work of the institute, and other things. This helps organization owners to take better decisions from the business point of view. 

Wrapping Up 

If you are a chain of institutes or you are thinking about branching out, it is time to think about a multi-school management system. The software product comes with a plethora of modules that efficiently manage admissions, attendance, curriculum, finances, and resources across all the academies. It comes with several reports and dashboards to improve reporting. Most of all, it ensures centralized management of all your academies and gives more control over operations, and decisions. 

If you are looking for a solution such as this, you can consider Academia SMS which is a school management software with multi-center capabilities. For more information connect with our ERP experts. 

How Academia ERP helps overcome the biggest challenges of the UAE education sector?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Technology is rapidly transforming the education sector of the UAE. In this blog, we bring you some biggest challenges of the industry and how technology can help institutes to solve them. 

Challenges faced by the education sector in UAE

  • Manually Managing Admissions

Admissions are one of the most mismanaged phases of an academic year. Almost all education institutes that are managing their admissions traditionally fail at assisting students. They are too involved in minuscule tasks that require human intervention at every step. This causes many institutes not to reach the admission rates that they contemplate or have the potential for. It also causes a big dent in the profitability of an institution. 

Handling admissions manually is a toiling task that is prone to numerous human errors. Given the rising number of students in UAE – education institutes need software solutions that can replace the traditional processes and increase efficiency, speed and results. Also, most institutes go by a hunch or admit students on a first-come, first-serve basis. This increases the chances of seeing students dropping out. What modern education institutes in UAE need are program-specific candidate analysis and admission forecast. 

  • Data Management and Security Vulnerabilities

As technology makes its way into the education industry, it has also come under the target of cyber attacks. The use of legacy software with poor infrastructure gives cracks to the cyber attackers to make a breach and steal students, teachers, and institute data. 

With the increasing number of admissions each year, education institutes need to manage data properly. They need software to replace the bulky files that are very difficult to manage and are prone to destruction. They need a practical solution that, year-on-year, efficiently manages student data. 

  • Financial Management

In one single academic year, an education institute faces bulk payments from hundreds of students on a monthly, annual, and term basis. It becomes difficult for administrators to manage finances manually. Many times, students with unpaid fees go unnoticed. Sometimes there are cases of receipt mismanagement. We can say that manually managing finances is a very difficult task, and education institutes need robust finance management software. 

  • Communication Gaps

Parents are becoming more concerned about their ward’s education. However, their professional commitments make it very difficult for them to stay in contact with teachers and administrators at the institute. 

What they need are apps and portals where they can go anytime and track their ward’s performance and participation in academic and extracurricular activities. An education ERP software is a right fit for any institute that wants to reduce this communication gap as the software collates data from multiple departments to provide reports on attendance, examination, performance, etc. 

How Academia ERP helps in solving these challenges? 

  • Cost-cutting and Labor Reduction

Academia ERP is an efficient, 30+ module app suite that helps in task automation. The product efficiently helps in reducing human intervention and end-to-end automating several tasks in an institute. It helps increase transparency in the operations to make administration easy and provides teachers and non-academic staff with a software solution to do most of their routine operations. This helps reduce the efforts and cost of operations and makes institutes more efficient and profitable. 

  • Decisions Making

In-fused with solutions such as AI, ML, Big Data, Business Intelligence, and more — Academia ERP provides you with predictive analysis and provides quantified data on business operations to make better decisions. 

The product also provides granular reports on student performance, attendance, admissions, results, student risks, etc., to help institutes make better decisions on the student end. Reports such as student performance and attendance are also shared with parents/students to ensure complete transparency between parents/students and teachers. 

  • Data in Real-time

One of the biggest qualities of the software is that of centralizing data. The product can easily be integrated with leading education technologies and serves as a centralized database. This means you have a real-time update on all the operations happening in an institute. Plus, this makes the user experience more unified. The data is no longer in silos. 

  • Go Completely Paperless

If you perform paper-bound operations, you know how much you spend annually on papers and stationery. You can completely eliminate that expense by using Academia ERP. The product is an education ERP app suite that provides end-to-end digitalization of your institute. Every operation can be done digitally; you can manage records digitally and reduce your dependency on papers to near zero. 

