IT Solutions for the Education Sector
Educational institutions are fast turning to IT solutions to simplify the management of the entire process that encompasses education, starting from admission to examinations and also to make the teaching/learning process interactive and interesting. All this while the teacher and student community is expanding beyond classrooms into virtual space. Here we look at some interesting IT solutions that are increasingly catching the attention of educational institutions and students.
Avoiding Paper Leaks in Examinations
It's not unusual to hear of incidents where major examinations have been postponed due to question paper leaks. A solution that seems to address this issue is the examination management solution called intelliEXAMS by Mindlogicx which delivers the question papers with authorized access just 30 minutes before exam starts via an intelligent integrated system. This software solution enables automation of the complete process of examination, whether online or offline, starting from online registration of candidates, online scheduling of examinations, examination fee management, internal mark uploading, online hall ticket generation, web-based authoring tool enabling setting of question papers by subject experts across the globe, secured question paper delivery, multiple digital evaluation, tracking of students performance & performance analysis to publishing of results and printing of mark sheets and certificates. The work flow system integrated in the system provides instant access to the university authorities for managing the whole process. Once the question paper is set using the web-based authoring tool, it is encrypted (128 bit encryption) and then sent to remote examination centers from where the authorized person uses a key to decrypt and then print the papers. Further, the hardware-based authentication makes the entire process foolproof.
Preventing Fake Student Marksheets
Students faking their mark sheet is also a very common malpractice that generates a lot of concern amongst universities and recruiters. intelliCAS, a certificate authentication system by Mindlogicx, a value added tool to intelliEXAMS, also available independently, is a solution in this direction, under which each student will have a unique 12 digit ID, for his/her certificate, called the Global Access code (GAC). Using this solution, the GAC of a candidate can be used by the employers to check the authenticity of the credentials provided by the candidate, using a standard browser or a mobile browser. Each GAC assigned to a certificate are randomly generated, non-sequential and alpha-numeric, and can produce 131 quadrillion codes per prefix which makes it very difficult for anyone to break the codes.The examination management solution by Mindlogicx has been deployed by Anna University, Coimbatore. As a part of the implementation Network Operating Centre (NoC) was set up in the university campus, which was then connected to all examination delivery centres across colleges where examinations happen.
Enhancing the Teaching-Learning Experience
It is challenging for educators to capture the attention of students with scribbles on the blackboard or a whiteboard. It is equally challenging for the students, with their short attention spans, to focus on what is being taught and simultaneously take notes. Many IT solutions are now emerging for the classrooms, that are set to enhance the entire teaching-learning experience and encourage learning and retention by understanding and interaction, rather than by rote. We look at some such technologies.
The Role of Social Networking
Education is not just a one-to-one affair that flows unidirectionally from a teacher to a student. It is in fact multi-directional, flowing between educators (sharing resources and teaching techniques), from educators to students (teaching), from students to educators (doubt resolutions, clarifications) and between students themselves (sharing of resources). Now with the Web 2.0 buzz, enabling active participation of the users and collaborative and interactive information-sharing, the age-old classroom teaching that was conceived of as 'boring' by the students is slowly getting a facelift. This is promising a 'fun' teaching-learning experience, that is far more interactive and enriching, not only for the students but also for the educators. Some of the Web 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis are being tried by many educational institutions to facilitate the teaching-learning process. But of late, something that's catching the attention of the educators and the tech-savvy Gen Y students, is social networking.
Date: 6th May, 2010
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