Article Contents
What is Education Technology?
In today’s world of modernization and digitization, introduction of technology in every field or sector is becoming indispensable. New technological advancements are happening everyday which are benefiting every sector, every institute and every human. Education is also such a field which is welcoming technological infusions with open hands.
Education technology is one of the most trending topics in the recent times. Education technology or EdTech is nothing but a fabulous blend of computer hardware and software with educational theory and practical studies. The introduction of contemporary technological processes and tools in the field of education has provided numerous benefits to the educational entities.
The schools, colleges, universities are some of the educational entities which are accepting innovative and technologically advanced ways of learning and teaching.
Education technology combines classroom learning with digital learning tools and media which has made the learning process extremely engaging and inclusive and customised for the students. This has helped to improve the quality of the education and students’ performances remarkably.
Let us understand the ways and means in which the Indian universities are opting for education technology.
How Indian Universities are adopting Education Technology?
“My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient – good to themselves and the country at large….Swami Vivekananda.”
This quote from Swami Vivekananda highlights the importance of building youth for the nation.
Indian Universities play key role in moulding the young population to become good educated citizens who also carry moral values. These universities can help them develop interests in different things, acquire knowledge, innovate new things and spread their knowledge in the society. Indian Universities can take help of technology to radically change existing education system and construct a new fine education system which can provide superior education in the entire world.
Indian universities have started adopting technology to carry out different activities related to education. They have already started conducting classes and examinations online. They have started replacing old traditional methods of teaching and learning with latest and creative methods of education technology.
Let us see a few of these the key operations carried out by universities wherein education technology could prove very helpful.
What are the key operations where Education Technology Adoption could be appropriate?
There are three foremost important operations where the adoption of education technology would help the educational sector tremendously. They are as mentioned below:
Switching the traditional Admission Process to Online Admission Process
Admission is the first and foremost important activity of education. ePravesh is an online admission system developed at Splashgain which has made the entire admission process absolutely simple. ePravesh is a platform which offers a platform which can provide digital admissions and fee payment options.
ePravesh is an all rounder platform which can help you to inform people about different courses, its details, accept applications, conduct entrance exams, release merit lists, provide admissions and accept payments in digital format.
ePravesh has helped to reduce the tedious manual tasks such as query resolution, grievance management, report generation, data management, etc. which are generally carried out by Admin staff.
Adoption of ePravesh by the universities will be helpful as the process of taking and giving admission, fee collection and performing all the admission related activities would become extremely hassle free but also save a great deal of money.
Employing Remote Proctored Online Exam Software to conduct Exams and Assessments
The exams conducted online in proctored (invigilated) environment have proved superior and more fruitful when compared to the traditional exams. Conducting exams online have eliminated the need for exam centres, the travel required to reach the exam centres and the location constraint in general.
The technique of remote proctoring can be used to verify and authenticate the students’ identity and strictly prevent any sort of cheating and malpractice carried out by the students.
Splashgain has developed a fine platform known as Eklavvya which can provide the best ways to carry out online examinations and all activities related to it such as exam form filling, hall ticket generation, exam schedule preparation, exam paper setting, student login credentials generation and many more.
It also offers the best remote proctoring mechanisms such as image, audio and video based proctoring which can help to eliminate the chances of cheating and identity frauds. It provides many other mechanisms such as secure browser, audit logging, object detection, artificial Intelligence powered live chat, etc.
Thus, as online examinations are an important aspect of education technology, Eklavvya has stepped forward to show its support.
Replacing Traditional Answer-sheet Evaluation with Digital Evaluation Process
Traditionally, the answer sheets needed to be carried to the exam centres before the exams. These answer sheets needed to be transported from the exam centres to the location where they would be stored. As this process required too much of physical handling, there has always been a risk of damaging or losing the answer sheets.
Also in case of traditional evaluation, many more tedious activities such as assignment of the examiners for evaluation, travelling of the examiners or moderators to collect and submit the answer sheets, manual evaluation, manual generation of the results, etc.
