What constitutes excellent student performance? Good grades? Regular participation in scholastic and co-scholastic activities? Above-average attendance rate? All these factors and more contribute to improving students’s overall performance.
However, with so many students in the classroom, it is challenging for the teacher or institute to determine their progress individually. That is why a tool like a student information system is the ultimate educational technological solution.
What is a student information system?
A student information system is an advanced software application that collects and manages all student-related information within a school or college. Teachers and administrative staff can access student data, including academic records, exam schedules, etc.
Also, they can obtain demographic information, behavioral reports, and health information, all of which help during the decision-making process. Furthermore, the tool provides a direct medium of communication through messaging and email.
Also, it helps to automate a wide variety of administrative activities, thereby helping to reduce workload and save time and effort.
1. Attendance Management
There is an intrinsic connection between attendance and student performance, and monitoring both of them is equally crucial. However, relying on traditional mechanisms, such as paper-based registers, is ineffective.
Besides, calling out students’s names and recording the number of present and absent days is a time-consuming practice. Similarly, maintaining such registers regularly and accurately is just as important because they reflect students’s attendance.
However, institutes can facilitate effortless attendance management with SIS, as it helps track student attendance and generate reports. In fact, teachers can check the number of absent and present days towards the month's end for respective students.
Also, the software enables real-time monitoring and identification of attendance patterns, helping to determine at-risk students. Consequently, teachers can develop an appropriate plan of action to retain students accordingly.
2. Comprehensive Assessment Management
The purpose of an examination goes beyond testing a student’s subject-related knowledge and includes a comprehensive assessment. Moreover, online and hybrid learning have become significant parts of the education system.
Therefore, it is only fitting for institutes to opt for tools that help them plan, draft, and implement examinations. That is exactly what SIS helps to accomplish by providing a platform that includes several assessment features.
As a result, teachers can design and conduct various kinds of assessments, such as quizzes, multiple-choice questions, and assignments. What’s more, they can develop personalized exam questions as per the students’s comprehension levels.
On the other hand, they can also create timed tests and determine the amount of time that students take to complete them. The auto-evaluation feature helps to evaluate papers easily and generate reports according to the parameters set by the administrator.
3. Grades Automation
Checking answer booklets and grading them after examinations has been a common practice for the longest time. Needless to say, the manual process is time-consuming and exhausting; the student information system provides a suitable solution.
The system automates the grading process and allows teachers to track the individual scores of subjects through grade book automation. Furthermore, they can edit, maintain, and upload the grades and transcripts on the system portal. As a result, students and parents can check their grades accordingly.
Additionally, teachers can monitor the ongoing progress through the portal, helping to determine academic decline or improvement.
Predictive Analytics in Education: Forecasting Success with SIS
4. Student’s Performance Analysis
Which students have failed to make noticeable improvements in specific subjects? Are there any at-risk students? What is the average rate of attendance per class? These questions are relevant and instrumental to determining a student’s success.
SIS proves to be a perfect ed-tech solution that stores student information regarding their performance throughout the academic year. Hence, teachers can monitor their performance according to exam grades, attendance, homework completion, etc.
On the other hand, integrated dashboard analytics provides analytical reports in graph forms, which give specific insights. Hence, teachers can use the report to provide feedback and develop action plans to improve their shortcomings.
5. Program Management
The K–12 program is a common yet significant educational model that countries around the world follow. Nevertheless, failing to keep up with the latest educational trends or standards set by the regulating agencies leads to inconsequential learning.
Therefore, institutes must strive for timely program or curricular management, which essentially streamlines students’ learning paths. In fact, institutes incorporate and streamline courses, learning objectives, and academic goals.
It involves multiple procedures, which institutes can simplify with the help of SIS, which helps organize the program structure. Likewise, they can organize the curriculum and edit it accordingly.
6. Streamlined Admission
Procedural delays and mid-admission lags are key issues that many students face due to a disorganized admission process. At the same time, not getting adequate responses from institutes concerning their queries leads to disappointment.
The administration and admissions committees of a particular institute struggle to keep things in order due to work overload. Hence, a robust student management system that has been integrated with SIS helps to streamline the enrollment process.
Consequently, it eliminates manual handling of inquiries and student applications and automates the end-to-end admission process. Also, the system sends auto-update alerts to students, helping them track their admission status.
7. Effective Communication
Is there a way for teachers to maintain communication between parents, students, and them? A communication method that goes beyond conventional methods like parent-teacher meetings is the need of the hour.
Besides, parental involvement is imperative for creating a productive learning environment at home. Teachers can use the software’s communication tool to connect with parents and inform them of their children’s progress.
For instance, messaging systems, mobile apps, and online portals are useful for collaborating with parents. Likewise, parents can use the same medium to reach out to respective teachers and inquire about their child’s performance.
8. Data security and privacy
There are many advantages to digitalized solutions that help accelerate organizational efficiency and eliminate repetitive tasks. Nevertheless, security threats exist that may compromise sensitive institutional information.
Fortunately, institutes don’t need to worry about such issues with SIS, as it provides fail-proof security features. For instance, it has a cloud-based platform with a centralized and secure storage solution for student data.
Only authorized personnel can log in with valid credentials, which eliminates the chances of unwarranted data access. Also, regular backup of student information prevents the loss of administrative and student data.
Significant Features of the Student Information System
- Cloud ERP - It is a cloud-enabled software that eliminates the manual handling and maintenance of student data. Also, institutes can customize it as per their needs.
- Student Progress Report: It generates progress reports for students, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and overall performance throughout the year.
- Student Portal: A portal that stores all the information related to a student's performance, including grades, attendance reports, assessments, assignment details, etc.
- Parent Portal: A portal that allows parents to access respective student details, helping to stay in the loop concerning academic activities.
- Teacher Portal: Teachers also have an account or portal in the system that allows them to access students’s information.
Bottom Line,
A student information system is a good investment because it drives student success by facilitating personalized education through its varied features. It is a robust e-tech solution that leverages technology to enhance students’s educational experiences.
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Author:
Prashant Borkar,
Academic Consultant