Authored by Raj Mruthyunjayappa, MD & SVP – International Operations, Anthology Inc.
Education institutions have been behind other industries in providing a strong digital experience for students. In addition to students being digital natives, the fact is faculty and staff throughout institutions have grown to be more technically savvy in the past 15 years. Mobile devices, social media, new cloud computing abilities, wearables and more such technological advancements clearly indicate that digitalization is a way of life today and is here to stay. With individuals living in an always-on mobile first world, rich consumer experiences define expectations from brand and services. These expectations do not transcend higher education institutions. Further 2020 has accelerated the need for digital technologies in higher education to enable a seamless student learning journey. Earlier, student experience in a ‘physical campus only’ setup exhibited low engagement rate, less satisfaction, and complex academic schedule management. In the present time, digital campus or smart campus is becoming a transformational shift in the way institutions can leverage fast-changing innovative technologies to create a digitally connected, “anytime-anywhere” ecosystem. It not only simplifies student journey but also makes the journey of alumni, conference attendees, and contractors more effortless.
The cloud-based solutions for varied digital campus platforms help in advancing the education and skill development among students. Digital campusesprovide students with seamless integration across all aspects of their journey including admissions, attendance, examinations, library management, course selection, recruitment and more. While students benefit from the digital campus experience, universities leverage the solution for a secure and transparent time-bound examination process, manage utilization of funds, gain a central view of data across multiple university systems, and collaborate for resources and knowledge. In addition, they use this solution to managethe registration, admission, online counselling, online seat allocation (taking into consideration various complex seat allocation requirements), online document verification, online payment and more.
Furthermore, digital software campus solutions collect feedback from students, enabling seamless adherence and tracking of regulations and compliance requirements. It also provides multi-disciplinary education for choice-based learning. As part of enabling digital campuses in India, solutions such asbiometric and digital attendance help with seating arrangement (physical as well as digital) and allocation of classroom seating as well as seating in virtual rooms.
These are just some aspects of how EdTech companies continue to enable institutions fast track their journey towards digital campuses in India alone.
Anthology has been leading the effort to enable institutions, in India as well as globally, to leverage technology to create digital campuses. As the organization works with institutions in India, both public as well as private to fast track their digital campus initiatives, the impact has been already visible to multiple stakeholders within the higher education institution ecosystem. With the MahaIT project alone, India’s first multi-university management system, powered by the company affects 14 universities of Maharashtra and 4600 constituents as well as affiliated colleges. Anthology’s Integrated IUMS won the 2020 industry’s best IUMS system for its MahaIT deployment.
