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Author: Hemant Mahajan

Technology in Education: Key Takeaways from NEP 2020

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

In July 2020, India’s HRD Ministry was renamed Education Ministry and it unveiled the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, a revolutionary regulation with ground breaking changes in Indian Education. This policy, while focusing on various aspects of education, weaves in technology at every stage. 

The NEP has been welcomed by educators all over the country who insisted it was long due. In the last few years, India has turned itself into an information focused society and it has become the need of the hour to embrace technology in the field of education. The NEP 2020 states that one of the main drivers of the education system will be ‘extensive use of technology in teaching and learning, removing language barriers, increasing access as well as education planning and management’.

It has become even more relevant in the current pandemic situation when virtual learning is the new normal, to re imagine conventional learning and teaching techniques. The Policy drafts a vision of education for the new generation which will help to build a self-reliant India.

According to the policy, a dedicated e-education unit and a National Education Technology Forum (NETF) will be set up to boost digital content, infrastructure and capacity building. Through NETF, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, computing devices and other educational software and hardware will be incorporated into education at all levels to improve classroom processes, boost student progress, support teachers development and streamline administration and management.

Let’s look at some of the key aspects of NEP 2020 dealing with technology.

Primary Education

  • Recognising technology as an aid for teachers, bridging language barriers between teacher and student, creating digital libraries, enabling greater access to education, specifically for differently abled children.
  • Coding to be introduced in school curriculum as an important skill for students to develop.
  • Technology can be effectively used for teacher education and online teacher training.

Professional & Higher Education

  • Technology to be a part of professional education (legal/health)
  • Technology to be used to achieve 100% literacy has been proposed. For this, quality technology-based options for adult learning has to be introduced.
  • Recognising the importance of technology in addressing different challenges of society and to promote interdisciplinary research and innovation. For example, setting up a National Research Foundation has been proposed to grow a culture of research and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been encouraged to open start-up incubation centres and technology development centres
  • The National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) to be set up to serve as a platform for the free exchange of ideas on using technology to enhance learning, assessment, and administration.

Administration of Education

  • The Academic Bank of Credit is to be created, which will digitally store academic credits earned from various HEIs. These credits earned over a period of time will help to grant degrees.
  • Focus on using technology to ensure efficiency and transparency of regulatory bodies like the State School Standards Authority, the Higher Education Commission of India and also its four verticals (National Higher Education Regulatory Council, National Accreditation Council, Higher Education Grants Council and the General Education Council).

Adapting to Artificial Intelligence

  • Recognising the challenges arising from the widespread use of Artificial Intelligence, the Policy focuses on the need to adopt changes occurring due to excessive use of AI across sectors.
  • The NETF will identify and categorise emerging technologies according to their potential and estimated timeframe for disruption, and present a periodic analysis to the Education Ministry, who will formally identify the relevant technologies.
  • The Policy is pioneering the need to generate awareness and conduct research on various facets of the emerging disruptive technologies, including concerns about data handling and security.

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Digital India

  • The Policy foresees creating a dedicated unit to frame the development of digital infrastructure, content and capacity building to take care of the e-education needs of school and higher education.
  • On a national level, the NEP 2020 calls for

> Investing in digital infrastructure
> Developing online teaching platforms and tools
> Creating virtual labs and digital repositories-Training teachers towards becoming quality online content creators
> Designing and implementing online assessments
> Establishing quality standards for content and technology
> Pedagogy for online teaching-learning

It has to be acknowledged that the NEP 2020 has done a path breaking job in incorporating technology in the Indian education system, but this also raises certain concerns and challenges that cannot be ignored.

A large part of rural India is still digitally challenged. According to a government survey conducted between July 2017 to June 2018, the results released in November 2019 say –

(a) Only 4.4% households in rural India have computers as against 23.4% urban households.
(b) 14.9% of rural India has internet facility as against 42% urban households.
(c) Internet users are growing in rural India, though access is almost always through mobile phones, in rural as well as urban areas.

For the purpose of education, it is necessary for students to have exclusive access to any form of digital hardware, be it a smartphone, computer or tablet. However, in today’s scenario, a majority of students from under privileged backgrounds have limited or no access to devices, internet and in some cases, even electricity.

While NEP 2020 recognises these limitations and the efforts to eliminate them with campaigns like Digital India and making affordable computing devices available, practical solutions are needed along with awareness on the importance and use of technology. Also, the human factor of education is crucial and technology is meant to further amplify the learning experience.

The NEP 2020 is undoubtedly a progressive step towards education of the future, with technology playing an invaluable role in facilitating teaching and learning. Hence, it is important to develop a coherent road map for promoting successful technologies and also providing effective data security and privacy, with the help of ed-tech companies which offer holistic education management information systems .

Estimates say that by 2022, the Indian K-12 ed-tech market, including educational ERP softwares, will be worth USD 1.7 billion and post K12 ed-tech market will be worth USD 1.8 billion. The policy also offers an opportunity for cooperation between the various industry stakeholders and regulatory authorities/educational institutions.