  • Omnichannel Communication with Stakeholders

One of the biggest challenges solved by Academia ERP is that of communication. Using Academia ERP, you get a dedicated dashboard to broadcast your messages to all the stakeholders over email, SMS, WhatsApp, Chat, Push Notification, etc. This further reduces your efforts and brings seamlessness in communication. Using the product, you can stay in touch with applicants, students, alumni, parents, and staff. Also, recently there has been a new add-on where you can share multi-media messages as well using the tool.

Wrapping Up 

Education sector in UAE can benefit from the use of technology, especially education ERP solutions. This advanced software are built on modern technology to unify the experience across various software and brings automation to the routine tasks of an institute. They are fit for schools, colleges, and universities. For more information about Academia ERP, connect with our ERP expert here. 

Role of ICT Team in Education Institute

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

As technology continues to create wonders in various industries, it becomes essential to discuss its impact and effectiveness. It is vital to define its role and develop implementation strategies. You need to pre-define these crucial things to ensure better results through digital transformation. Strategizing helps an organization stay prepared for any risks and stay practical while analyzing the results.

The same follows for the education industry as well. When discussing the role of ICT in our lives, how can we forget about the transformations it is making in education? The blog would help you ensure technology makes a positive difference in the lives of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. 

What is ICT? 

ICT is a commonly used acronym for Information and Communication Technology. It is an umbrella term used to describe various things that fall under the information and communication segment, like telecommunication (telephones and wireless signals), computer technology, enterprise software, middleware, audiovisuals, and mobile applications. It also covers data management, storage, transmission, and manipulation of information. For more information, you can refer to the following Wikipedia page. 

The benefits of using ICT in education

Technology has recently started to make its way into the education industry. But the good thing is some of the technologies are already tried and tested in other industries, and the education sector has a lot of available literature to learn about them. This gives the industry the required push to start building their understanding of their key challenges and practical tools that can solve them. 

Technology in the education sector opens a whole new realm of opportunities where technology penetrates learning processes, learning methodologies, resource planning, financial management, performance management, reporting, etc. 

  • Technology in the classroom

One of the best ways to put technology to use in the education sector is in teaching. Technology allows teachers to go beyond textbooks and introduce various learning tools to students. From PowerPoints to gamified learning, pedagogy has changed drastically over the last 10 years. 

  • Use of technology tools like laptops, computers, AI, VR, & AR in the classrooms
  • Use online learning tools such as learning management systems. 
  • Use of data analytics for student performance analysis. 
  • Use tools such as Google Meet and Zoom for collaboration between students, teachers, and parents. 
  • Use of tools to manage homework and assignments.
  • Use of education ERP solutions for lesson plan management, program, and course management, timetable management, attendance management, etc. 
  • Technology for Student Engagement 

To create an interactive learning environment, communication with peers and teachers of any student must be seamless. It ensures the exchange of ideas and builds a student’s interest in participating in the learning process. It helps improve student outcomes through student success. Students must be inspired to participate in academic and extracurricular activities rather than obligated. 

  • Use of technology that promotes interactions and two-way communication. 
  • Use polls, messages, and personal and group chat rooms in an online learning environment. 
  • Creating digital space for students to express their opinions and grow effectively. 

 

  • Technology for campus management

Before technology reached the education sector, most operations were done manually. Operations were paper-bound, and mismanagement of resources and finances was widespread. With advanced education ERP solutions, campus management can be done digitally. 

  • Use of Student information systems for student management
  • Use an attendance management system for automating attendance marking
  • Use an admission management system for pre-admission, admission, and post-admission automation. 
  • Use of finance management software 
  • Use of education ERP for resource management and planning
  • Use of software and technology for unifying experience and centralizing information 

And more. 

Wrapping Up 

Information and Communication Technology in education is here to change the experience of all the stakeholders in the system. It is helping teachers build better teaching methodologies and ensuring higher student success through student engagement tools. It allows students to increase their communication with peers and teachers and get access to a variety of knowledge resources. It will enable students to find economically viable options for continuing education. Apart from this, technology has a significant role in administration and management. It allows improved decision-making through data analytics and modern tools. 

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: How Higher Education may Change in the US in the future?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Artificial intelligence and robotics are likely to have a significant impact on the higher education segment. Although the literature looks quite promising, there is yet some work to be done on centralizing all the studies and discovering if things are technically possible. The scope of impact is hard to grasp as we don’t know yet if implementing these two technologies is desirable, practical, and economically viable. However, many researchers use design fiction. We are basing our future speculations on the role of artificial intelligence and robotics in higher education based on their work. 

