Johannesburg, 12 Aug 2022
The pandemic may have fast-tracked the use of digital technologies in education, but to deliver on the full potential of the digital age, schools now need to revisit the basics and put in place a foundation of smarter, digitised school administration and processes.
This is according to Jaco Möller, Business Development Manager for Workspace at Canon South Africa, who says effective digitally enabled education should start with back-end processes.
“The first thing many schools think of in terms of digitisation is interactive smartboards and tablets for learners. However, in my opinion, they need to focus on the back-end first, optimising and digitising their processes before they push digital technology out to student-facing learning environments,” he says. “The optimised back-end is the foundation of the smart school. If administration and processes at the back-end are manual and paper-intensive, introducing tablets and other technology for students will not deliver full value.”
Möller says digitising paper records, automating processes and workflows, and harnessing analytics are important foundations for the digitally driven schools of the future. “A digitally optimised back-end addresses many of the challenges we see in schools today, such as growing numbers of learners per class, teachers lacking time to give individual attention to learners and poor communication and engagement with parents. Schools using manual and paper-based processes also face challenges around compliance and the security of the personal data they handle, and risks of human error or lost records,” he notes.
With an intelligent scanning solution in place, templatised tests such as multiple-choice papers can be scanned and marked quickly and easily, and the results pushed into an information management system, says Möller.
“This overcomes one of the challenges facing teachers, who must assess growing numbers of learners regularly. With limited time available to mark tests, they might spend entire weekends marking papers instead of focusing on planning engaging lessons and spending time with their loved ones. When that process is automated, they not only save time, but the marks pushed into the information management system can be automatically sent to parents or used to track student progress and provide a personalised environment to help learners in areas where they may be struggling. Smart information management systems can also be used as a KPI environment for teachers, to ensure they are providing the best quality education experience in class.”
Digitised test data also presents an opportunity for the results to be fed into a larger database, allowing schools and education departments to start mapping outcomes and benchmarking progress, so improving education across the board, he notes.
Document management challenges can be overcome with an on-premises or SaaS document management software enabling enterprise grade content management and efficient document workflows. It will deliver all-in-one capture, storage, automation, access management and analytics.
Möller says advanced digital document management can streamline multiple education processes – from onboarding staff and handling admissions to managing permission slips. “Reducing paperwork and manual labour and automating processes improves the overall running of a school, with big benefits in terms of keeping information secure and being POPIA compliant. With online, digital forms, schools save learners and parents time and money, and provide better customer service,” he says.
Because advanced digital document management solutions are customisable, they can complement existing external and internal systems to enhance processes. “For example, a school might integrate with provincial school registration systems to raise alerts and support planning when their admission limits have been reached, or they might integrate the system into a digital engagement platform to allow parents to sign and return forms and permission slips.”
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