Going for full-fledged automation in education has been criticised by many, but automation brings a lot of flexibility, efficiency and also helps in understanding the student's requirement better, says DR Ramakrishnan Raman
The B-Schools have been using technology to impart education and the covid pandemic has made them use it in an extensive manner. Right from teaching, learning to feedback and assessment, many B-Schools now use the tools information technology to automate processes. Going for full-fledged automation in education has been criticised by many, but automation brings a lot of flexibility, efficiency and also helps in understanding the student’s requirement better. Many Indian B-Schools have almost accepted that blended (a mix of online and off-line) is going to be the future. Some important influences of technology in B-School’s processes are noteworthy.
Use of Big data to gain insights: Some B-Schools are using big data analytics to draw insights on patterns of students who are highly successful in creating start-ups or even getting great offers from corporate. Some B-Schools are using the past data to create predictive models which are helping them to select the right candidates for the management program offered by the B-School. There are others who are using the insights to understand the area of academic strength and weakness of students, so that it can be addressed effectively.
Use of Artificial Intelligence in assessment: As assessments have gone fully online, some B- Schools are using tools of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the behavioural aspects of students which is helping in making assessment intelligent and also personalised. Thanks to AI — aspects related to which student spent how much time on a question and its relation to the difficulty level gives immense insights to make assessment intelligent and also helps in fine tuning the question paper to become better. These tools also give options to make the questions and the question paper customised to the individual based on his/her ability to answer a question.
Gamification of education: Gamification of education is a developing approach for increasing learners’ motivation and engagement by incorporating game design elements in educational environments. With the growing popularity of gamification some Indian B-Schools have started using gamification in teaching learning and also in assessing the students. B-Schools have started using gamification for learning as this educational approach to motivate students to learn by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The objective is to maximise enjoyment and engagement through capturing the interest of students and inspiring them to learn with zeal.
Learning Management Systems: While there are some B- schools which are using the video conferring tools like zoom, webex etc , many Indian B-Schools have adopted Learning Management Systems (LMS) and have automated their academic processes. Presently many B-School are using LMSs to focus on online learning delivery, the fact is that LMS supports a range of uses like- acting as a platform for online content sharing (both asynchronous based and synchronous), helping in classroom management for instructor-led training or a flipped classroom, helps in administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and in a plethora of academic processes. In short B-Schools are using technology to identify the needs of individuals, track student development. Technology is helping B- Schools to simplify access to educational resources and improving the learning experience.
The writer is Director — Symbiosis Institute of Business Management