Finally, the success of NEP 2020 will depend on how well it is implemented, and how effectively the objectives of the Policy are integrated within the existing initiatives while also involving the relevant stakeholders in delivering the policy effectively.

The NEP 2020 is a great step in accepting that education in the future will mean greater dematerialisation and digitalisation of content and working towards staying ahead of the curve. For a country steeped in a traditional education system, this itself for India is an extraordinary feat.

NEP Policy: Opportunity for Educational Institutes in Distance Education

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

NEP policy has introduced a new concept of credit transfer: a student can take a course offered by an educational institution registered with the Academic Bank of Credit and use the credit for his degree. NEP policy has also allowed students to take various courses as part of their undergraduate and postgraduate programs. 

This approach has created an opportunity for educational institutes to offer their courses in Distance Learning mode to the students. But running a distance learning program also needs the appropriate ERP systems. Some unique requirements of distance learning are:

  • Easy online distribution of study materials/ Assignments

    Students may be far away in distance education. So the physical distribution of course materials is not possible. An ERP system with the option to upload various course types and materials (pdf, ppt, video, program files, etc.) with targeted distribution capability can help educational institutes.

    AcademiaERP has options where faculties can upload various course materials and distribute them to the students of specific programs. There are options to send course materials to students of multiple programs or a particular set of students. Also, the availability of course materials can be restricted by time, so it is ensured that the students access the course materials within the stipulated timeline. It also has the option to send an automatic real-time email, whatsapp messages, etc., to the students once the study material is uploaded to the ERP portal. 
  • Online submission of assignments by the students and correction of the assignment by the faculty

    Due to physical distance, students enrolled in distance education should be allowed to submit assignments online, and faculty should have the condition to upload corrected assignments online.

    AcademiaERP has options for faculty to upload assignments on the portal and distribute them to the proper recipients. The assignments can also be made available till a particular time. Students can access the assignments and submit their assignments via Student Portal. They can also access the corrected assignments via student portals. To ensure automated communication, there are options to enable automated real-time email. These whatsapp messages among students and teachers get triggered by uploading assignments by the faculties, submitting assignments by the students, etc.
  • Online Fee Generation, Fee Collections, and Fee Receipts



    Institutes can generate fees in AcademiaERP and assign them to the program(s). There are options to offer multiple payment schedules like one-time, installments, and opportunities to offer discounts/ scholarships based on students’ performances. AcademiaERP is integrated with various payment gateways to enable students to pay online fees. Receipts are also generated online and can be downloaded in the student portal.

    AcademiaERP comes with multiple fee dashboards and charts where the admin can see the total fee collected, fees overdue, etc., at various levels like program level, institute level, etc. There are also options to create and send automatic emails, whatsapp messages on fees overdue to the students and admins.

Interested to know more? Learn all about the new National Education Policy here.

Know how Academia ERP can help your institute to be the pioneer in this digital age. Contact us to learn more!

Importance of College ERP for Stakeholders

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

In the past decade, technology has become an integral part of many industries/businesses, and educational institutions are never an exception. Nowadays, with the increasing scope of technology, universities, higher education, and schools are incorporating quick decision-making into their current system. Institutions that are seeking a smart school or college management system need to opt for tools and software that can help faculty members, administrators, and other staff to master their tasks with more accuracy and efficiency.


 

  • Capability to manage academic & administrative tasks 

The current scenario of educational institutions involves a bundle of academic and administrative tasks. Right from admission enquiry to the alumni of the student, the administrators, faculty members, guest lecturers, and researchers find it difficult to manage all the operations manually. 

To this, a college ERP software can be the best solution, it can provide administrators and faculty members manage all the operations efficiently using just one single software. It can avail faculty members to manage all the important objectives in just a few minutes of tasks. 

  • Remote admission process 

Admission season is considered one of the busiest yet most important seasons in any educational institution. In completing this process, the staff, administrators, and faculty members get frustrated with the manual interventions in the institutions. In today’s scenario, institutions must choose technologies like college ERP software that can become a savior and help in managing all the admission-related activities remotely, quickly, and accurately. It also enhances productivity and boosts faculty morale in positive ways.

  • Efficient examination management

The examination time is also one of the hectic periods for educational institutions. It includes a bulk of tasks like question paper generation, hall ticket distribution, examination sheet checking, result, and more. So in the paced world, institutions must opt for good software that can help in automating the complete examination process and help in validating a fruitful examination season for students, faculty members, and ultimately for the institution.


 

  • Synchronized attendance management 

Attendance is also a crucial element of administrative processes in an institution. An effective attendance system brings success for students and also for the institute. Institutions that are still following manual processes always find attendance management a confusing and hectic process. It also creates a wall between the faculty and parents as faculty members are not always able to share the exact attendance details of students in an institution. 