Current Scenario

Artificial intelligence and robotics have become buzzwords in the public, government, and academic sectors in the last few years. However, we are not yet ready to go into the implementation phase. The research literature is siloed, wide & deep, and very separated. For example, AI for education, learning analytics, educational data mining, etc., are separate fields.

Furthermore, using AI and robotics in the higher education segment is the ideation phase. We are still discovering how technology will participate in human decision-making. We have seen some use of the technology here and there, but we are yet to realize the full potential of the technology.

For implementing the technology, we need a wider understanding and debate to find answers to some of the biggest questions about its practical, ethical and social positioning in the market. 

At the same time, many existent bodies do review the literature and explore the challenges of implementing new technologies in the education sector. For example, a report by Reid in 2014 synthesized the change management issue of implementing technology in the classroom is highly regarded. 

Ironic enough, the industry which inspires innovation and the very platform for human development is not that open-minded about implementing technology. Especially when it comes to introducing technology and AI into the higher education segment, there is strong opposition. Many believe that technology and tools are dehumanizing the learning experience for students. Similarly, some believe technology in the education sector is a right-wing (especially in the USA) agenda to commercialize education and suppress liberal ideology. Many raise an ethical question around datafication of high education. 

There is a long list of apprehensions and many obstacles which are stopping the use of AI and robotics in the education sector. Yet, many use design fiction to stay imaginative and positive about implementing technology into the higher education segment. 

Design Fiction

Design fiction is a term used to describe a speculative space in which raising questions about a particular technology is desirable. Social and cultural assumptions are built into technologies and the potential for different technologies to help the world evolve. The space discusses the role of technology in general and how it will impact the industry and the world in the future. 

In this blog, we are discussing five design fiction that captures the potential of using AI and robotics in learning, administration, and research. This would help you have a wider view of the technologies and how these two technologies would change the higher education sector of the US by — changing staff roles, skill development, knowledge transfer, administration, etc. 

Design Fiction#1: AI & Robotics in Learning

One of the most popular application of artificial intelligence is in learning tools. AI in learning focuses on teaching students directly. It talks about Intelligent Tutoring Systems, which teach course content to students, and take a step-by-step process to personalize learning for each individual. 

Similar to this, Automatic Writing Evaluation tools, Conversational AI (chatbots),  and Adaptive Pedagogical Agents (a virtual character in the online or blending learning environment for instructional purposes). 

Design Fiction#2: Social Robots 

Social robots for learning is a physical robot for learning that supports students by interacting with them and helping with task completion. Evidence shows that learning is better with a physical entity than with a virtual agent. 

Thus, the concept of social robots is an imaginative concept of learning alongside robots. The concepts talk about robots interacting with the students and continuously learning about a student’s behavior and developing a sense of their needs. Using this, the robot can interact with the students at the right time and inspire them to do their work.

Design Fiction#3: Critical Conversation Bot

This fiction is inspired by Bayne’s 2015 description of Teacherbot. It is a chatbot developed to support a MOOC on e-learning and digital culture. The bot has no physical attribute. This fictional concept of the bot argues the role of robotics and artificial intelligence in building bots that inspire students to be critical thinkers and prompt them to think harder about their process of reading academic texts, raising questions about concepts, prompting discussions, and more. 

Design Fiction#4: Intelligent Campus App

This fiction emphasizes the direct application through tech-driven intelligent campus management. The concept is to increase the use of the Internet of Things and AI to improve campus management. This takes the current application of technology from using IoT for controlling lights and temperature to wayfinding, attendance monitoring, student experience, etc. One of the best examples of this is found in Luckin and Holmes (2017) fiction, which shows an optimistic vision towards the convenience the technology provides to students and enhances the student experience. 

Design#5: Learning analytics and datafication

The fifth fiction discusses using learning analytics and datafication in admission administration, decisioning, and ensuring retention. Chatbots can be used to assist applications through the complex processes of admission and maintain contact with them to attain higher retention. Using chatbots would be an economically viable, easy-to-implement option rather than using human resources. Gathering more data about Higher Education is seen in a positive light where it brings more transparency to increase accountability in staff and teachers towards students. 

