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

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!

 

5 reasons for student attrition and how to address it

Whether it’s a college, a schools or a training centre, there are some very common triggers that lead to students dropping out of institutions. Most of these issues can come from a personal space or from the educational system itself. If these issues are not addressed properly by campus management at the right time, they can decrease student retention and greatly affect overall educational efforts of the institution.

Here are some stats related to the issue:

In the USA around 1.2 million students dropout of high school annually, where the graduation rank is 19th globally. In India, out of 100 students only 70 students reach senior secondary. The enrollment rate in India is 23%, in the USA 87%, and 39% in the UK.

The reason for dropout and low student retention in institutions are many, but there are some major issues that should be addressed as soon as possible.

Financial problems

It is one of the primary reasons for student attrition. Not being able to afford the cost of higher education or degree, family’s week financial status, the burden of responsibilities, etc. are the reasons that make students leave college and go for a job.

One grave challenge in this scenario is the student loan. In America student loan is one of the major causes of concern. According to a study by Margertia McNealin, in the US, over 40% of students borrowers are not able to pay their loans and that results in pushing them out of school.

Less quality time with educators

The low student-teacher ratio, especially in higher education is a prevalent problem in India. The current ratio is 24:1, lower than Brazil, China, Canada and Russia.

If students do not get proper guidance & counseling by educators, they may be unable to share and express their problems, leading to disinterest and eventually leaving the school.

For all levels of educational institutes, teacher-student quality time is very important. It helps teachers to understand students, his/her weaknesses and strengths, the reason behind the performance, his/her expectations from the institute, etc. It also helps students understand themselves better.

De-motivating institute environment

Lack of student-engagement activity, carelessness towards student attendance, outdated syllabus, orthodox teaching methods are some of the examples which lead to a demotivating institute environment.

Boredom’ is one reason students leave classes and eventually institutes.

According to a study by GradNation.org that surveyed the top reasons for dropping school, some of them show a significant trend from the classroom environment:

  1. No one cared if I attended.
  2. Teacher and school problems.
  3. School environment

Poor administrative management

Institute management plays an important role in students’ academic journey. Ease of documentation processes, on-time access to information, better connectivity between management and students brings a positive perspective towards the institute.

However, slow document processing, miss-communication between students and staff, loss of data, etc. are still ongoing problems in this sector.

Lack of student support

Student support is an important factor that parents and students often skip checking during admissions, and institutes also do not give much emphasis on.

Higher studies are tough and along with other reasons, poor student support and de-personalized learning are also responsible for high dropout rates.

What are the measures to minimize student attrition from institutions?

If institutes can address and resolve the above-mentioned issues on time, it can impact positively on student retention and decrease drop out rates. For example, institutes can maintain a positive environment for students, schedule appropriate sessions for a student-teacher engagement, introduce proper administrative management, etc.

Online learning is leading to a decentralized education system with 24*7 access to educators & other resources. It is becoming a major trend in the education sector as it offers cheaper yet better access to books i.e. e-books, and cloud solutions to store academic data.

Also, institutes can take the help of technologies for a better institute management system, that can surely improve academic operations, increase teacher involvement, and ensure student success.

Check out technology trends in the education sector and learn how a college management system can benefit an institution.

Experiential Learning vs Conventional Learning. Which works better and why?

The concept of experiential learning has been frequently introduced lately. Nowadays, more and more schools have begun to accept this growing trend. The idea is quite simple and bypasses the typical learning process through experience or a “reflex to do”.

How does this work?

The process starts with a person performing a specific action and then sees the effect of the action in a situation. 

The second step is to understand these effects if the same measures were taken and predicted under the same circumstances. 

The third step is to understand the general principle under which the particular instance resides. When this general principle is understood, the final step is the application of the action under new circumstances.

The world is your class

It can be argued in favor of experiential learning that concepts that are difficult to understand in the classroom can be more easily accepted through real experiences. 

Studies have shown that learning in the real world can be more effective as students adapt to the real world through careful observation and generalization. With this learning experience, you can:

  1. Gain valuable experience in the field
  2. Study and learn more globally and locally
  3. Understand the importance of real-life experiences
  4. Actively participate in a dynamic environment

Conventional VS Experiential

Today, schools and organizations involved in the education sector use a variety of methods that they believe will contribute to overall development. However, there is a clear distinction in the way these procedures are carried out. 

Some are more concerned with the concept of experiential learning and individual development compared to traditional methods designed to develop each individual’s ability to meet measurable standards or the standards of an organization.

