Whenever you hear about futuristic technologies, implication and implementation of these technologies in education has always been thought last. You can give credit to the conservative nature of our education industry.  So our primary focus was to commission an extensive R&D on use cases and how the trends can change the education landscape. What Classe365 team has done with respect to the application of these technologies in the education space is overwhelming.

We are investing in many cutting edge technologies and two of the main ones are Bots and Virtual Reality (VR). Global design and strategy firm frogdesign, in its 2017 forecasts predicts technologies that will define the upcoming year and mentions the use of Bots and VR. Lets have a look into this closely

VR finally will be a reality in 2017

Imagine the experience of going to the university sitting right in your living room. Virtual reality will finally make its mark in Classrooms in big ways.

Classrooms will be able to livestream entire lectures for people who want to watch without leaving their living room. Companies like NextVR are already partnering with Live Nation to make the setup a (non-virtual) reality. Classe365 Learning Management System will be heading towards supporting VR platforms and content. We believe partnerships, integration and collaboration are the key to make this vision a reality. We aim to make Classe365 VR enabled for our educators to easily deliver the VR enabled technology to their students.

Bots will make educators administrator effectively and students learn efficiently.  

In the way the communication app Slack has merged bots into its chat service, we are extensively exploring how educators will use artificial intelligence to handle the logistics of administrating students and learning activities.

We are working with many educators in the preliminary research to commission an assortment of administration and learning bots to bring our vision to reality.

Lets give you a sneak peak on some use cases. An enrolment administration bot might automatically solicit and collaborate with students and parents, while a student aid bot polishes his/her skills and helps student prepare for exams with organised content based on the student’s learning weaknesses — all to help the educators administrator work faster and students learn more effectively.

In today’s context of the primacy of smartphone and tablet devices, robust cross-organization cloud services and the changing nature of productivity — all combined with the acute needs of enterprise security — we are heading to dramatically change the definition of the education and learning management as a service.

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1) Offer scholarships directed at international students

What usually makes international students balk from studying in institutes based in countries such as the US and the UK is the colossal tuition fee that’s hard to arrange for and even pay off if things do not go as planned. If institutes are keen on attracting international students, they should look to introduce scholarships for them which would neutralize tuition costs and incentivize them to apply to foreign institutes.

2) Provide better career assistance

Most students apply to international universities to gain degrees they believe would give them an edge over others when it comes to getting jobs. Institutes must also link up with organizations in order to provide requisite internships and work-study programs to boost job placements. One also needs to establish deep alumni networks to showcase success stories and also to provide links to quality jobs. Institutes must throw their weight behind outstanding industrial relations in order to benefit students and also enhance their reputation among students, alumni and industries.

3) International Education Agents & Agencies

Education agents have helped recruit almost 40% of our international students in European universities, according to the Observatory on Borderless Education and the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Some universities don’t like to talk about these agents – perhaps because they are worried that working with them taints the sector, or that paying them is in some way unethical. However, with the rising completion to attract the lucrative foreign student, there isn’t wrong in engaging overseas agents if universities undertake proper, continuous due diligence and only appoint agents who meet minimum standards. Education institutions should understand that the risk in damaging their reputation is not by working with agents – but by hiding the fact that they do. Having strategic partnerships with education agents across the globe is one the most important initiatives an education institution can take to attract international students.

 4) Quality content

Great education remains at the heart of every institute of repute. Delivering the best of education through relevant topics, variations in content presentations and pertinent evaluation will make sure that there is an air of competition and continuous improvement around the campus. At the end of the day, grades given to students against acceptable parameters of evaluation will be a true image of where they stand in terms of their skills and employability. Distant learning and certification courses should also be introduced to give students a trailer of what the institute is capable of offering. Such courses should boost revenues and also spike interest among students.

5) Put an exemplary student information system in place

Automation is the way forward and that applies to academics too. Having a student information system such as Classe365 that takes care of activities right from admissions and enrollment to administrative functions and progress tracking will make things look more seamless at the institute. This will appeal to the international aspirants all the more as they would be absorbed into t

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Augmented Reality is one of the things when you get started with, you just get hooked! If you show someone a picture of you holing, say, a car (in Augmented reality, of course), the first thing that most would say would be like : “ Thats a terribly edited picture”. And just when you were expecting a complement as a self proclaimed semi-master of A.R, you would just roll your eyes and make the “oh lord..” face, sighing instead. 