However, using data in AI also has many issues. Security issues, ethical and legal restrictions, privacy legislation, implications of taking consent, and the right of control over one’s data are some of the biggest discussions around data usage. 

Data can be used in predictive analytics that would help institutes to find answers to some of the biggest concerns of the industry. However, there is a growing debate on how AI is trained. Currently, AI uses training data that does not represent the whole population. And hence, many draw attention to this bias. What is expected of developers is to bring more diversity. But since datafication requires standardization, we are still a long way from achieving a system that is above social, cultural, and demographic bias. 

Wrapping Up

These were some fictional designs that discuss the role of AI and robotics in the education sector. However, these have no ground existence right now and are merely an image of various researchers on how technology would change the education sector. 

Very few, but the use of AI and robotics applications have started to surface in the education sector. This includes AI-enabled chatbots, cloud-based applications that provide personalized learning, smart classroom management, etc. 

Hence, talking of the future, we should remain more hopeful. Sooner or later, there may be times when some of the things mentioned in these design fictions may come true. 

Everything you need to know about the education system in Canada

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The Canadian government is making some big investments in the public education sector. And statistics do confirm they are on the right path. In the past decade, the country has become a global center for people to find new job opportunities, business opportunities, education, a better quality of life, and so much more. To meet the demands of people from various parts of the world, it was very practical for the government to internationalize its education system. 

In this blog, we will be discussing the education system of Canada and why it is considered one of the best. 

Overview

Canada has a well-funded public education. It is managed provincially, and there are some aspects (very few, although) that vary from province to province. However, as the federal government oversees education, the standard remains consistently high throughout the country. 

In Canada, there are both public and private education institutions. The Canadian government spends heftily subsidizing education from kindergarten to the post-secondary level (provided by universities). It spends about 6% of its GDP on education, which is more than the average among the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

Education Segmentation in Canada

Education in Canada is divided into three levels: 

  • Primary 
  • Secondary
  • Post-secondary

Primary Education 

Primary education starts at the elementary level and ends at grade 8. Students would usually start at the age of six to seven and would pass out from the primary segment at the age of 13 to 14. The school year starts in September and ends in following June. 

Education in Canada is available to all students at the age of 5. Provinces such as Quebec and Ontario provide elementary education at the age of 4 too. Depending on the provider, a student can be enrolled in Kindergarten. But that is optional. A student can directly enroll in Grade 1 as well. Since the education system changes province to province, needless to say, the age of compulsory education changes too. 

Province Age of compulsory education
Alberta 6 to 16
British Columbia 6 to 16
Manitoba 7 to 18
New Brunswick 5 to 18
Newfoundland 6 to 16
Northwest Territories 5 to 18
Nova Scotia 5 to 16
Ontario 6 to 18
Prince Edward Island 5 to 16
Quebec 6 to 16
Saskatchewan 7 to 16
Yukon 6 to 16

Secondary Education 

Secondary education or high school, in generic terms, starts at grade 9 to grade 12. A student would typically start high school at age 14 and pass out at 18. Since the education system in Canada is managed provincially, provinces such as Ontario and Quebec have a slight difference in their education system. 

In Ontario, they have a Grade 12+, and in Quebec, students attend high school until the age of 16. Students also have a choice to proceed to CEGEP, a publicly funded two-year college program where students can pursue either a university education, go for a diploma, or a vocational diploma. 

Post-Secondary Education

Canada has a vast network of colleges and universities and offers some of the best post-secondary education options worldwide. 

It has many internationally recognized programs. They are located both in urban and rural regions throughout the nation and have made education affordable and accessible to the population across the country. Degree awarded from Canadian universities is recognized worldwide and hold the weightage same as some of the most prestigious universities worldwide. 

Universities programs start from September to April or May. A college year is comprised of two semesters or terms. A student also can take classes for the third semester in the summer months. So, it entirely depends on the institute and students to start their university program in September or January. College programs can run all throughout the year, and this flexibility allows students to begin the course at any point of the year. 

Wrapping Up 

Canada has one of the highest literacy ratios. In 2015, 90% of people in Canada aged 25 to 64 were found to have completed at least high school, and 66% of people had obtained a post-secondary education credential. 

Quality and flexibility of education are two of the biggest reasons for the success of the Canadian education system. It provides the best facilities to its students for vocational and research. Provides a flexible structure, has made compulsory education for up to 16 years at least, and has been able to inculcate interest in people for education.  