An automated attendance system brings efficiency to the institution, improves student performance, and ensures trust between parents and faculty. Automation of attendance processes using biometric integration or directly through the portal can help institutions bring efficiency in different ways. 

  • Accurate financial aid 

Managing financial aid in universities, colleges, and schools is a difficult task for administrators, faculty members, and even for students if done manually. There are multiple fee structures, various departments, and of course a huge number of students. 

Meanwhile, institutions can make the complete finance process easy, flexible, and transparent. It gives a true platform and connects the entire process for just one or multiple campuses simplifying all the fee-related and financial operations of the institute. 

  • Student lifecycle management

A student is considered the most important stakeholder of any educational entity. Almost all of the tasks in the institution are connected to students. Faculty members always find it difficult to manage and organize students using the manual intervention. A school or college ERP software can attract students, track their interests, and nurture them accordingly. It also can help institutions engage students in real prospects and provide faculty and parents with real-time analytics for student tracking and enhancement. 

  • Data & information management

Educational institutions involve a huge amount of student data for managing school affairs systematically. In manual intervention, it becomes crucial for faculty members to manage data in papers, files, and documents. 

Automation through a robust ERP/SIS can help institutions streamline the complete processes and manage student data. It also helps to store, organize, and manage all the data in a centralized manner that can be easily accessed, edited, and updated from anywhere and anytime by faculty and parents according to the authority. 

  • A hybrid method of learning 

In today’s advanced and technological world, it is important for educational institutions to opt for a hybrid method of learning. A combination of both online and offline methods in the classroom using new technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and more can help institutions ease student learning and teaching process. 

Conclusion 

A college ERP can be the best solution for educational institutions, it can provide robust management for every stakeholder, especially faculty members and students. Hope you like the article, still having doubts? Let’s discuss this now! 

Capability to manage academic & administrative tasks 

The current scenario of educational institutions involves a bundle of academic and administrative tasks. Right from admission enquiry to the alumni of the student, the administrators, faculty members, guest lecturers, and researchers find it difficult to manage all the operations manually. 

To this, a college ERP software can be the best solution, it can provide administrators and faculty members manage all the operations efficiently using just one single software. It can avail faculty members to manage all the important objectives in just a few minutes of tasks. 

5 Ways Technology Can Help Save Costs for Academic Institutes

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The growth of educational resources and online courses being offered today are a clear indication of the shift to technology and how it’s changing the landscape of the education industry. 

Every year there is an increasing number of students opting out of attending schools and colleges physically. With many study options available, a lot of which are online and comparatively cheaper, technology is playing a huge role in making education accessible and cheaper than ever before. Even long-distance or work-based learning, as well as apprenticeships, are becoming available online, which reduces the total cost of education by permitting interns to live at home and learn and earn. 

Today, when the world has been ravaged by COVID19 in an unprecedented way, education is one field that has managed to deliver, without any hiccups. Educational institutions all over the world have quickly moved all their teaching online and are making sure that students are gathering every bit of knowledge and learning that they would have, on campus. 

While online education may be the need of the hour right now, technology has always proved to be a gainful investment for educational institutions, one of which is saving on costs. 

Let us explore 5 ways in which technology can help save costs for educational institutions. 

1. Using the cloud instead of the copier

Educational institutions have seen the enormous potential of the cloud and more and more schools and colleges are moving over every year. A market research report had predicted a 26% annual growth in cloud computing in schools through 2021. Needless to say, with the ongoing pandemic the numbers would inflate too much more than that. 

Cloud technology has plenty of instant benefits to academic institutions like –

  • It does away with the need to buy expensive printed textbooks, which become outdated quickly. Using digital content allows easy regular updating as and when necessary, which also saves cost substantially for the school. 
  • It minimizes the requirements for expensive hardware like servers, which call for ongoing server room cooling, maintenance and a huge amount of space. 
  • It reduces the use of toner and copy paper, along with saving the time spent on making copies every week, while also reducing carbon footprints. 
  • If there is ever a loss or a need to track down a paper trail, a cloud system will give easy access and swiftly recover data.

2. Taking advantage of the VoIP over the traditional PBX

Switching over to the VoIP phone system has helped schools and institutions to cut down costs by lowering phone bills and having access to new automation features to further boost productivity. 

VoIP providers often offer free internal calls making it possible for teachers, administrators, and anyone with a phone connected to the phone system to call each other without any charges. Larger schools and institutions can save a substantial amount by using a VoIP phone system since all the frequent calls made within a school system are considered in-network and will be free of charge.

A VoIP system is cheaper to maintain than a PBX system. It can be installed quickly with adding and removing of phones done simply. A hosted VoIP system comes with free 24/7 support staff. 

3. Opting for the digital platform over manual  

In this age of technology, it is a challenge for educators to constantly keep the learning environment engaging and relevant. It is important for them to keep the communications and information flow of the school community completely smooth and secure.

