EdTech Blogs

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, causing almost complete closures of schools, universities, and colleges. Most governments have closed the education institutions to stem the spread of the coronavirus as educational institutions are among the most socially active places in the world.

According to the study, as of June 7, 2020, approx 1.725 billion learners have been affected due to the closure of educational institutions.  According to UNICEF, 134 countries have implemented nationwide closures, and 38 are implementing local closures, impacting about 98.5 percent of the world’s student population. Thirty-nine countries’ schools are currently open.

Closure of educational institutions has impacted students, teachers, and staff and brought societal and economic consequences. Higher education and their students will suffer the most with these unfortunate events. As their major career decisions depend upon the higher education classes.

It will be naive if we don’t understand the consequences of this pandemic. The upcoming years won’t be the same for higher educational institutions as it was used to be. Therefore it is crucial to see the bigger picture and prepare your institution for the future.

Here are the ways this pandemic will affect higher education:

Boost in Online Institute Management

When the lockdown started in the middle of the session, many institutions and students suffered. There was nothing they could do. They either had to wait for the lockdown to be over or find a way to operate the institution’s curriculum online. However, it was easier for institutions that were using the online institute management system and had already transformed their day to day practices into a digital platform.

They were able to connect teachers and students and continue most of their administrative activities while everyone was safe at their home.

It shows us the importance of an automated institute management system. It helps institutions to prepare for dire times like these. It helps to maintain the continuity of educational processes, ceases the learning losses, and ultimately helps students, staff, and institutions. In the coming years, education technology such as the Student Information System and Learning Management System will be necessary tools for institutions to prepare themselves for all situations.

Enrollment Crunch

The Corona pandemic hit hard the world economy. The resulting financial crisis will impact the career decision of higher education students and their parents’ capability to pay for their child’s education. Uncertainties about retention rates will likely increase the situation for institutions that were on edge to miss their enrollment target.

Though the recession of 2008 has shown that enrollment for universities and colleges did increase but considering the current scenario, institutions will need to think critically about all pros and cons and to consider all the aggressive decisions to compensate for the situation. They will need to model out a strategic plan that somehow can maintain the entire institute management, including student enrollment rates. They’ll also need to be attentive to the changes in students’ career plans, the courses they are more inclined to, and what they are expecting from an institution in 2020 and in the coming years.

It will help institutions pick up the pace and get on track again to beat the current crisis. It’ll also advance the institute to be more robust and future-ready.

Acceleration in Online Learning Environments

According to a study, the online education market will be worth $319 Billion by 2025 in North America. This data shows the potential of this education platform. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown in countries, institutions are adopting this method more rapidly than ever.

Online education has been trendy for the last few years. Platforms like ByJU’s, Khan Academy, Udemy, Coursera, etc. have developed a rich ecosystem for students who want to learn while sitting at their homes. Now that social distancing and school closures are in the picture, online education will become an essential part of the education curriculum.

Universities like Harward, Oxford, etc. have also started online courses for students. It is only helping local students, but international students are also getting huge benefits as the international commute is compromised due to this pandemic.

Changes in Student Learning Outcome

Closure of educational institutions negatively impacts student learning outcomes. Institutions provide essential learning, and when they are close, children and youth are deprived of opportunities for growth and development.

The disadvantages are huge for underprivileged learners who tend to have narrower educational opportunities beyond institutes. When their primary learning platforms are close, parents are often asked to expedite the learning of children at home but they struggle to perform it. It is especially true for parents with limited education and resources. Students gain slower during school closures than in a business-as-usual academic year.

Student drop-out rates incline to increase as an effect of institute closures due to the challenge of ensuring all students return to the institute once the closures end. It is especially true for prolonged closures. Financially compromised, at-risk, or disadvantaged children are more likely not to return to institute after the closures are ended. The effect might be a life-long hampering of lost opportunities.

Educational Institutions are also hubs of social activity and human interaction. When institutes are closed, many children and youth miss out on social contact essential to learning and social development.

Conclusion:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges for everyone; the education sector is not alone. But thanks to the globalization of the internet, connectivity, and technology advancement, educational institutions can overcome these challenges up to a high extent. Therefore institutes will need to think strategically and smartly for a new era of education management.

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.

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 the process of measuring performance against the mission in all aspects of an institution.”

Or in simpler terms

Institutional Effectiveness is all about bringing quality in 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 of it. 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

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 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 information and to 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 on 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, 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 within 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 their 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!

4G will be history and 5G will unveil the mystery!

The cloud solution is the future of higher education. Institutes have already started using it for admissions, fees, student record management, course, examinations, etc. But following your peer blindly is not the solution. If you are shifting to a smart solution for your institute, you need to make a smart analysis before investing in it. Do use the above-mentioned 5 tips in your search for cloud-tech.

Academia ERP is a cloud-based solution to manage the complete student life cycle that ensures cost-saving, increases efficiency and enables 360° transformation in higher education. Know more with a free demo now.

Technology has entered every institution and no organization remained untouched from it. It has entered the education sector as well. One such technology is school management software, which is simplifying the day to day tasks in schools and making teachers’ lives easier.