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Tag: Student Management Software

Flipped Classrooms: A Concept Worth Giving A Thought

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

In layman’s term, a flipped classroom refers to taking out the class from the classrooms. Flipped classrooms are recognized by students watching online lectures, collaborating in online discussions and carrying out research at home, unlike traditional classrooms where dependency exists on teachers or instructors.

Flipped classroom shifts the mode of instruction to a learner-centric model in which each of the topics covered in the classes are explored in depth thereby creating meaningful learner insights by leveraging technologies such as online videos to ‘deliver content’ outside of the classrooms.

In a flipped classroom, there exist many forms of content delivery. Teachers or Instructors can prepare and post the video lessons to deliver quality content to students. This helps students with convenient access to lessons any time, any place. Thus, helping in cutting down the investment of educational institutions in setting up an infrastructure.

classroom management with modern educational technology with academia erp

Having said this, it becomes all the more important for institutes to understand the benefits provided by the flipped classroom. Some of the key benefits of the flipped classroom are highlighted below.

  • The flipped classroom provides a more application-based approach for students when compared with the traditional classroom set up (i.e. hands-on and problem-solving activities)
  • Provides an ease of communication process between student-teacher, student-student with no location constraints
  • Video sessions/lectures can be easily recorded. Students have the luxury of seeing it with replays, can pause and replay it in case of any doubts. With features of video editing, the teachers/instructors can customize the lectures based on the student’s requirements
  • For small educational institutions facing budget constraints, a flipped classroom can be a boon for them. As this concept provides a great value at a minimal cost
  • Teachers/Instructors can help students during their assigned class time without an additional burden. They can coordinate with students/learners to guide them on the best path forward. Students can receive the help from faculties for various activities. Also, with this concept, teachers find it much easier to rectify students queries and problems occurring during the course of learning

Also, there are always two sides of the coins. With benefits, there do exist some cons and limitations of this concept. Some of which are highlighted below:

  • For students/learners, there always exists a ‘digital divide’. As some students will have 24*7 days access to online lectures/videos and some being able to access not more than an hour on a daily basis. This is due to that fact that not all students come from the same socio-economic background
  • It is highly possible that some students who are prone to the traditional form of learning may fall apart in competing with their peers as they are not prepared for the independent learning
  • Teachers/Instructors had to put in extra time and efforts for making the content and videos apart from their scheduled working hours. This, in turn, makes some of the teachers resistant to take up this concept

To sum it up, the flipped classroom is a concept which needs to be given a thought by the educational institutes and more important for the budget sensitive educational institutes to give a serious thought to it.

Key Benefits of a Student Information System for Educational Institutions

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education institutions these days have become too tedious and monotonous. Therefore, its high time that we work on it to make it effort-free that helps in the investment of the efforts in the right direction for higher productivity. Most of the institutes in today era have got ERP systems that help such institutes to streamline the processes. But the big concern is that how much these systems are efficient and effective for institutes.

If your system already has an SIS installed and has limited functionality and does only works on single campus or breaks down every now and then, then you would like to get it replaced, right!? Here are five good reasons that the time might be right to invest in a new student information system that may help you out in the right way that how an ERP can cut your processes short and make them effective.

1. Get more benefits for the money you invest for your ERP system

Choosing a high tech, cloud-based Student Information System means freeing your institute from outdated technology and processes and old proprietary equipment. Institutes with an online SIS can pay either for a SAAS model that is rent based or an annual subscription i.e. the one-time payment for their system, which is designed to interface with user devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones etc.

The benefits of these systems usually include an improved return on investments (ROIs) because of the higher opportunities to boost enrolment of students and simplified payment processes.

2. Better Functionality

An SIS that provides you huge no. of features at the lower price that may benefit the institutes in an influential way. But sometimes a lower price version or system of ERP may lack the key features that are required for management of institute data efficiently. An ideal online SIS system for mostly all the institutes should include a few useful features at a cost that won’t break the bank and at the same time will be responsive with an amazing support system for users. Ultimately, a system is only as good as the people behind the scenes who are maintaining and servicing it are- Academia is one such solution.

3. Higher security:

A new system brings along with it, secured processes and secured way to keep institute’s data. It allows access to the system according to the access permissions given to the user which can be the student, staff member, teachers, parents etc. This way no wrong usage of data can be done and all the confidential information can only be accessible to the right hands.