Due to so many issues, education technology is providing an opportunity to all the universities to replace the traditional ways of answer sheets evaluation with digital or onscreen evaluation process.
eParikshan is a platform developed at Splashgain which can offer every feature and facility to evaluate the online exams in a very methodical and secure manner.
We can thus say that digital evaluation process can prove immensely beneficial in education technology.
Additional areas where education technology could be introduced
In addition to the above mentioned three major operations, there are a few other areas in which education technology can be used. Let us understand them one by one.
Rearranging the syllabus to make it dynamic and technology versed
Technology is changing the dynamics of the world. Every 6 months there are advancements in each segment of the business. If you take example of management education, marketing techniques taught 1-2 years ago have become obsolete now.
Every day new techniques of social media marketing are coming up. Not just marketing, this is happening in case of every technology used in any industry.
Due to these continuous advancements, the syllabus for different courses conducted in a university should be kept open ended and dynamic. It should be as per the inputs from Industry experts. The syllabus should be designed in a way so that any new change can be easily incorporated.
The syllabus should be made available through technology. Technology can be used for Knowledge Management where students can view videos/ study their course material online.
Teacher can share any research paper, education contents using Knowledge Management tool. Thus by using education technology, the syllabus taught in universities can be made technologically advanced and digitally available.
Adopting Open Book Policy
Traditional concept of close book exams is becoming obsolete. Era of close book exam is slowly diminishing. It is becoming important how to extract knowledge from various sources rather than learning every word by heart or having it in the brain. Different skills required in the different industries ad fields such as Analytical ability, problem solving skill, communication are gaining more important than knowing certain formulas, equations, theory etc.
Current Examination System can be changed with open book policy where candidate can write the exam by referring to the books prescribed by universities. This concept has already been implemented in certain universities for management courses and it is proving to be effective. Thus, the time to adopt the open book policy for all courses by all the universities has arrived.
In-depth student assessments with appropriate assessment methods
The ways of assessing or evaluating students should be changed radically. Existing examination system puts more emphasis on theory knowledge of the students and very less on developing their analytical ability as also on applying their knowledge practically.
Universities can step up and change these ways of conducting assessments and replace them with better alternatives. They can define chapter-wise online assessment tests for students. Each student can appear for these exams topic-wise or chapter-wise. They can give these tests 2-3 times in a month instead of taking only one exam in each semester.
Thus, the process of conducting multiple assessments over a period of time can keep students on their toes and help them to keep their knowledge fresh. This can also help the faculty and the management to assess the students properly.
Practical-oriented assessments to ensure practical understanding
Universities should give more emphasis on practical aspects of education. Theory assignments should be minimized and the number of practical examinations should increase.
The grading system should give more stress on practical knowledge. In the current context there is more weightage on theory aspect of the subject. Less practical knowledge about the subject is one of the key factors causing a road block for the students while going for the job.
In the contemporary world, you can listen or read to the smartest people in the world who give interesting lectures on the most important topics for free on social media platforms such as YouTube or any other social media channels.
Education is becoming open and easily available. Hence, this calls for a change in the assessment of the education or examination process.
Usage of technology with the practical exams can help the students to get a better idea of what they learnt as theory. Thus practical –oriented assessments with a blend of education technology can ensure that the students have acquired thorough knowledge of the subject which would in turn prepare them for their future prospects.
Summary
Education technology is not only the present need but also the best solution to tackle the drawbacks related to traditional education system. It can help to make learning activities more fun and meaningful as also enhance the student-teacher relationship. The familiarity of the students with technology can make it easier to adopt technology in education.
Splashgain has offered three platforms ePravesh, Eklavvya and eParikshan which have the ability to contribute to the education technology. These three platforms which are developed with highly advanced technology together can bring in an amazing revolution in the field of education. These three strong pillars together can support the new era of education technology.
Eklavvya.in is an online assessment and knowledge management solution used by many corporate, Professional Training Institutes, Universities involved in skill based training.It is useful tool for Various Test Preparations, Entrance Tests for Academic Courses, Regular Assessment for University Courses. Many Education entities have been benefited with this new approach of the assessment. You can enroll for Free Trial to check all features.
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