While it may seem migrating to a digital platform would require huge budgets, truth is, it is the crucial factor that can actually cut costs, boost productivity and save time which is otherwise wasted on administrative tasks. With digitization, teachers and administrators do not have to spend time with old machines, including outdated computers, printers and slow networks; and could use their time for more productive work. Teachers have the advantage of using technology to produce more creative learning opportunities for students. On the other hand, students get accustomed to technology at an early age and learn valuable skills which will sustain them for life. 

4. Using special-purpose applications for better efficiency

Educational institutions have started to see the utility of application that can help them manage a lot of departments better. Since educators know they have the responsibility of building the careers and lives of a whole new generation, they understand there is no scope for mistakes. Switching over to digital helps to make sure there are no errors in statistics and work flows smoothly as programmed. They are moving to the use of specifically created applications to better manage food services, school buses, utilities like electricity and cooling/heating, textbooks, etc.

Besides the smooth functioning and management of various departments with the use of various applications, educational institutions are also saving money by eliminating the need of human intervention and physical work.

5. Availing digital documents over physical material

One important aspect of knowledge is, it needs constant updating. Going digital helps to quickly and efficiently update new material online with adaptable changes. Content changes and delivery, digitally, lowers the cost of printing the new material and also gets rid of the reliance on physical printed content and copy.

While education institutions wake up to the importance of technology and seek to empower themselves with the latest, it is the SIS (Student Information System) that has proved to be the groundbreaker with the advantage to connect, teach and manage better. One of the most important roles technology plays is to handle evolving requirements and efficiently manage multiple modes of communication. 

Academia SIS has been specifically developed to suit the current and future needs of growing higher education institutions. It is a unique multifeatured solution for Group Institutions, Business Universities, Colleges, Schools, etc. and automates the complete student life cycle.

Undeniably, the best technology solution to successfully lower costs while providing an edge by enhancing connectivity among students, teachers and parents.

For the education institutions, while adopting technology helps to cut down costs, it also works for students as the expenses go down considerably with online course materials and other associated expenses. Hence, a win-win for all. 

Top 4 Features of Academia Student Information System that Educators Like

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

For modern educational institutions, it is important to adopt technologies like student information systems, whether a university, college, school, or training institution, a student information system can be a good choice for maintaining any day-to-day tasks. 

Academia by Serosoft is an award-winning Student Information Management System that is benefitting 300+ institutions around the world, providing and powering education leaders to bring a better, faster, efficient, and productive education system to the institution. 

To enhance the experience of our clients, we have extracted the most used and favorite modules that are providing enormous benefits to education institutions. 

Here are a few of the Academia SIS modules that they like the most:

1. Online Admission Management

Admission season is one of the most important sessions of any educational institution, it needs to be effective and efficient in any sense. It involves various tasks from admission inquiry, form sales, and student registration, to the enrollment process. 

The Academia admission management system provides a systematic approach to solving all these problems. It manages the complete admission process simply, effectively, and efficiently. 

Benefits of using an Academia admission management system:

  • Manage Admission Inquiry Online

Admission starts with the most prominent step called pre-admission, pre-admission involves inquiry and ends with admission. So having a proper and effective management system like Academia for the complete admission process helps in resolving the query of applicants following the next steps for admissions. 

  • Easy payment processing

The Academia admission management system provides all the processes of fee, registration, fee, enrollment, etc. It provides seamless management of all the records, without any human error. Admission management system using Academia helps in streamlining easy payment processing making it less time-consuming and efficient. 

  • Applicant Status Setting

It is also one of the prominent steps as after applying for admission, students and their parents get eager to check the application status. 

They have to call or even come to the institution over and over for updates, which sometimes becomes so inconvenient. 

The Academia management system provides features by which applicants can check their application status. Academia applicant portal exclusively can be used to check status, upload and download documents, applications, fee payments, and all other things. 

  • Improved Communication

Communication is the key to effective management in the organization and sometimes having mouth-to-mouth communication in manual intervention creates gaps, chaos, and confusion. Academia admission management system helps in all-around communication by having facilities like chatbots and various other communication functionalities that help in improving communication between applicants and institutions. 

  • Uniformity in admission across multiple academies

Various educational institutions own multiple academies. So having multiple academies, it becomes difficult to manage all the processes of admissions effectively. Academia owns the capability of managing several institutions simultaneously providing all the processes related to admission like inquiries, payments, bills, etc. through a single system efficiently and effectively.

2. Report management with Smart Analytics

Educational institutions usually have endless paperwork, reporting, documentation, etc. There is no way to stop it, but there is a way to manage it. With the digitization of academic processes, it becomes way more comfortable and time-saving to generate reports and keep track of every document whenever and wherever needed. 

Academia SIS enables educators to organize that reporting system seamlessly. The integration of the smart analytics system assists staff to generate reports within a few clicks. As it is a centralized student database system, it becomes super convenient to use some filters, gather data from other departments, and generate reports within seconds—no need to do data entry for hours. The reporting system of Academia is available in different charts & bar graphs, which helps education leaders analyze and thereby faster decision making.