Read also: 5 Benefits of Adaptive Learning in Edification

Nevertheless, there are many differences between conventional learning and experience:

Conventional learning Experience learning
Includes direct training or teaching Includes modern ways of learning & teaching using advanced tools & software
Involves restrictions with a pre-decided frame of learning Flexible with a variety of learning patterns and techniques
Focus on just institutional growth Focus on the overall development of students along with institutional growth
Knowledge transfer from existing books and resources by faculty to students   Students and faculty can experience the lessons taught to them using artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and more.
Ex. Classroom teaching, conferences, presentations. Ex. Use of technological tools & software for enhanced growth of teaching & learning

Conclusion:

It is not surprising that the vast majority of education and training is still conventional and not experiential. This can sometimes be understandable, as the needs of an organization can be anticipated according to individual needs, both in terms of training and in terms of subsequent work. Here it can be argued that society is a little ignorant and “broken” in this regard.

It is difficult to deny the benefits of experiential learning. As, it can effectively address the personal development needs of young and old learners and improve self-esteem, self-responsibility, and maturity which are difficult to achieve with conventional and normative teaching methods.

To know more about the Student Information System, click here.

Student Information System: Empowering Institutions

The Student Information System is an ecological system that helps the institutes get rid of distributed data. This all is in single software which includes initial documentation from inquiry management, and student registration, till students get passed out of the college / University. This software will help you in running all day-to-day college activities without difficulty. College can easily send alerts or different sorts of information via SMS or email to parents and students. Information generated includes results, attendance records, assignments, notices related to different cultural activities, seminars, corporate events, Placements, etc…

 Student Management System helps in many ways such as:

  1. Authentic time reports: Long ago manual reports technology was used in institutions. These days, the management can do the whole lot on ERP, which in itself is an inbuilt mechanism for generating reports. Many styles of actual time assessment can be generated from such software in the form of different excel reports.
  2. Paperlessness: Automation of process leads to reduced usage of paper which ultimately helps in saving time and money.
  3. Data Security: SIS provides a high level of data security in terms of protecting data from unauthorized access and data corruption throughout its life cycle.
  4. Improved quality of interaction: With the help of SIS interaction between Students – Faculty, Student – Management, Management – Parents, Intra college Faculties, Administrator became more transparent.
  5. Growing productivity: The proper use of ERP software program will boom the productivity of University / Colleges to a large volume.

Hence, the Student Information Software is a boon to the education industry. With limited and constrained options to satisfy the current generation, let us start working towards a better tomorrow with the ease of SIS in a click away

A quick guide to choose the right education management solution for your institution

Let’s get familiar with the step by step process of reaching the right education management solution for automating your institute:

There are probably a few challenges that could be faced by you, while you would start to consider automation for your institute. These are as follows-

1. Report Generation: Creating and managing reports is one of the most tedious tasks for an institute. Accuracy cannot be compromised during the generation of reports since all the critical decisions are made over it. But by keeping it manual, there are several compromises one has to makeover it.
2. Data Management: Data loss is another situation that needs more emphasis. Due to the manual processing, there’s always misplacement or loss of the data and the required data goes missing.
3. Lack of coordination: Coordination among internal stakeholders is mandatory for better productivity but some tasks such as keeping people in the loop, regular follow-ups, long approval flows, etc make it very hectic. It also affects the timeline of the tasks.
4. Attendance Management: Attendance of both staff and students is a huge task to handle altogether. Keeping track of it and updating people about it manually is almost impossible for larger institutions.
5. Finances Management: Fees collection and management of compensations, damages, petty cash, refunds, etc are very critical to keep the institute going.

Here are some great suggestions on how you can meet the challenges by adopting the best-fit education management solution:

A quick guide to choose the right education management solution for your institution-academia erp

a. The right fit solution: A software that suits your institute perfectly should be chosen. It will depend on the requirements, the problems faced in various departments, the size of the institute, etc. Considering all these factors will help you choose the right education management solution.
b. Training: Training sessions for staff is another important process that should be undergone for using the ERP software the right way so that the use of the solution can be materialized.
c. Time- saving: Automation obviously saves a lot of time and money as well. The tasks are done automatically with the software and the staff just has to keep track of the day-to-day tasks with very fewer efforts. The lowest manual intervention will help you invest your manpower in some more important tasks than managing the data.
d. Simplification: Attention to every task can be eliminated because the software possesses the perfect algorithms to complete the task the right way. Hence rechecking the calculations, the listing of students, fee management, due dates -all can all done by the software itself.
e. Security: Security is pretty big of a concern that can be taken care of by providing accessibility to the right staff members only. The software allows the security check and login customizations according to the requirements of the institute.
f. Reliability: The reliability of education management solution is the most important challenge an institute can face, one can go through the old testimonies for the software, its usages, past experiences, and the popularity for shortlisting.

