What criteria do you use to evaluate a student information system?
Online learning has become an appropriate platform to provide education to students remotely, and it has given an opportunity to enhance the methodologies involved in the teaching process. Lesson delivery that was confined to the blackboard, monotonous lectures which went on for long, and lack of productive activities were replaced by a plan of action that focused on wholesome development.
The education system is not limited to just the classroom, the administrative structure is equally important as it provides the necessary tools and ensures smooth functioning. A school or institute has different departments and each has specific responsibilities; maintaining student-related records, events, and tasks occurring during the academic year are some of the most significant ones.
A student information system is an ultimate solution for all those institutes that are looking to optimize their resources to achieve the goal of academic excellence. It provides a centralized mechanism that serves to store important information at the same time simplifies the most time-consuming and challenging tasks. However, it can become hard to find efficient software with so many of them available, below are a few of the things one should look for:
Ensuring easy access to data
Every year a school or institute hosts multiple events and competitions, to have a record of the number of students who participated is imperative. Hence the system provides a proper mechanism that helps to store this information but sometimes due to complicated technical programs stakeholders might encounter difficulty in accessing these data.
As a part of the curriculum, teachers conduct many scholarly activities within the classroom as well, it could be a simple answer and question session, quizzes, or interviews. With a batch of thirty to forty students, it can be difficult to write down remarks or points of improvements individually, that is where the system comes into use.
An efficient SIS has an interface that lets the teacher input details about how a particular student is doing in the class in real-time. Most importantly, if an administrator or someone from the teaching staff wants to access the student data, they can do so due to its easy-to-use system. It is noteworthy to mention that this helps to give insight into the performance of each student, therefore understanding their shortcomings and strength.
Easy integration feature
Suppose one buys a laptop and when he/she goes on to connect it with a corresponding device, he is unable to do so, the reason being that there is no port system. The user must be very specific about his needs before availing of any technology, for instance, higher educational institutes require a system that has in-built features which would facilitate integration with other systems.
Educators have a hard time keeping track of how students are doing, although assessments are a standardized way to measure their progress, there are other novel approaches. Such as a student tracking system, that helps to evaluate the student’s performance continuously as well as keeps track of their attendance and behavior.
Similarly, if a teacher wants to prepare an individualized lesson plan or make changes in question papers, LMS could be a helpful tool. Hence in this scenario, an advanced SIS is required as it helps to integrate with other software and tools easily without any technical glitches.
Enrollment facility
Admission session is stressful enough with the influx of several students, on top of that, the administrator needs to deal with the entire process making sure all the documents are accounted for. Indefinite delays due to slight errors and mistakes occur due to unprecedented defaults, an efficient system is a boon that helps to curtail all these issues.
Hence a system that has an enrollment facility is key to carrying out significant procedures of school administration such as storing admission-related data.
Developing assessment details
Undoubtedly one of the key functions of the system has to be the ability to develop modules and questionnaires of different tests. At the same time, it should have features that would ensure the maintenance of assessment data along with reporting program objectives. It should have the facility to sync the student data with curriculum and test results.
Remote access
Most advanced technology has remote settings available which make it easier for users to access it even when they are traveling. With many students belonging to disadvantaged groups, they are unable to afford computers or laptops. They have smartphones though, hence the biggest advantage of higher education ERP integrated SIS is that these students would also gain access to the learning facilities.
In Conclusion
Institutes depend upon the timely operation of administrative staff, be it enrollment or keeping track of student-related activities. With an effective student information system, educators would be able to focus on fostering a better learning environment. As the system provides information about key areas of students’ performance, it can help educators to implement steps to improve themselves. But for that to happen it is important to identify the key functions of SIS before availing it.