Benefits of analytics and reporting for educational institutions:

  • Understanding and recognizing the demographics and behavior

Using advanced analytics, education institutions can seek transformation along with having an understanding of constant demographic trends and behavior in pursuing administrative services and managing effective and efficient institutional management. 

  • Optimizing the use of resources

By implementing an analytics and reporting engine you can optimize and achieve your desired targets in a better way. Institutions choose to adopt a well-designed and systematic approach through an analytical system that can capture, manage, share, and store any information easily along with solving and de-escalating any problem effectively. 

  • Recruitment of students

Higher education institutions, colleges, schools, or even any educational institution often face various complications following various modes. Having proper analytics and reporting, it can become easier to recruit students in a systematic manner. 

  • Helping the students to learn things more properly

Educational institutions that choose Academia get effective, proper, systematic, learning to the students, as having the power of modern educational systems enables faculties to get more insights related to the student’s performance along with having the opportunity to grab and learn. It gives them a chance to learn according to their pace and convenience, with courses, and facilities remaining one click away. 

  • Creating data transparency

In educational institutions, there are various operations that can be mismanaged by having manual interventions. Having a systematic analytical process, Academia provides the opportunity to access anything at any time creating data transparency for faculty members, students, and management. 

With data transparency through analytics, institutions can be able to take a snapshot of how students are engaged and how well they are performing, the management can also check the efficiency of faculty members and how excellent teaching and learning are. Using advanced analytics, institutions can maintain a clear and clarified data transparency.

3. Interoperability with multiple software solutions

Interoperability is an understanding of the software to work with other software programs now or in the future. It is useful in when

  • It is not possible to configure everything in one software.
  • A customer wants to use previous software with which they are familiar.
  • A customer wants some functionality that is not available in the current version.

Then, with the interoperability feature, vendors can integrate other software and fulfill customers’ needs.

Academia offers multiple integrations with software like Moodle (Learning Management System), KOHA (Library Management System), Alfresco (Document Management System), Tally (Accounting Software), etc. Moreover, it is entirely compatible with other software as per the requirements of customers. 

Benefits of using Academia Interoperability include:

  • Adaptability

Adaptability is one of the best advantages of interoperability, various systems take in information, and connect and distribute that information automatically and flexibly. 

  • Data Cohesion

Academia promotes interoperability features that have a proper and systematic arrangement of all the information that is managed effectively and controlled by all parties. 

  • Increased Growth

It is one of the most important benefits of using interoperability, it provides all availability of information associated with the value chain. Using faculty members and students they get the opportunity to operate cohesively along with managing academic and administrative processes ensuring all the information is available and accessible to all the students.

4. Inquiry management with Academia AI Chatbot

What if you could save the staff time from handling 24X7 hr questions from prospective students?What if it is not limited to only the working hours of your institute? Wouldn’t that be more productive?

All this and much more are possible with Academia AI Chatbot. Academia chatbot works on your institute’s website where students can ask whatever they want related to admissions, courses, etc. This chatbot will answer all the queries of students and save them in an excel sheet where you can keep track of it to take follow-up in the future. 

Benefits of using Academia Chatbot include:

  • Instant Action 

The Academia chatbot is responsible for instants actions on any of the queries that should be raised by anyone. It firstly provides an automated response to the queries along with providing a notification to the authorized person or committee about that questions or query to solve them immediately. 

  • Quick Response 

It is also one of the coolest features of Academia Chatbot as it provides a quick response to the queries providing a solution to the student, faculty, or any other associated person. 

  • Easy to use

It is easy to use and configurable as it can be seen on the website homepage having a simple box to write any of the messages or queries for the student, faculty, or any other inquiry-associated person.  

  • User Friendly 

As it may be understood now, the Academia chatbot is absolutely user-friendly and doesn’t need much effort, and can be used easily and conveniently. 

Bonus, 5th Feature:

5.  Academia-Whatsapp Integration:

Academia Educational ERP Software comes mobile-ready with Android and iOS apps. Following the addition of the ‘SERA’ voice assistant to our app, we now offer Academia-WhatsApp integration to keep stakeholders (students and parents) informed.

Conclusion 

Want to know what are the other modules of Academia ERP/SIS? You might find your favorite as well. Download our brochure or talk to our expert to learn the complete working experience of these modules. Book your free demo now!

What Are the 5 Advantages of Using College ERP in the New Era of Education?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education ERP software is gaining great momentum. But one thing that most certainly is missed out by college management is that their model is different than that of a school or a training institute. Thus, you need to ask yourself constantly, what is the most important thing for your institute, what problems you aim at solving, and how advantageous your investment is going to be. 