Okay! So its not really useful using A.R in pictures. Then where can we use Augmented Reality? The simple answer is : Anywhere else! Games use Augmented Reality to make virtual components come to life, thus increasing interaction and excitement. In retail, you can digitize clothing/jewelry on your person to see how it looks, without actually trying it on. Its even used in Pharmaceutical Marketing to train specialists and to show patients vividly how various substances affect their body.

WHY A.R. IN EDUCATION ?

Now that we know what A.R can do, its no surprise that it can also be used in education as well. It is a known fact that:

 Learning is most effective in the presence of a visual aid.

That is, what you see has a greater impact than what you hear. In the classroom, all kinds of concepts are taught. Lets assume that a lecture on, say, “the working of a fan” is going on. In the Face-to-Face [F2F] classroom, the teacher wouldn’t waste time drawing a fan on the board. Rather, he would use a fan in the classroom as a reference for the lecture. (After all, there is bound to be a fan in a classroom.) Since the students have a working model right in front of them, they can easily understand how it works from the teacher’s explanation. 

But what if the lecture is one something that isn’t in the classroom at the time?? Say, “The Eiffel Tower”. You have two options here. You can either plan a class field trip to France, which is obviously not feasible (but would be amazing!!), or have the teacher explain the Eiffel tower with a 3D model, from right inside the classroom. The latter can be accomplished easily with AR. All teachers need to do is follow the 5 steps listed below to get the Eiffel Tower , or any other monument/object in the classroom.

WHERE DO I START ?

Install an augmented reality app. “Augment” is a notable app for android and iOS.

If you’ve installed “Augment” on your phone/tablet/iPad , create an account on augmentedev.com . This will be the platform for creating and managing your A.R projects. You can take free trial for 30 days.

 Now, You need to create “models” and “trackers”.

* Model is the 3D object that you want to view.

* Tracker is the physical platform on which your object will be seen.

You can download pre-existing 3D models from sites like tf3dm.com or 3dmodelfree.com , and then upload it to your “Augment” account. Of course, you can also create  and upload your own models.

You can create a custom tracker on a small card or a large sheet of paper, depending on whether you want to hold the model in your hand or mount it on the floor. Upload the tracker image to your “Augment” account.

NOTE : A good tracker is a messy one! I tried index cards and making my own A4 size trackers in MS Paint, but the best tracker is a news paper for 3D models on the floor.

WHY ISN’T AUGMENTED REALITY POPULAR IN THE CLASSROOM?

Whats stopping us from using this technology in education today? Everyone has a smartphone nowadays, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get the A.R ball rolling in education globally. Could it be lack of awareness that there is such a tool that can potentially revolutionize the idea of technology in education, leading to a completely different learning model? Using A.R in education means more classroom time, and more student- teacher interaction. It sounds closer to F2F learning than the Flipped Classroom.

COST OF USE

The one thing that most institutions have in mind when considering anything “new” is : How much is this going to cost me? Well, to make Augmented Reality a “reality”, an institution must be willing to purchase abundant resources, like iPads, for students to use in the classroom. When they hear the word “iPad”, i think you can guess their reaction! Most institutions will not be willing to spend that much just to make a lecture seem more interactive.

Of course, they aren’t completely considering the benefits of introduction of this teaching model. Students will actually be able to learn MUCH more that they ever could through textbooks and charts. This is something I could only dream of when i was in school! After all, how many kids you know would rather read books than— well, anything else!

COMPLEX LECTURE PLANS

Even if the institution considers using A.R in the classroom, it means absolutely nothing if teachers can’t make use of it. 

Teachers need to know how to make use of AR as a learning Tool!

It seems like a lot of work to first understand the concept and then think of innovative ways to bring textbook knowledge to life, let alone make it interactive and interesting for the entire class! Teachers will have to reconsider how they normally deliver their lectures. How many teachers are actually willing to do this? Even if they do have passion for teaching, you can’t blame them if they refuse to change their methods.

WHERE ELSE IS AUGMENTED REALITY USED?

