The growth and rise of digital technology has slowly begun to take over the world. There is no industry or sector that does not incorporate some form of software or hardware technology of the latest decade. As a matter of fact, with the rise of globalization the previously ‘not so fond of changing’ companies have also begun to proceed with the route of digital transformation.
Slowly but surely digital transformation provides businesses with a strategic and operational edge, which frankly every industry wants to embrace open heartedly. The education industry is no different either as it moves towards the path of modernization from legacy systems to more innovative practices through educational software development.
In this article, we’ve decided to focus and explore the digital transformation in the education industry, the challenges being faced and the solutions that will bring digital transformation in education sector a reality.
Challenges Faced in the Education System
Unwilling to Change
Despite the stark differences between the public and private sector institutions, key decision makers in the industry are unwilling to change and embrace the much-needed route of digitization. As much as this mindset prevails in the upper management it also extends down the hierarchy to the workforce employed in each sector. People are comfortable with performing tasks in a certain way for many years of their employment. To have that change and come out of the comfort zone is often seen with much relectancy. The fear of failure also limits people to adapt to new procedures and technology.
Inadequate Skills in the Workforce
The workforce employed in both private and public educational institutions are not properly trained at times or have the requisite digital or IT literacy skills to keep up or adapt with the digitization process of the institution. This drastically slows down the integration process of the technology and software components within an organization.
Cost to Transform
One of the biggest challenges to digital transformation is cost. Money matters when it comes to educational institutions, because the more that's used the more likely it is to have an impact on tuition fees for the student. The process to acquire the necessary funds itself is a long and tedious process, which can be in the form of government loans, grants, private investors, donations, etc. Most institutions do not want to undergo such hassle and instead maintain their status quo.
Digital Transformation In Education Sector - The Way Forward
Create the Right Strategy
The solution to the digital transformation problem starts with the right strategy. This includes making the right plan to begin with. Before anything, key people responsible for running the education industry need to commit to implement digitization across private and public sector institutions uniformly. National level consensus needs to be formed which would then trickle down to individual institutional managements.
For institutions, start with the problem and then identify areas that are most affected and need improvement. Consult with all stakeholders and identify key business goals of the institution, identify the software and technology needed to reach a point, which would bring the institution at par to modern standards.
Train the Workforce
In order to effectively implement a digital transformation strategy in an institution, it is important to focus on the individuals directly impacted by its implementation. This includes all of the concerned individuals who would be directly interacting with the new software's and hardware technology components and practices. The best way to achieve this is through training. Investing a small amount of monetary resources in basic to advanced IT literacy training will go a long way. When you consider the cost of organization-wide training to prolonged integration cost, the latter is significantly more.
Institutions who spend on the development of their current and new employees will reduce resistance by broadening their horizons. It will also aid the education staff to better interact with technology, resulting in higher quality teaching delivered to students.
Automate Wisely
Once an institution has all other matters sorted out, it's time to automate the areas identified earlier. An institution may also choose to automate areas around administrative responsibilities or the educational side. On the administrative side, an institution can focus on payroll solutions for staff, student and staff attendance systems. Whereas the educational side can involve dedicated learning management systems (LMS), student portals, organizational calendars and more.
Some educational institutions partner with technology companies and outsource their educational software development needs that match their requirements. When automating, it's also possible to experiment with new and developing technologies. Since the education industry is increasingly becoming more competitive. Educational institutions are becoming more open to experimenting with new technologies in addition to adopting a host of new technology for organizational improvement and the delivery of learning services.