Today, we would like to use this opportunity to introduce you to the 5 biggest benefits college ERP software will bring you. Here are they: 

Advantages of the Education ERP System for a College

  • Simplified Admission Process: 

Admissions are one of the busiest times of the year, and they are painstaking. You have to be alert to every pre-admission and admissions activity and that can be cumbersome. A college management system comes with specific features for admission directors and the people responsible for the admission phase. 

A good college ERP system would give you toolsets such as managing enquires, converting enquires to admissions, planning and implementing fee structure, improving communication between college and applicant, and also, an applicant portal. This would successfully untangle all admission-related processes. 

  • Real-time Data Record:

You have various people working in your education organization and it is supremely important that they get the right information, at the right time to take the right decision. 

With a centralized database, you can allow role-based access to real-time data and information to all your stakeholder. It is a highly secure data management system that allows you to efficiently and effectively manage your processes and take data-backed decisions faster than ever before. 

  • Automated Fee Processing 

Easy integration of 3rd Party Payment Software would give your students and parents an edge over the fee system. It allows transparent and secure online payments through e-wallets, debit/credit cards, internet banking, etc. 

Furthermore, it allows you to track every transaction that happens in your organization. You can track even the oldest of your transactions that have happened online. Also, you no longer need a cashier to collect fees, it is a completely automated system that shares the receipts with the students and parents for their payments. 

You can also take this a step further and add automated reminders that send out messages to students and parents near the time of fee payments. 

  • Centralized Data Management 

Data management is a big task. Ask the person who has to add or remove data from the paper-backed record system. You can replace it with a digital data management system that allows you to store a vast amount of data about students, parents, exams, timetable, faculty, student performance, result, and even alumni. 

  • Prompt decisioning 

Technologies such as AI & ML are helping institutes utilize the data to develop a deeper understanding of the market trends and use it to develop profitable strategies. Using Education ERP software for college you can generate reports on admissions, fee payments, student enrollment, payroll, employee records, student accommodation, and more. 

Summing Up

These were just the 5 top advantages of using a college ERP in the new era of education, but there is more. For more information, you can connect with our ERP expert and discuss in detail your needs. 

5 Amazing Benefits of Online Institute Management in Education Sector

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The time has changed. The working style around the globe is changing, it isn’t limited to office premises anymore. With the changing dynamics of other working sectors, education is also following the same path.

It is noticeable that learning methods have also changed in the last few years. Video tutorials, online content, e-books, social media groups, global connectivity among students, teachers; all of this has expanded the horizon of education, its resources and distribution.

Along with learning management, institute management is also changing. Colleges, universities, and other higher educational institutions are adopting online student management (Education ERP) to manage their day to day tasks. It helps institutions to integrate all administrative processes in a single platform, brings seamless workflow, and ultimately enhances stakeholders’ satisfaction.

Considering the current scenario of the Corona pandemic, institutions have to manage their paperwork and other academic tasks remotely. They are using different platforms to deliver notifications and updates, which is quite tedious and time-consuming.

However, with the help of online institute management, it has been easier for institutions to maintain institutional continuity. Let’s see what benefits educational institutions can get with online education management software:

Reduced Costs

Educational institutions are full of paper works. They also need communication mediums to contact the student, their parents, teachers, and other staff members on a daily basis. For that, they need to partner with the third party to regulate these processes that increase the overheads. And that too fails sometimes.

With online institute management such as Education ERP, colleges and universities can reduce their stationary and communication costs along with other administrative expenses. It not only makes these processes more swift but it also simplifies maintenance of data and reports.

Academia Student Management System provides an internal messaging system to deliver notifications to students, teachers, or parents or to all of them with a single platform. Know how it works.

Institutional continuity

Many institutions have suffered a great deal of loss in the closures of educational institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has impacted students, teachers, and staff on varied levels. Due to internet connectivity, social platforms, and SMS & Email services, educators could only inform each other with the current status but the institutional continuity was compromised. As remote working became the only way to keep the business running, some educational institutions were not able to bring that on.

Here comes the role of online management. With the help of it, institutions can regulate most of their curriculum online. Assignment submission, fee payment, student marksheet distribution, syllabus management, and its distribution and much more can be done with automation in education.

Better Connectivity

Communication is the key to running a successful organization, and it would be ignorant if we overlook its role in the education sector. Proper communication is very important not only between teachers and students but also among all the stakeholders.

By bringing digital transformation in education management, the connectivity increases by many folds. Learning goes beyond the campuses. It provides exclusive portals for everyone where they can not only get the recent updates but can also manage their details and records. With Faculty and Student apps, it becomes super convenient to manage the day to day task, wherever whenever.

See how INIFD Indore getting the benefits of Academia ERP to increase communication.

Work alignment

College, university, or school all of them have various departments. Admin, admission, programs and courses, fee, transportation, hostel, logistics, and many more. Sometimes it becomes so scattered and tedious to manage records from all these departments and maintain the work alignment.

An education ERP helps to maintain these departments in one single platform. It simplifies the workflow brings alignment and increases productivity.

Error-free processes

To err is human!