Another benefit to a cloud-based system can be that in case of loss of hardware, there is no loss of the data that is too important for an institute because all the information is saved on the cloud.

4. Support system:

Also, if institute has taken a new SIS system fora trial run and think you have it all calculated, an institute will never want tech support to be too far away. A cloud-based ERP system is often easier to troubleshoot than an onsite system.

Also, a cloud-based SIS lets tech support securely access your system off-site and see what one would see while walking you through the problem which could be another benefit for the institute.

Before finally investing in a new SIS, always consider the type of support the institute will need and make sure that it includes enough coverage. Some SIS support systems are limited by business hours or charge an additional cost for resolving technical issues whereas Academia does not!

5. An easy to go Payment Processing

A latest type of SIS can assist your institute financially in other ways besides increasing the admission levels. The right system with integrated payment processing will process with proper bank account debits and major credit cards with the lowest overhead.

Using an all-in-one system let parents keep track of tuition fees and pay for incidentals like books and uniforms in the same place they check their student’s grades and attendance.

6 Steps To Perform Student Enrollment Management In Higher Ed

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Enrollment management refers to the ability of institutions of higher education to exert more systematic influence over the number and characteristics of new students, as well as influence the persistence of students to continue their enrollment from the time of their matriculation to their graduation. The emergence of enrollment management as a new administrative structure within institutions of higher education originated in North America, but it has also been employed in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The Concept

Enrollment management can be viewed as a synergistic organizational concept that can be used to link several administrative functions within a college or university in order to optimize institutional enrollment goals. Examples of this approach can be found among the financial strategies of many college campuses, where important linkages have emerged between senior enrollment managers and chief financial administrators. Both private and public colleges use some of their tuition income to fund campus-based scholarships for students. Tuition revenue accounts for millions of dollars, and campus-based financial aid has become a large expenditure at most four-year institutions. Enrollment management efforts have therefore become closely linked to budgeting and campus financial planning. Successful enrollment management strategies and practices must also consider the growing importance of university and college rankings. For many institutions of higher education, enrollment management has come to involve a combination of student enrollment strategy, budgeting strategy, and institutional positioning strategy.

Roadmap

1.  Set goals for enrollments

Setting up realistic goals and working in that very same direction to achieve them is the first necessity of systematic enrollment management for an institute. It is a crucial step since it involves market analysis and calculation of the expected rate of growth.

2.  Resource requirements

To identify the need for the required resources according to the set goals is the next step in the roadmap for enrollment management.

3.  Campaigning and recruiting plan

It is important to create a target focused marketing plan for move in the right direction and reach the set goals. The right kind marketing mix may help you get to the right target audience which would ultimately help us meet enrollment management goals.

4.  A strong follow-up on your marketing and recruitment activities

Tracking your activities is a must in the process of enrollment management to get the results. Following steps can be followed to keep on a regular check on these activities:

1) Identify which metrics to track.
2) Know how to track the metrics you identified.
3) Guide your decisions with the data you collect.
4) Monitor the effect of your efforts and adjusting accordingly.

Having a solid set of marketing and recruitment metrics you can track allows you to benchmark your efforts from year to year and make crucial decisions on allocating resources and strategies.

5.  Systematic communications within the process to develop and implement the right strategy.

With the seemingly chaotic mix of print, e-mail, Web, and social media, there may not seem to be much “flow” with recruitment communications. As with student qualification, though, building a communications flow remains a bountiful recruitment strategy if it is handled strategically.

First, you still must think through the communications at various enrollment stages—inquiry, applicant, admit, deposit. Regardless of where a student enters the flow, progressing them to the next enrollment stage remains the goal.

Second, focus your electronic communications wisely. Having a Web site that engages students is paramount. You want to invite communication in addition to delivering information. Give students opportunities to provide their e-mail addresses or even opt in to text messaging. Do the same with social media but be careful not to go overboard. You are better covering fewer social media outlets well rather than spreading yourself too thin.

Finally, get parents and guardians involved in the flow. According to our E-Expectations research, 60 percent are involved with the college research process. Target them with communications and make them ambassadors for your campus.

6.  Award financial aid so students get what they need and expect to enroll

The ability to afford a college education has emerged as the biggest roadblock to attending college. Perhaps nothing will turn away a prospective student faster than a feeling that they cannot afford your institution. You must address this concern immediately and accurately.

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