The country is doing fairly well in the Primary and Secondary education segment. But it still has some deficiencies in post-secondary education. Like most countries in the world, Canada too is fighting the challenge of high dropout rates, and this can easily be mitigated through technological solutions. Learn more about education technologies such as education ERP / Student Information Systems to know how they can help in improved admission rates and student retention. 

Digital Education in Indonesia: Transforming the System

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Indonesia celebrated National Technology Awakening Day in August 2022. The Ministry of education, culture, and technology participated in this event; it was a cross-departmental effort towards improving the education system of Indonesia through effective digital initiatives. The theme for this year was “Educational Transformation and Innovation through Technology.” 

The event had several highlights, including the government’s plan to go more digital-exclusive in the coming few years to make education more accessible and economically viable. 

On occasion, the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim shared, 

“Thank you to the more than 1.2 million educators who have accessed and shared material on the Merdeka Mengajar [Emancipated Teaching] platform, a channel for teachers to learn, to teach and to create and support the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum. In addition, as many as 3.2 million educators and education offices throughout Indonesia have accessed various technology platforms with a belajar.id account,”

The platform has become a learning tool for 714,000 students, 2,600 universities, 2,700 industrial partners, and 43,000 practitioners. The Ministry also released other platforms such as Rapor Pendidikan, Tanya Bos, Kampus, Merdeka, The School Activity Plan and Budget Application (ARKAS), and the School Procurement Information System (SIPLah).

 In the course of three years, the government has made several efforts to improve the digital infrastructure of the country. It worked with various educational institutes. They collaborated with principals, teachers, administrators, and lecturers to get the view of various stakeholders. The government’s aim has solely been to benefit various stakeholders in the education ecosystem. 

Today, Merdeka Curriculum and Belajar.id is impacting the lives of 1.6 million users and more than 312 thousand teachers. There are advanced teaching tools that teachers regularly use, and more than 1000 teacher communities throughout the country are relying on digital content libraries for teaching.

More than 500 colleges and more than 4000 educational institutions throughout the country are digitally equipped. However, there is a lot of scope for improvement, which requires hefty funding from government and private players to enter the market. The collaboration fund has been increased from 2 trillion to 11 trillion, which is likely to support the digital infrastructure to manage three times more users than there were in 2021.

Similarly, the government of Indonesia has an exceeding focus on improving opportunities for students. They are finding ways to make collaboration easy for the students of Indonesia. VokasiLand — a virtual reality project, is a great example of this. 

Transformation and innovation in Indonesia are all about collaboration and joint efforts of all the stakeholders. It is a holistic approach that is likely to completely change the landscape of the Indonesian education system. With technology becoming cheaper and cheaper and more accessible to people around the world, over time learning process, learning tools, learning experience, student outcomes, and so many more things are going to drastically change to cause a positive impact. 

Learn how Academia ERP is helping leading institutes in Indonesia to mitigate challenges such as increased drop rates, institute management, resource planning, financial planning and management, and more. Contact us here. 

What is Student-Centered Learning?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Now, this may come out as bizarre to you, but some of the world’s best schools have already started adopting it. Student-centered learning (SCL) is a concept in which, a student participates in the making and organizing of the content to fulfill its academic goals. The student decides what to learn, if it wants to learn, and how it learns. 

It is the direct opposite of teacher-centered approaches that have been in practice till now. It contrasts and challenges the traditional education system and implements the practices which allow students to hold the reigns of their future. There are some apprehensions in the industry. Are students mature enough to understand what is important to learn and what is not? Do we have the resources to accommodate the tools that are preferred for learning? There are a variety of basic questions. 

As someone from administration or management, it is very important to find out how effective it is and why it is important before jumping to any conclusion. In this blog, we would try to demystify things around SCL as much as possible. 

What are the factors involved in SCL? 

When we say we are giving the students control, we have to identify the aspects in which they have a say or control. Contrasting to TCL, SCL proposes a student be a leader that drives all the decisions around the learning process. It includes researching, proposing solutions, communicating ideas, and evaluating their own progress. This is everything that a teacher does in TCL. The role of teachers in SCL is that of a guide that helps put in place a process to attain the student’s goals. But still, they don’t have a say in the content, timing, or motivation as these would be controlled by the student. 

How is SCL different from Personalized Learning?