Humans are prone to make mistakes, and there is nothing wrong with it but being an education leader, you can’t take the risk. One error can cause a series of chaos and that reduces the space for development.

Unlike humans, technology doesn’t make errors on its own. With a tool, we can not only make our work flawless but we can also save a lot of time. An online student information system like Academia ERP has many features that are designed to help teachers, students, parents, and management and allow them to manage their work efficiently.

The ultimate benefit

The most important thing that attracts educators to shift into a digital platform is convenience. It empowers all the associated members to operate their tasks whenever they want and from whichever device they choose. It breaks the limitation of growth and efficiency. It gives educators and management to think beyond bundles of paperwork.

4 Ways to Bring Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education using Student Information System

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

It’s the 21st century; an era of digital transformation. It becomes vital for educational institutions to make the best use of the valuable time of staff & teachers and to maximize return on investment while also meeting the needs of tech-savvy and increasingly demanding millennial and gen-z students. Traditional labor-intensive administrative systems and irregular manual processes no longer meet these needs. So why should you let them hold you back?

Automation in education is playing a vital role in not only transforming the institution management but also enhancing student satisfaction, bringing productivity, and improving the overall performance. With software like a student information system, the dreams of institutions are becoming true, bringing institutional effectiveness owing to its capability of managing the entire campus and handling the complete student life cycle.

Before you can learn the way of using software for your institute management let’s learn what institutional effectiveness is.

Definition of Institutional Effectiveness

According to the SACSCOC Resource Manual, “Institutional Effectiveness is a systematic, explicit, and documented process of measuring performance against the mission in all aspects of an institution.”

Or in simpler terms

Institutional Effectiveness is all about bringing quality to education, administration, management, and everything an institution stands for.

Fundamentally Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education comprises of the following:

  • Extensive institutional research
  • Accreditation
  • In-depth review of administrative processes
  • Strategic planning
  • Student performance analysis
  • Assessment of planning and optimization

Nowadays many higher education institutions are gearing up to bring institutional effectiveness and trying to optimize their daily practice to meet the benchmark. It helps to gain a competitive advantage, makes better-informed decisions, aligns all administrative processes and requirements, improves student completion rates, and much more.

Let’s find out how the best student information system can bring institutional effectiveness to your institution:

Complete roadmap of institution

Going digital in institute management gets you the complete roadmap of the campus and all the activities within that. With a centralized data platform, you get to see all the information. It helps to categorize the processes scoring to their priority and thereby you can make the proper planning of where you need to make most of your investment vis-a-vis Time or Money.

Review of administrative processes

The student information management system unites all the academic processes. With interoperability and multiple integrations, it becomes quite easy to manage, monitor, and control day-to-day processes. Being an education leader or decision-maker you can review these processes with a few clicks. This helps to take proper action to optimize the processes which are not aligning with your mission and vision.

Analytics report and decision aid

Nowadays, data analysis has become the power to understand, evaluate, and grow any business. It’s very much apparent that higher educational institutions are inundated with huge data information. Hence, sometimes it becomes difficult at times to keep track of every piece of information and manage them effectively. Thanks to the analytics & reports feature of student information management software, educators can generate categorized reports for all the departments they need. It gives them valuable insights into institutional processes and aids them in faster and more informed decision-making.

Return on investment and its assessment

Along with maintaining an effective management system, providing quality education, and meeting students’ & parents’ demands; it’s crucial for institutions to meet the target of return on investment. Shifting institution processes management into a digital platform not only gives seamless & efficient workflow but it also reduces expenses. Education leaders get a high return on an investment after the successful utilization of education software. It reduces paper cost, storage cost, printing & mailing costs and allows teachers and staff to utilize their time on other priority work.

Conclusion

Institutional Effectiveness is an ever-evolving process just like an educational institution in itself. But there are some fundamentals that need to be tracked, analyzed, and implemented at the right time. The above-mentioned benefits of a student information system are to give a broader perspective to learn how it can help higher education to achieve its mission and vision. There are more ways by which you can bring productive administrative management.

Give your teachers, staff, and students the time, clarity, and control they need to make a difference and build institutional effectiveness—with the Academia Student Information System. Learn more about it with a FREE demo. Talk to our expert now!

 

Academia by Serosoft Features in Gartner’s Market Guide For K12 Student Information Systems

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

After being featured in Gartner’s Market Guide for Higher Education Student Information System, we are thrilled to get featured in Gartner’s research in their report, Market Guide for K12 Student Information System, published on 2nd April 2020. 

As the adoption of digital transformation is increasing in educational institutions, being included as a key representative vendor of the Student Information System is surely a validation of Academia being one of the driving forces for creating changes in the education eco-system.

According to Gartner’s report, “K-12 education organizations continue to bring new requirements and expectations to this category. With such a long-term investment, K-12 CIOs and education leaders will want to understand the SIS marketplace and how it might influence future planning.” Institutions are migrating to SaaS-based solutions, which virtually every SIS vendor is offering now. It has been the impetus for many K12 institutions to shift to automation and move out of the conventional method of institute management.