Are you unable to find the right solution because of the following factors?

a. Budget & cost: Education technologies always involve great cost, and of course it is varied by the size of the institution and its type. You will have to find the right balance of budget and customs requirements.
b. After-sales support: After the implementation, support is the basic requirement for the institute since these types of technologies require very effective support systems for smooth working. A good Support team along with the right software will be of great help in long run.
c. Internet issues and the computer skills of the staff: New processes need to be added to train the staff so that the institute could reach the exact level of efficiency which is expected from education ERP systems.
d. Customization: Every institute is one of its types, the institutes have their own process and ideas for management, therefore it is very important to create a customized system that could suit the Institute requirements very well.

Academia is the right solution to overcome challenges and success in managing your institute. We provide systems with the right cost that fits your pocket and benefits you enormously once implemented. Academia provides the best support in the industry. (Look at the client testimonials, how: https://www.academiaerp.com/clients/ ). We provide training programs off-site and on-site as per the institute’s requirements.

How Student Registration Software Simplifies Admission Process?

Admissions, The most primary and important task for any institution! True? Every institution always looks forward to bringing the best and brightest students according to their fixed requirements. It is the time when institutions need to do various tasks that ultimately are responsible to bring the right candidates, and thus educational institutions put their utmost efforts to perform the admission process effectively. Do you want to make the admission process more simpler and effective in your institution? If so then student registration software can be one of the best options for you. 

What step does your institution take to complete an error-free, effective, and efficient admission process?

Management, as they say, is the art of getting work done tactically through the efforts of other people. Management is universal and all-pervasive. However, it has an extremely critical role when it comes to the Education sector. The education sector has expanded leaps and bounds. With the booming population, this sector is gaining grounds both for the students and for academicians. When it comes to managing an educational institute there are several complexities and vagaries that the educational institution has to face.

Let’s discuss how admission management can reduce various roles and responsibilities by changing the overall functioning of admissions in institutions.

Why should you opt for a student registration and admissions management system?

The student registration and admission management system is something that helps the colleges and schools to manage the overall process simply and efficiently. If you are looking forward to an automated, simple, and less time-consuming admission process, then a student registration and admission management system is the only best option you can opt for. Check out the below reasons to understand more about it.

Reasons to choose a student registration software:

  • Automation 

Institutions opting for student registration software and admission management systems can access a simple and automated version of their workings, using it you will not need to spend time collecting the forms, sorting them, and not even documenting the forms. The student registration software can do all the processes easily and effectively. Automation of the process will also help in finding and sending the acknowledgments, and making receipts as per the requirement.

  • Error-free and simple process 

Suppose a school is still following the traditional method for admission and a student filled incorrect information in the form, in this case, the management can never able rectify the error in any case, they just have the option of rejecting the admission of the student or calling the student to rectify the error, but if the same school is having a student registration software, the system will alert the student or his parents about the incorrect information or blank space. It not only helps in making the process error-free but also makes it much simpler and easy to access. 

  • Time-saving process 

Student registration and admission management system can help the institution, as well as the students/parents, save a lot of time. Students/parents will not need to wait queuing for long to collect and submit their admission forms, meanwhile, the management will also get the opportunity to complete all the processes with just a few clicks.

  • Reduces mental stress

Admission season is one of the most important time for any educational institution, so at this time the management and faculties put all their efforts to manage the admission process, but in all this, the management and faculties have to face various kinds of issues due to the long and complicated traditional education system resulting in mental stress for them, it directly affects the process bringing various errors and chaos.

Although, if your institute owns a student registration and admission management system they can automate the complete process simply and systematically reducing the paperwork and ultimately the mental stress of the manpower of your institution. 

  • User friendly 

Using an online admission process you get a bunch of advantages that we have discussed above, but most importantly a student registration and admission management system is user-friendly that eventually helps in making the complete admission process simple, effective, and worthy.

Read our latest case study of Thiagarajar School of Management

Examination Management System Case Study

Why is Academia’s student registration and admission management system the best choice for you?

The student registration and admission management system designed by Academia is completely made to simplify and automate the entire admission process, it includes all the aspects that you just need to follow a smooth and proper admission process in your organization. Your institution can manage the smooth functioning of student admission forms, student fee receipts, scholarship receipts, managing the details of students for the long run, creating a unique username for the student, automation of attendance after the admission, batch allotment, proper records of academic years, and many more

Sounds interesting! Book a free demo now to learn more about the student information system by Academia from our team of experts.