IKEA CATALOGS 

IKEA, one of the world largest ready-to-use furniture selling groups in the world, has chosen to use Augmented Reality in their catalogs. Each page of the catalog gives information about the furniture in addition to a custom tracker. When scanned, a 3D animated model of the product appears on the catalog, showing us the various features to give customers a good Idea lot how the product looks and functions.

GAMING

How would you feel if you saw a dinosaur in your living room, charging straight at you! When we talk about augmented reality in gaming, we are adding the virtual object, the dinosaur, to the real world (your living room). The experience here is quite different from your typical “virtual reality” gaming where everything – the surroundings and characters, are digitized.

MARKETING

Augmented Reality can be used in marketing as well. The idea behind every good marketing strategy revolves around appealing to the customer. The best way to get their attention is through visuals. Consider a clothing store, for example. A teenager walks by and sees long lines  of clothing in every aisle. She would probably be thinking : “ I have to try on all these clothes if I have to decide what I’m gonna buy. Is it really worth the effort?”. Ironically, because of so many options, she might not even buy anything at all! But what if there was a faster way to decide? Using A.R, the store could create digitized versions of clothing on the customer’s person without her even trying the outfit on! This saves a lot of time for shopping and makes it easy for customers to decide what they want.

OTHER A.R TECHNOLOGY

Google Glass is a wearable computing platform that can also be used to deliver Augmented Reality experiences. With the right apps, like layAR , You can get information about the things around you, and even a 360 degree panoramic experiences of places thousands of miles away! Although Glass has pulled out of the market, it’ll come back with more features than before.

Augmented Reality has quite the future in various fields, even in education. However, it is up to the institution to objectively see the benefits  that A.R has to offer. Teachers should try to change their methods, if possible, to welcome this new era of technology in education with open arms.

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Information is man’s primal asset in this age. Impatience is the buzzword of our generation which is stoked by the lack of timely, actionable and veritable data. As we evolve to seek answers, our methods of ingesting content have also got more sophisticated. We seek involvement in the matters of our interest and we also strive to know how we can further apply the insights we obtain from our pursuit of solutions.

Given how dynamic our pattern of data consumption is, it would be naïve to think that traditional methods of classroom learning would suffice in our endeavors to conceptualize and grasp the fundamentals of yore and present day. Besides nostalgia, the traditional blackboard and chalk serve our purpose with diminishing returns. Cutting to the point, students of today are in need of a holistic system for getting attuned to the rigors of education.

Don’t get us wrong here. Traditional methods of delivering lectures and training still persist, that too with high acceptability. However, they exist as a one size fits all approach. Delivery of education needs augmentation, if not an overhaul.

The advent of learning management systems (LMS)

Learning management systems facilitate delivery of content and resources to students. An LMS also helps in anytime access to resources plus a more collaborative learning environment to engage with. Unlike regular classroom sessions, learning management systems ensure repeatability and self-pacing of the resources to be studied.

Numbers are also in favor of the learning management system industry. According to eLearning Industry , the estimated growth rate of the LMS industry is approximately 24% with the market set to be at an impressive $8 billion in 2018. For now, the industry is at roughly $3 billion. Providers seem to be in favor of establishing cloud based classroom LMS systems as this reduces capital and operational costs

Learning management systems also facilitate cross device access which means that one would be able to tune into their classrooms from the comfort of his or her desktop, tablet, smartphone or laptop. Such ease of access and the ease of replaying content does learning management systems a world of good.

 This is wonderful, but…

Having eulogized learning management systems, one can be forgiven for thinking that such systems are paid/freemium versions of YouTube or any other video service focused solely on education. Besides delivery of quality content, learning management systems need to involve everyone and everything in the scheme of things. That would include teachers, parents, attendance, examinations, grading, administrative functions, attendance, notice boards, alumni relations, community management and even recruitment activities.

Enter student information systems (SIS)

If learning management systems place flexible content at your fingertips, student information systems strive to measure the impact of the learning and translate the same into verifiable metrics. We not only get to learn swathes of concepts, we also get to measure our grasp of them. Not only that, we also get to involve the key stakeholders of our education into one robust system to make sure everyone is on the right track.

The student information system has the potential to be the very gateway and the backbone of an educational institute.

