Education in India is yet to find its coming of age. Institutions have endeavoured to guide their students to academic success by delivering a pre-decided syllabus and an enriched atmosphere to help them develop them as people.
Despite over-crowded classrooms and vastly diverse student backgrounds, this system has worked, bringing us to the present state. However, the time has come to ask if this method of delivering education is underserving its consumers.
The digital age compels us to question what the university experience stands for. Most top university brands revolve everything around the campus, the classrooms, and social activity: . Implying that a quality education is intrinsically linked to its premises. However,the truth can be very different.
Educational institutions can transform from agents of content delivery, in to spheres of influence. Their interactions with students, and therefore their ability to shape attitudes can extend far beyond the classroom. In fact, if the 7 pillars of digital leadership in education are applied, then schools or universities become more than simply a place students go to for 8 hours, 5 days a week. Instead, they become an ideology and a place of empowerment that produces young people ready to transform the professional world. Replacing old ideas , with new ones that align to changing environments and views.
In today’s day and age, incorporating technology in education is not a novel idea. Most institutions use a combination of a Learning Management System, a web classroom service and potentially an HR platform to manage attendance and staff.
The problem with engaging multiple services lies in the added resources it takes to manage all these tools. Leadership often finds itself in a situation in which they are spending more time figuring out these tools rather than strategizing and coming up with policies and practices that are prescient and forward-looking.
The answer lies in Digital Transformation – which means a lot more than just investing in technology. Digital Transformation begins with a willingness to relook at Education’s potential in a changing world. Leaders in education must accept that an institution can form a microcosm that recreates students’ interaction with the real world, and curate opportunities to refine that interaction, they can begin to reinvent what education means today and keep up with the drastic shift in demands and perception.
This can be catalysed and supported by the right technology. Such as an intuitive digital platform that integrates all administrative functions, as well as pre-empts what institutions need, or didn’t know they needed, all while being managed from a single source. Thus opening up possibilities for offering branded extra courses and development opportunities. It would also enable institutions to let in verified, high-quality partners to assist students in identifying their personal strengths, and choose a path for themselves, be it higher education, employment or entrepreneurship. Limitations that educators identify in a student no longer remain as just highlighted sections in a report or dashboard. Instead, a development plan can be formulated and imparted, making the experience personalised while still standardised. All under the institution’s brand.
In conclusion, education in the digital age needs to be such that it continues long after the last bell has rung. Ensuring that its contribution to a successful, actualised path is felt lifelong.