ICT in Higher Education: Antidote to all Ills

A classroom at any Indian university since ages (barring of course the IIMs and IITs and other private institutions) constitutes of a blackboard, teacher, and a classroom full of students, pursuing the course in the hope of landing a job since most jobs today demand a graduate degree. Sadly, the situation hasn't improved since most of us graduated. The scenario, however, is on the verge of change with the Indian government's focus on bringing in ICT to improve the state of higher education in our country-the National Mission on Education is emphasizing on the role of ICT in increasing the enrolment ratio in higher education.

"IT, specifically the internet, has become a driving force for advancement of education. With IT in vogue, students have access to processed information and raw data about everything they think about. They can learn skills and attain knowledge without even a teacher," says Dr MK Soni, executive director & dean, faculty of engineering & technology, Manav Rachna International University (MRIU).

In fact, ICT can relegate the teacher to the background-from being a knowledge provider to a facilitator. Not just that, Soni adds that IT has made the life of administrators and managers much easier; because of tools like MS Office and equivalent application packages, tedious works can be completed easily. Hence educational institutions have adapted IT, because this has enhanced their productivity and efficiency.

Overcoming Barriers

Overall, it has been widely accepted that technology, irrespective of domains, has proved to be a vital asset when it comes to increasing productivity, efficiency, and business prospects. And since the benefits were there for all to see, the adoption of ICT was quick, including by the education sector.

As per Ashok Mittal, chancellor, Lovely Professional University (LPU), "The implementation of IT in back-end processes was motivated by a multitude of factors, the major ones being as follows: Bringing transparency in the system, accelerating the pace of task execution, efficient monitoring and control, ushering an element of convenience and ease, systematic record keeping, and, of course, environmental conservation."

Some unique challenges that most of the education institutions are facing include equity, accessibility, quality of delivery, and most importantly cost (to achieve all of these without raising the cost).

However MRIU somewhat has been able to address most of these issues. Furthermore, Soni corroborates, " With the implementation of ERP, the system has become transparent, allowing access to attendance records, examination records, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, and research and development programs. Moreover, parents through the Parent Self Service module can also check the growth and progress of their wards by logging in the university website; and they also get alerts about shortage of attendance, payment of fees, and important events, as the case may be."

The Virtual World

Also, the university allows the admission seekers to submit admission applications online (24x7) during the admission days, without physically visiting the campus. MRIU has an active online presence with the entire information related to the university in terms of infrastructure created, facilities provided, faculty, eligibility criteria for admission, criteria for preparation of a merit list, fee structure, etc, is available on its website.

Prof Rajeshwar Shanmugham, faculty, Loyola Institute of Business Administration further gives an insight into why educational institutions went the ICT way. "Academic Information system enables communication between all the stakeholders (students, faculty, etc) about all the relevant information, including the schedule, course outline/syllabus, reading materials, PPTs used in classrooms, submission of assignments/projects, attendance, and publication of grades, to help faster communication, cut down on paper use, and facilitate easy and faster access to data," he says.

IT Across Departments

It's important to understand that the rising number of enrolments in institutes, gives rise to an increase in the number of transactions per student, and the significance of ICT is only going to see an upward trend and this will be true irrespective of departments. This implies that the adoption of IT will not just be limited to departments like admissions or examinations, but even for maintaining general administration or otherwise.

Substantiating this view, adds Akhlesh Agarwal, vice president, learning technologies, NIIT University, "With the increasing number of students and transactions, the main challenges that we have to address are responsiveness, data integrity, and transparency. Using the appropriate technologies, that include work flow management, data audit trails, and communication tools, we are able to achieve best possible results vis--vis these challenges."

Most universities, irrespective of departments, actively use ICT whether it is in a classroom, admission departments (right from submitting forms online to accessing institute-specific information regarding admissions, courses, and faculty), intranet (for accessing course material, assignments, class schedules, and test results), or even for maintaining an online library.

As per Agarwal, at NIIT University, "While the main focus is to use technology in the teaching and learning process to increase the effectiveness of learning delivery, we plan to increase technology usage in every operation at university, viz., admissions, registration, academic records, library, hostel management, HR, and payroll & finance."

At LPU, the scenario is somewhat different from NIIT. Here the university's departments are leveraging IT-right from the security guards at the entrance to transportation department; from a receptionist to the dak boy from the communication department; from the HR department, examination department, vendor department, accounts department, dean, to faculty, etc,-almost all in the university work with IT as the lynchpin.

Mittal further shares, "We have a Wi-Fi-enabled campus spanning 600 acres, which hooks 25,000 students to internet round the clock, enabling them to cash its power for knowledge enhancement. In fact, we had aimed for a 'paperless university' which now seems achievable. Hence plans are afoot to record all the lectures by prominent professors of the university and make them available online for the convenience and betterment of the students. Hopefully, this will materialize in 2 years time, and then we will acquire the status of being a 'paperless university' in India."

In fact, MRIU has gone a step further and has even implemented ERP developed by Tata Consultancy Services, consisting of 30 modules for automation of all aspects of education, including academics, admissions, fee management, transport management, hostel management, infrastructure/ facilities management, learning management system, training and placement, alumni, etc.

Private Online Presence

Unfortunately, most private institutions are taking the lead when it comes to having an active online presence, although this does not translate into implying that government academic institutions lack an online presence. One of the plausible reasons why most private institutes make a beeline to update their virtual presence is most of them are commercial establishments, out for profits, and are compelled to attract as many students as possible for generating revenues.

"NIIT University has a strong online presence, which includes our website, our Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube channel, blogs, and facility of live video streaming of campus events to the outside world. Students can download and fill online forms for admission. Also, NIIT University has a full-featured online learning portal where students can access digital content used by faculty in the classroom, they can submit online assignments, and take online quizzes. We plan to constantly increase the content available to students via the portal, including some chosen lecture recordings," says Agarwal.

In the case of LPU, its website not just offers the usual mundane services but also offers career counseling, psychological support, interaction with alumni, anti-ragging helpline, etc.

Apart from posting their results online, most universities also encourage prospective students to also use the online channel for form submission. For instance at MRIU, 100% students apply through their website, as it's the only option for submitting an application for admission. "Even the payment of application fee and academic fee is facilitated through internet banking and credit/debit cards, although other options for depositing fees are also available. In the last 3 years, more than 15,000 students have submitted their applications online for admission in various courses," informed Soni.

Even in the case of NIIT University, more than 60% of students apply using the online facility on the website.

Reaching the Unreached

It would have been foolish if the Indian education system was bereft of the benefits of ICT, keeping in mind the mind-boggling student-teacher ratio here and what IT can do to transform the education system.

Add to it the problem of students coming from remote areas where education, leave alone quality education, is lacking. Therefore ICT is the answer to the ills plaguing the Indian education system, by making it more easier, interactive, and thought-provoking.

The benefits of IT will reach the unreached, giving them the benefits of education to this large section of society which until now remained deprived of the gains of education, in a cost-effective manner. So, it won't be a hyperbole, if it is said that powered by IT, we can compete with the world's best-if not today, certainly in 15-20 years' time.