A hybrid approach

So the need of the hour is a product that combines the best of LMS and SIS as a unified and a comprehensive solution. A product that fosters adequate learning, tracking and measurement of progress is the future of education management systems. After all, learning and academics persist outside the confines of the classroom and it is only helpful if an end to end solution exists to cater to them. To know more, take a tour of Classe365’s education management system

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Throwing technology into education can have varying effects depending on it’s method of implementation. What can we achieve

BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE – BYOD in Classrooms

Consider a school that wants to change their teaching model from the old traditional method by using laptops as learning tools in the classroom (BYOD in Classrooms). There are 50 students per class, but only 20 laptops allotted. Buying a laptop for each student is a very expensive affair that the school isn’t willing to do. Does that mean that its impossible to incorporate technology in the classroom? Not at all! Taking advantage of the fact that most students have a smartphone or laptop at home, the institution can encourage students to “bring your own device” to school. In this way, the students with a laptop or phone at home can make use of it in the classroom, and the 20 laptops allotted to each class can be used by the other students who don’t have their own device.

Incorporating BYOD still retains the “classroom” in education. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every student gets a hands on experience of what goes on in the classroom, making them learn more efficiently and interactively. Thus, BYOD is considered as an E-Learning method which leans towards the ‘Formal Learning’ side of education.

INTRODUCING INFROMAL LEARNING

In the discussion above, though we implemented technology in education, we still retained the “classroom” for of learning. Another alternative of introducing technology can completely remove the very idea of learning in the classroom. This model is known as “informal learning”. Some education models that fall under informal learning include :

Flipped Classroom : is more of an informal learning model where students study a lecture before the actual classroom session through comprehensive online study material. Classroom sessions are meant to simply clear doubts with the teacher, if any.

M-Learning : strictly incorporates informal learning as it involves learning from micro lessons over a phone, wherever, whenever. The micro lessons are clear and to-the-point discussions, without illustrating too much detail.

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH INFORMAL LEARNING

To actually get a clear picture as to how formal and informal learning differ, consider this analogy of my college days : In college, they taught a course on UNIX. I found the subject quite uninteresting. At the beginning of every class , I’d just open a book and pretend that I was taking down notes, when I was actually just drawing bad cartoon characters instead! How did I get away with it, you ask? Well, I was sitting in the back bench and my grades weren’t too bad, so I guess I went unsuspected. Anyways, its clear that stating UNIX was “uninteresting”, was an understatement. I saw no use for it at the time. I just memorized some theory and managed to pass. But even afterwards, I still knew nothing of UNIX!!

A few months later, I decided to create a website, But for it to work, I needed to modify file permissions using UNIX commands! I had no choice, so I learned UNIX from scratch using online material. Relearning UNIX, I realized its applications and how useful it can be!

The first time I learned UNIX was in the classroom. Here, the knowledge was forced on me. I never really needed it then, so learning it was very inefficient. This illustrates formal learning. When I learned UNIX on my own, It was my own free will, thus illustrating informal learning.

DRAWBACKS OF INFORMAL LEARNING

Its no easy task to incorporate an informal learning model. There are a few things that an institution has to look out for :

->Mobile phones serve as a distraction. A student’s full attention wont be on learning!!
-> The cost for institutions to provide devices for students in schools can be quite significant
-> Informal learning doesn’t work out for everyone. It involves a lot of self study. Some students may lag behind as they still rely on teachers to “teach”.
-> Informal learning requires a lot of planning on the teacher’s end. Creating online study material (like micro lessons) , scheduling a course for the entire academic session, and forming assignments that ensure the use of technology without parental guidance are a few things that a teacher must look out for.

CONCLUSION

What we can accomplish with informal learning is truly amazing. But for some institutions, each one of those drawbacks are difficult to overcome. The type of learning adopted can vary.

But in the end, the deciding factor is willingness to accept technology as a friend, and guide their students to a better tomorrow.

If you are an educator looking for student information system software or learning management system, give Classe365 a go. Remember its the software + hardware + teachers that turns learning to knowledge.

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Today’s Students, high school & college students in particular, spend most of their time on their smart phones. If they live in dorms, its more than likely that their internet usage is restricted. So, say that their teacher put some video tutorial up, to illustrate a concept. For E-Learning to successfully replace F2F, the tutorial is made comprehensive. Hence the video long to make sure nothing is left out. Thats nice and all, but this large file now, students have to download this large file on their restricted internet access. The file would take hours to download, if not fail altogether.

