Going beyond e-learning, embracing digitalization in the Indian education ecosystem
Digitalization is one of the most confusing terms for businesses. In our interactions with various educational institutes, we have found many customers that believed using computers in their everyday life suffices to be called a digitally run institute. Gradually but steadily, this notion has started to change.
In this post covid era, digitalization is being re-realized by many institutes. Today, they use digital technologies to transform their business model and generate scope for revenue by producing more profitable opportunities.
In general, digitalization is impacting the way education institutes operate. We are not just talking about digital learning or learning management systems, but it counts for every activity done by various stakeholders in the system digitally.
This drastic transformation has turned around how knowledge is imparted, received, processed, assessed, and retained altogether. Furthermore, non-academic activities such as fees management, student management, data management, data analysis, faculty management, admissions, marketing, etc., are now done on custom-built software solutions.
Digitalization and Indian Education Organizations
The education system in India has literally gone out of the box, education is no longer bound to a four-walled classroom. Learners and teachers are moving towards this new way of learning and teaching, and this has become a new normal. Look at these facts:
- 95% of institutes are conducting digital examinations.
- 91% of institutes are running online classes.
- 55% of students are more comfortable with online learning than classroom learning.
Although sudden, people are loving and embracing digitalization in the education industry. People are creating rich content, exploring adaptive learning, clearing doubts online, and learning through apps and web applications.
Access to technology
Since non-deliberate, the last two years for many institutes have been very challenging. Institutes that had some level of digitalization in place didn’t take that hard of the blow. But for many institutes — government and non-government, it was like starting over. Laying the foundation of a digital infrastructure in place of a regular brick-and-mortar building, not only it was challenging in terms of investments and migration, but finding the right technology partner too.
Once connected to the right vendor, institutes did transit towards the digital ecosystem smoothly. Also, at the start of the year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed in her budget speech a digital university. The concept is to establish a digital ecosystem in India that provides access to students across the country with high-quality universal education with features such as personalized learning.
The growing demand for digitalization of the education sector and the availability of cheap but talented resources in the market has made it very easy for organizations to easily migrate to digital platforms. India is one of the biggest markets with the largest pool of talented IT professionals. Also, white-label solutions are available to meet the needs of education organizations in the market.
Digitalization and Operations
Many institutes believe online learning is digitalization. But that is only scratching the surface. Digitalization is a wave, a systematic approach to implementing technology in the large and small components of the education system that automate most operations and brings transparency and seamlessness to every operational aspect.
Learning management systems, education ERP solutions, student information systems, college & training institute management systems; there are a plethora of solutions available for you to explore. These toolsets use modern technologies such as cloud computing, AI, ML, process automation, and many more to ease things for management and improve the experience of the other stakeholders.
National Education Policy
The government of India is making huge changes in its education policy of India. One of the greatest examples of which is National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) which talks about access, equity, quality, accountability, and affordability. The key highlights of the policy are the introduction of digital libraries, inclusion of vocational courses in the traditional curriculum, skill-based curriculum, personalized learning, multi-lingual curriculum, online assessments, and more.
The way forward
Institutes across the globe are understanding the dire need to shift to digital platforms. We can say, in a span of a few years more and more digital universities and online training institutes would mushroom and they would run completely on digital platforms. This is a big leap and if the traditional universities, schools, and training institutes need to survive there is no other option but to embrace the change and digitalize.
Furthermore, the digital transformation of the education space is going to only improve the working of institutions. Technology makes things more viable and brings unparalleled transparency to operations. Aiming to solve some of the biggest challenges of the education sector, you can talk to our technology experts to learn how our product Academia ERP solution can help you in the transformation process.
