Cloud-based platforms saved the 2020-21 session from becoming a zero academic year, and the education industry realised the long-term potential of this technology for its operations.

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The key benefits of this technology that will continue to
transform education and ed-tech are:
How is the Cloud Empowering the Education Industry
Over the past decade, the education industry has evolved
with the extensive use of computers and tablets in
teaching and learning. These devices empower young
learners to explore the digital technologies that
help them develop real-world skills for their future
careers. They also help students and educators
stay connected.
Digitalisation became even more critical in the
pandemic phase when the cloud helped the
education sector to survive and thrive.
Schools and colleges could maintain the
continuity of curriculum for all grades with
streamlined remote interaction between
students and teachers.
Cloud-based platforms saved the 2020-21 session from becoming a zero
academic year, and the education industry realised the long-term potential
of this technology for its operations.
From chalk and blackboard to virtual whiteboards, from class tests to online
assessments, from verbal lectures to PPT-based teaching, the cloud has
helped teachers traverse a new path and even made parents more
participative in their child’s learning process.
Ease of accessibility
Improved flexibility
Secure data backup
More accurate lesson plans
Lower costs with a
pay-as-you-go model
Ease of accessibility
Obviously, location becomes immaterial
when students and their teachers interact
in a virtual classroom environment. Daily
lessons can be delivered and attended on
any device from anywhere. However, the
benefits of smooth accessibility go even
beyond online communication.
In switching from physical books and device-configured software
(which get outdated quickly) to cloud-based tools, university students
and faculty can utilise knowledge tools on multiple devices.
They acquire round-the-clock access to their course content,
apps and data.
Using cloud-based versions of popular apps, students can experience
working with up-to-date professional tools from anywhere without
paying a hefty fee for single-device licenses. As an example, the Adobe
Creative Cloud – with apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator –
comes with a subscription model, allowing students to pay for the
service only when using it.
Cloud solutions offer educational
institutions the flexibility to respond
instantly to changes. The use of cloud
platforms simplifies the scaling of
resources up or down, without the t
ime-consuming, costly and (sometimes) tedious
bureaucratic planning essential to deploy on-premises hardware.
With cloud computing, both students and teachers gain access to the
tech tools they need on their browsers. And their college or school
can accommodate a sudden surge in demand for tech capabilities.
On the other hand, if such tools are being used via on-premises
equipment and desktop software, an unexpected increase in the
number of people using the resources may cause the server to crash
or slow down.
Even experienced business executives –
who store and use data every day –often
fail at securing and properly backing their
files up for quick disaster recovery. The
problem then also affects students and
teachers, who increasingly use IT resources
to create, share and assess data in virtual classes.
The cloud addresses this hurdle by imbibing all the academic
activities-related data and storing it in virtual vaults that can be
accessed through multiple devices and effortlessly shared for
collaboration.
Textbooks, once printed and distributed,
cannot be revised until the next edition
gets published. On the other hand, cloud
technology makes it easier to update
academic content and keep it relevant
each year.
Teachers can meet their curriculum goals more effectively through
daily lessons and ensure that students learn with the most relevant
materials for each subject.
Besides being versatile and
straightforward, delivering education
via cloud technology classes is also
cost-effective. It allows schools and
colleges to spend their IT budgets more
judiciously and save expenses on hardware
and furniture.
By offering online classes, educational institutions can also attract
special batches of students for distance learning programmes to
create a new revenue source.
The power of cloud platforms to hold
terabytes of data for different students
allows organisations to use AI and
machine learning to make education
delivery more fruitful.
Teachers can analyse each student’s performance more efficiently
and leverage such analytics to create personalised knowledge
modules. Data mining can also help them at cognitive psychology
research to restructure the academic curriculum and improve
learning.
School administrators can also use the platform to keep student
and staff data safe.
The Document Management System (DMS) offered by Tata Tele
Business Services (TTBS) is a secure solution for this end. It enables
students and staff to store, share, edit and manage documents,
spreadsheets, presentations in a common repository to facilitate
continuity of classes and administrative work from anywhere.
It also has an in-built workflow engine to digitise content building
and publishing processes.
Ability to leverage machine
learning and artificial intelligence
Utility of cloud-based
contact centres
Schools and colleges can also set up their
own cloud-based contact centres to
support students, parents, teachers, and
other staff members on different matters,
such as education loans, scholarship
opportunities, admission inquires,
exam results, job vacancies and queries from vendors and suppliers.
The Smartflo cloud contact centre offered by TTBS is easy to deploy
and scale. It has a customisable IVR to provide automated support in
multiple languages. The virtual contact centre also comes with a
comprehensive dashboard for analytics and tailored features to
maximise agents’ efficiency at responding to callers.
Even though schools and universities wish to see their campuses
abuzz with students and teachers to continue with the established
norms of teaching and learning, they cannot afford to ignore
technology.
The benefits of cloud platforms can be seamlessly integrated with
regular classes to help the current generation of learners be better
prepared for a digital-first world.
To know more about these solutions for your institution, please
contact TTBS at 1800-266-1800.