According to 2015 statistics, 83% students (with phones) worldwide use mobile phones as their primary study tool.

So, E-Learning has quite the drawback! To counteract this, M-Learning comes into play. Instead of making a comprehensive video tutorial, make a concise and “to the point” video, effectively reducing the video length, yet obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the concept illustrated. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Creating such a tutorial requires carful planning to ensure that not even a single second is wasted! If the video is still too long, then break it down into parts of say, 3-5 minutes each. The time interval of these “micro-lessons” is very important.

We already have enough sleeping heads in the classroom. It’d be a shame if students drop their phone, dozing off while listening to an online lecture!

E-Learning is more closely related to F2F than M-Learning. How? E-Learning has a very broad definition. In one of its many forms, E-Learning can still implement the classroom scenario. Students using Laptops as learning tools in the classroom is an example. Another name for classroom learning is called “formal learning”. Such a learning method forces knowledge on students, making it less effective. M-Learning saves the day by being away from the classroom. Students learn what they want, when they want. This paves the path for “informal learning” , a more effective and interactive form of learning.

To understand how important M-Learning is, consider this example : A college student is preparing for the SAT and GRE. In both cases, the english vocabulary section is quite menacing. There thousands of words that he has to master to get into shape. The idea of actually sitting down at a desk and going through flash cards (or any other study aid) is pretty boring. The student would probably be distracted after going through only ten words or so. Is there a way to get students to study more effectively? There is! What if these vocab flash cards were in the form of a Mobile App? Students would feel that they are not really studying, when they are actually learning more than they would have on a desk.

CONCLUSION WITH SUPPORTIVE RESEARCH

According to an M-Learning statistic, conducted by Drew Harnish [M.S. thesis on effective M-Learning. Source on page.57 & 62], students who used Apps as their primary study tool, performed 16% better than those who used the old “sit and study” approach.

Clearly, M-Learning is NOT E-Learning, nor is it simply E-Learning on a mobile device. It is a method of informal learning that uses carefully planned micro-lessons to make learning faster, efficient and entertaining!

If you are an educator looking for student information system software or learning management system, give Classe365 a go. Remember its the software + hardware + teachers that turns learning to knowledge for students.

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TECHNOLOGY OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT

Attendance management technology makes it easy to mark attendance. Also, in case a student is absent for a class, teachers can send SMS/Email to parents, letting them know of their child’s absence, with just a few clicks of a button. Its a given that every student hates this feature. Nevertheless, parents love it !

ADMISSION PROCESS MADE EASY

I’m pretty sure every parent has faced the difficulty of waiting long hours in line to pay  their child’s admission fees for the coming academic session. Well, if this is how it was for you, it’s time to say goodbye to those days. With the feature of online transactions provided by cloud based education management systems, safe transactions can be carried out online, instantly.

PARENTS GET TO KNOW THEIR CHILD BETTER

Children tend to behave differently with their parents, teachers and their peers. Using Education management systems, parents can monitor their child’s behaviour in different situations, letting them know about any abnormal behaviour and take corrective action. So, using state of the art technology allows parents to connect with their children.
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TECHNOLOGY INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

A BETTER LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR THEIR CHILD

Every parent wants their child to learn as much as they can in the classroom. If we want a child to learn effectively, we have to teach them in the way they want to be taught! So, the goal is to make them learn what we want them to learn, in a way that is fun for them. There is nothing wrong with letting a child use technology, as long as they only use it to get the information they need.

Kids these days just love playing on iPads. So, by using iPads and other devices as educating media, students not only have fun, but also learn something in the process.

CREATIVITY OVER KNOWLEDGE

Whether you are a student or were a student, you know full well of the pros and cons of “The Textbook”. Textbooks have everything laid out for a student. All they have to do is, well, read it. Textbooks are just full of facts and figures that most students just have to cram before the exams, and forget them just after. Well, if this is the case, then what is the point in studying in the first place ?!

With a technology based classroom, the idea is to make sure that students don’t memorize anything. They should be allowed to think and understand how things work the way they do. Sure, knowledge about the subject is required to a certain extent, but that doesn’t mean that we should go overboard with useless facts!