The report also mentions that Student Information Systems digitizes administrative processes and streamlines many day-to-day tasks such as online enrollment, curriculum management, etc. Due to the interoperability standards that SIS software offers, institutions are relying heavily on automation for data resources.

The key features of Academia SIS:

  • Student data information
  • Registration and enrollment
  • Online registration 
  • Attendance
  • Calendar management
  • Grades and transcripts
  • Fee management
  • Health and medical records
  • Teacher portal
  • Parent and student portals 
  • Applicant portal
  • Administrator portal 
  • Standard and ad hoc reporting 
  • Data Analytics
  • Mobile app 

“We are thrilled to be recognized by Gartner as a key representative vendor of the K12 student information system. It’s overwhelming for us to be a part of the Gartner report for the second time in a row after being featured for Higher Education SIS last year. This places us among the top vendors in the world in the School Management System category. We are perhaps the only company from India to be on this list. Cheers to all the hard work put in by all of us, Serosofters!” CEO & MD Serosoft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. is a global research and advisory firm providing information, advice, and tools for businesses in IT, finance, HR, customer service and support, legal and compliance, marketing, sales, and supply chain functions. Its headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. 

Founded in 1979, Gartner is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. With over 100 offices globally, it provides business leaders with vital advice, research, and tools to achieve their vision to build the thriving institutions of tomorrow.

Gartner Market Guides help organizations understand the digital market, trends, and the significant attributes that impact it. It helps chief officers and authorities observe which vendors have a good track record and which service providers can be trusted so that they can make informed investments in the right solution at the right time.

5 Ways in Which a Right SIS can Empower Higher Educational Institutions

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Higher education institutions must go through a paradigm shift with the modernization in the education industry. It is the right time to bring complete digital transformation and automation to the education sector. 

It is the right time institutions should adopt technologies like student information systems to automate all the academic and administrative operations improving efficiency and effectiveness in the institution. 

Do you know how a student information system can empower your institution? Let’s discuss it in more detail and understand ways in which a right SIS can empower higher education institutions. 

What is the Student Information System?

A Student Information System (SIS) is software that is used for every facet of education. It provides complete management of all educational operations including admissions, applications, scheduling, examination, and other tasks. These can be managed using a single system bringing complete automation and digital transformation. 

5 Ways in Which a Right SIS can Empower Higher Educational Institutions:

  • Fostering collaboration

Communication and collaboration are crucial factors in any educational institution, it needs to be crystal clear at every stage. Students, parents, and faculties need to collaborate and communicate properly to manage things in a better and more organized way. 

A right Student Information System provides proper and easy management of all the academic and administrative information management fostering collaboration and communication in the best possible way. It provides a platform through which parents can contact the faculty anytime along with providing their feedback in the best way. 

It promotes healthy communication targeting more growth and opportunities for educational institutions. 

  • Easing students day to day operations 

Students are considered as one of the most important stakeholders of an educational institution. The right student information system provides students with complete access through a portal and mobile application that triggers a seamless learning experience automating and streamlining all the academic and administrative processes like enrollment, records, teaching, homework and assignment, library management, and a lot more.

  • Building student-faculty relationships 

Students and faculty are considered as two separate entities that are dependent on each other and who need to maintain effective relationships. A student information system provides connectivity and synchronization between faculties and students managing attendance, enrollment, admissions, examinations, and a lot more operations. An SIS allows faculty members to send notifications for students at any time and students also get the opportunity to contact faculty at any time whenever they feel the need. 

  • Effective financial aid and management 

It is the most critical part of any educational institution. With manual intervention, institutions often feel it is a complex process as it involves multiple transactions, long queues, more staff, and a lot of many things that sometimes create chaos and confusion. A student information system provides complete financial aid and management of all the fee-related operations providing students, faculty, and staff the accessibility to attain any fee-related transactions through the mobile application and the portal. 

  • Efficient examination and assessment management 

Examinations are considered as one of the most necessary seasons in any educational institution, it needs to be effective and seamless with all the functioning at all ends like exam admins, staff, faculties, and exam center manager. It requires frequent communication with all the members involved in the processes plus students, ensuring everyone is aware of the same information and last-minute confusion can be avoided. 

A right and effective SIS provides complete management of the examination process covering aspects from exam registration forms, exam execution, marking schemes, results, the printing of mark sheets, reports, and making it a seamless and efficient process. 

Closing Notes 

The Student Information System is a broader concept and it includes much more functionalities than the above-mentioned features. It also includes various features and modules that are built to help staff, faculty members, and students bring better workflow. If used, it can bring a high ROI with time. 

A right SIS like Academia can empower institutions to bring high productivity and efficient academic and administrative performance. So, are you ready to explore the fantastic features of Academia? Try it with a free demo. Book Now!

 

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