SCL and personalized learning are used interchangeably, which is not correct. In personalized learning, the reigns are still in the teacher’s hands. But in SCL, the entire scenario is altered. However, it is very easy to get confused as SCL does flaunt characteristics such as a highly personalized learning experience and openness to new teaching tools and styles as per individual preferences. 

Important features for successful implementation of SCL

  • Project-based learning 
  • Inter-disciplinary learning 
  • Assessment tool for evaluation
  • Feedback platform from Students and Parents
  • Personalized learning experience 
  • Robust IT infrastructure to support Virtual learning for flexibility

How educators must approach SCL?

As the classroom roles change with the implementation of SCL, it is important to learn how educators are coping with this change. 

Many studies are being conducted on the subject of SCL. The one that piqued my interest the most was that of the International Journal of STEM education in 2018. It talks about the identity-level shift and how educators have evolved from being content dispensers to content resources. 

Furthermore, many educators upon embracing SCL appreciated the positivity it brings to the classrooms and report its various benefits. They talk about better relationships between students & teachers, higher engagement, and tailored learning experiences. 

How is curriculum impacted in SCL?

Till now, we have seen schools have a definite curriculum and a flow in which the curriculum is taught to the students. It is a very important aspect of the education system. 

The same goes for SCL. SCL does not disregard the importance of curriculum, it just modifies. The curriculum for an SCL model is developed to pique the interest of a student as much as they would want to pursue learning in that particular course. Since it is project-based learning, it gives students a big opportunity to have a say in what they want to learn and how they want to approach the learning. 

Also, SCL proposes inter-disciplinary learning, which means a student can learn a combination of two or more academic disciplines in one activity. 

Role of teachers in SCL

There are various roles that can be obtained by a teacher in a student-centered learning environment. We are mentioning them here: 

  • Resource 

The student-centered learning environment sees teachers as knowledge resources to access knowledge. Since SCL gives huge credit to student knowledge, personal experiences, and understanding, SCL allows students to lead the classrooms and communicate their viewpoints. 

A teacher can guide these conversations, share their viewpoints, allow in-depth discussions by participating in these conversations, and build a good relationship with the student. This allows students to be benefitted from the knowledge and expertise of the teacher and work in partnership with the students. 

  • Mentor

It is very important for students to place their trust in adults, especially those that are connected with them on several levels. It helps you harness the feeling of a community at your school, and students share their bad and good experiences more openly for improvement. It also allows you to work on the aspects that are more beneficial for students. SCL gives a wide scope for it. 

  • Guide

SCL proposes teachers to be a guiding source, meaning they guide the student in the learning process and help them in overcoming these challenges. Teachers can help students understand how skills and knowledge would affect their lives in larger and smaller aspects. 

Furthermore, it gives teachers a great opportunity to nurture the students and become a part of their learning journey rather than just being a juncture in it. It gives a wider scope to understand the future goals of a student and provides them timely motivation and guidance to help achieve the goals.

Benefits of Student-Centered Learning 

Some of the biggest benefits of student-centered learning are: 

  1. Helps create a meaningful learning environment 
  2. Helps motivate students to take initiative towards learning
  3. Enjoy personalized learning
  4. Project-based learning that helps increase student engagement
  5. Improves academic performance
  6. Helps nurture a positive relationship between teachers and students
  7. Increases communication and collaboration in the classroom
  8. Increases participation of students in school activities 

Way Forward

The quantitative data on SCL shows many good traits. In a study from the Stanford Centre for Opportunity Policy in Education, it was found that students learning in the SCL environment outperformed the students studying in the traditional setup. Furthermore, there were lesser dropout rates and a higher number of graduates who applied to colleges. 

However, it should be noted that SCL comes with challenges that require educators to change their strategy to govern the classes and meet the requirements for SCL.  The challenges include the possibility of indiscipline in the classroom, increased workload due to higher classroom management, unevenness in the student participation rate, shifting students to a new environment, etc. 

These challenges are easily manageable through an advanced IT infrastructure and a more cohesive environment for students to participate in meaningful discussions. For achieving a high-end student experience and student engagement, digital transformation is necessary. It allows you to become an integral part of students learning journey and does not bind you to four-walled classrooms. Before you prep for student-centered learning, let’s finish up the groundwork together. Consider a free consultation with our ERP expert for a digital transformation at your institute, and together we can make things better for the students. 

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