NO NEED TO HELP THEM WITH THEIR PROJECTS

It is customary for all schools to give project work to elementary students.  We have to carefully analyze the situation. Sure, the intent of projects in school is to give a glimpse of the idea of “work” to the students, but most schools go overboard by assigning them projects that are too hard for an elementary student to accomplish on their own. Actually, most of the work is done by their parents, thus making this “project” system more of a liability than an asset.

Introducing technology in classrooms will even change the very scope of the projects assigned to students.For example, instead of being asked to assemble a diorama of a national monument (which clearly requires parental assistance), the project may require students to create a magazine, presentation, or web-based tool, using a computer. This will actually serve as a multi-asset project as :

•  It gives students an idea of the direction the world is progressing
•  Increases creativity
•  Uses state of the art technology
•  Students have fun while learning

And most importantly,

They don’t need to bug their parents for meaningless projects.

IS MONEY THE ‘REAL’ ISSUE ?

Despite the many assets of introducing technology in the classroom, there is one factor that may trouble parents the most : “How much is it going to cost us ???” Nearly all parents are willing to pay any price to make their child reach their academic expectations, but for those who are just getting by, there is an upper limit. A controversy arose on this issue when schools in UK asked parents to pay, on an average, an extra £200 per child to facilitate technology in the classroom.

While implementing technology in education, money will always be a controversial issue.  But this is only an initial investment. Parents who are only looking at the short term effect of such a large expenditure can be assured that their efforts will soon bear fruit. How so?

FREE WORLD TOUR!

Let students experience different cultures, traditions, languages and religions – all within the classroom. With virtual field trips, touring the world was never so fun!

INEXPENSIVE ONLINE RESOURCES

No need to waste money on pen, paper and books. Online resources can save both parents, and schools, money and give students excellent educational experiences.

BROADCASTING SEMINARS ONLINE FOR FREE

Technology doesn’t only help elementary school students. Even university students can enjoy the assets technology has to offer. Organizing traditional seminars takes a lot of time, effort and money. But a “webinar” eliminates the need of physical resources, hence the costs are much lower than organizing a physical event.

By investing in technology for education, parents are actually saving money, which will become evident when they see their children become responsible adults.

Integrate education and technology for the best learning experience.

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When we talk about the “millennial generation”, we mean the students of today – those growing up in the era of rising software and technology. Since computers are a part of their daily lives, it only evident that education incorporates the use of computers and cutting edge teaching methodologies. Students would find it easier to manage all their academic and personal information on PCs or tablets , as opposed to stacks of books and papers.
It is time to gradually say goodbye to the traditional methods of pen and paper teaching and administration management, and welcome the world of online education with open arms. Now that we are in the twenty first century, it is a pressing matter – more so than ever before. “Everything is available online” is no longer an exaggeration, but rather, a fact. We have come to the point where even something as abstract as “education”, is available online. By now, everyone knows that anything available online is better. But how are online Education facilities better ??

EASE OF USE

Today’s kids are pretty smart. They can find their way around a computer faster than they learn how to walk. This only fuels the need of an online management system which can be used easier than the records in books that we used before. It is the responsibility of the institution to provide an easy way to manage information.
Classe365 saves the day with its easy to use interface. In this way, students and teachers can collaborate in new ways. With easy access to student information, teachers get a chance to know their students better, by analyzing and recording every aspect of every student. Furthermore, Parents can track their child’s progress and get real insight into their behaviour.

STUDENTS CAN STUDY FOR EXAMS IN PEACE

In the beginning of the academic year, the Library is the last place you would look to find a student. On second thought, it is probably not even a place to look for a student even if it was the last place on earth! The librarian will just be sitting in her chair, reading a book, enjoying the blissful silence .But when examinations are right around the corner, the Library is packed like a sold out concert, with an endless line of students, waiting anxiously, to check out their books. They probably spend more time in line waiting to get the book than actually read it!
Classe365, once again, saves the day by allowing students to checkout and checkin books online. By doing so, students can save a lot of time to study for the actual exam.

EFFICIENT ADMISSION PROCESS

Just like we have Library traffic during exams, the admission section will be full of anxious parents and students, in the beginning of the year, just waiting to pay the fees for the coming academic session. With our cloud based education system, online transactions can be carried out in a safe and sequential manner. Not only this, parents can also keep a tab on all transactions made with the institution.

MANAGE INSTITUTION INFORMATION WHEREEVER, WHENEVER

Smartphones are the ‘in’ thing, marking the advent of the new millennia. Everyone has them and uses them for, literally, everything! Its hard to believe that the old button phones that we were using a couple of years ago has now become an antique piece of sorts. The times are changing, and they are changing fast! We need to cope with this dramatic change as well.
Classe365 aptly addresses this concern with a new app that allows students, teachers, parents, administrators and all others affiliated with the institution to manage all academic and personal information with a few “taps of a screen” (can’t really say “push of a button” anymore!).

These are just a few things that one can do with a cloud based education system, such as Classe365. Does your school provide all these facilities? In any case, if you stick with us, managing your institution will be easier than ever before. We also consider views of students, parents and teachers as well.

After all, a stride can only be successful if everyone involved is ready to make a difference.

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Let’s look at the top 16 features every Student Information System should provide. Not all applications are the same. So here are the most important features that every Student Information System or School Management System should provide.

1. Cloud Enabled:

Education institutions should now consider performing all activities in the cloud. Having cloud based Student Information System with no local on premise foot print of server or software means less time and money spent on IT and more on broader education priorities.

2. Student Behaviour Tracking and Analytics:

Data is useless without any insight and predictive analysis. Student Information System should make the best of all the data entry that happens every day. The best software applications can even predict student behaviours analysing by tracking critical data of students and the institutions.

3. Campus Recruitment

Student Information Systems should provide access to companies so they can view and offer projects, internships and graduate jobs to students. Today Classe365 is the only application that offer this feature.

4. Communication & social features:

Student Information System need to be integrated with robust alerting and communication systems to alert students, parents or teachers on emergencies and key events. Alerts need to be triggered on key events like student being absent, broadcasting. Today there are also social network features for students and parents to collaborate together.

 5. Admission Management:

Why to keep bundles of files while all the data can be saved smartly. Instant search makes this data easily accessible. By using student information systems and school software you can manage all this and much more.

 6. Account Management:

Only few student information systems offer true accounting functionality. Tracking institution’s day to day expenses and income, keeping all records of fee received and the defaulters will make work easier for education institutions. If possible stay away from accounting software that doesn’t talk to student information system.

7. Laboratory Management:

Manage the Lab inventory using IA. Know exactly about the chemicals, instruments are required and when.

8. Profile Management:

Each student, his/her parents, Teacher, Staff members and management will have separate login to access the desired information. So you can know all the things for every single student, his/her parents, Teacher, Staff members.

9. Transport Management:

Manage all the vehicles like bus, cars and transport vehicles that are used for transportation purpose. It can help in route description in association with the particular student, teachers and staff members.

10. Attendance Management:

Look for student information system that can manage day to day attendance of all the students easily. This helps in minimize proxies and paper work. Some Student Information Systems like Classe365 also sends automated SMS and email alerts when students are absent from classes.

 11. Examination Management:

This module will allow you to manage all type of exams like unit test, half yearly test and final examination. It will enable you to announce your results faster via SMS and Email alerts.

 12. Hostel Management:

Managing all the information about rooms, goods, mess was never easier. Now, minimize waste and track all the actions of hostel.

13. Library management:

Find, Search, Issue and Return books are the basic features of this module. It will generate auto reports for the book condition, likeliness among students, fine collected, etc.

 14. Staff Management:

It will help in communication on individual and group basis. Their attendance, Salary and other expenses can be tracked.

15. Management Reports:

Management need to informed at all times on every aspect of institution performance. Student Information System need to have intuitive dashboards that represents of key metrics of education institution performance.

 16. Alumni Management:

Alumni network of any school are powerful and influential. Schools, colleges and universities need to proactively manage alumni network. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Always select a Student Information System that provides ability to interact with the Alumni network with features like fund raising, membership programs, inter-alumni social interactions, business exchange and job boards.

If you are an educator looking for the best student information system or school management systems, talk to our solution enablement team on solutions@classe365.com to get Classe365 in your school, college or university.

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