Education, like virtually every other aspect of life today, has been influenced by technological advancements. The digital revolution is transforming the educational scene, particularly in higher education. Technology is providing new opportunities for kids to be enriched and stimulated. As a result, every educational institution is implementing a variety of digital initiatives in higher education to create a technology-based education system that will help students flourish.
Under the 'Digital India' movement, the government is sponsoring and establishing several digital initiatives in higher education, in addition to educational institutions. The federal department of higher education (MHRD) oversees the extension of access and qualitative technology development in higher education through world-class digital projects such as massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, digital libraries, etc. as part of this planned process.
In this blog, we'll look at some advantages of using technology in education, as well as some of the best digital initiatives in higher education available for both students and teachers.
Advantages of Technology in Education
Here are the various advantages of using technology in education:
- As it requires minimal infrastructure expenses, online education is less expensive than traditional education without sacrificing quality.
- Online education is offered directly by the top teachers, ensuring that the instruction is of the highest quality.
- It can improve the employability quotient of young people by providing a flexible curriculum that is in line with current market demands.
- Household spending on higher education is expected to rise in the future, providing better access to higher education for previously unreached populations.
- Online education leading to life-long learning is the greatest way to meet the pressing requirement of the job sector for re-training and career up-gradation as per market needs.
- The Skill India Mission would likely require online courses in order to reach out to a significant number of people who are unskilled or semi-skilled.
As there are so many benefits to employing technology in education, several educational institutions and the government have started a slew of digital initiatives in higher education.
Digital initiatives in higher education
Earlier this year, Teachmint partnered with the administration in Punjab to provide our teaching platform to over 500 government schools in the region and enable them to run their classrooms efficiently. With Teachmint, the schools will be able to digitize their operations and ensure students have continuous access to teachers and digital content through Teachmint’s proprietary platform. Let us take a look at some of the other initiatives.
1) SWAYAM
SWAYAM is a technical MOOC platform developed in India that aims to provide high-quality education to everyone, anytime, and anywhere via the internet. MOOCs are online courses that give interactive learning content to numerous people at the same time. They permit the best quality education to be shared with everyone, bringing about parity in terms of educational quality.
SWAYAM is a government portal established by the MHRD and the AICTE. It will eventually be able to accommodate 2000 courses for every school, higher education, law, engineering, management, and many more students. All the courses on this platform are interactive, created by some of the greatest teachers in the country, and available to students in India for free.
2) SWAYAM Prabha
SWAYAM Prabha is a set of 32 Direct-To-Home (DTH) channels dedicated to providing high-quality education to students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, students will be exposed to a new subject for at least 4 hours, which will be repeated 5 more times during the day, allowing them to learn at their own pace. IITs, CEC, UGC, NCERT, and others offer content for the channels.
3) National Digital Library
The NDL is a government platform that collects metadata from prestigious Indian and international educational institutions. It is a digital library that houses textbooks, films, articles, simulations, lectures, fiction, and other forms of educational content. The NDL is built to hold educational material in any language and has interface support for the most popular Indian languages. It caters to all education levels, including life-long learners, researchers, differently-abled learners, etc.
The NDL of India intends to gather, preserve, and transmit our country's complete intellectual output, including technical education, through internet access—from school to postgraduate level.
4) E-Vidwan
It is a government-sponsored database of specialists and researchers that compiles academic and research profiles of scientists, faculty, and others working in prominent organizations in India and overseas. It gives information about experts to potential collaborators, peers, and research scholars around the country, allowing them to communicate directly with experts who have the expertise that research scholars require. The database can be used to select expert panels for various committees for the purposes of monitoring and assessment.
5) Saransh
Saransh is an education tool allowing CBSE-affiliated schools and parents to conduct performance analyses and self-reviews. It enables them to assess pupils' performance and take corrective action as needed. Saransh connects schools, students, parents, and teachers so that they can track students' progress and assist them in improving their grades. CBSE's digital initiative in higher education is one of the best.
6) Ask A Question
Ask A Question is a one-of-a-kind website that allows students from engineering and science institutes across India to submit questions, which are then answered by experts from IIT Bombay. Students can submit questions via an online forum or during a live interactive session. Electrical engineering and physics-related topics are covered in interactive live seminars.
7) Sugamya Pustakalaya
Sugamya Pustakalya is the latest digital initiative in higher education. It is an online library with books and resources accessible to people who have low vision blind or any other disability. The library has publications in a variety of disciplines, languages, and forms. It was produced by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Daisy Forum of India (DFI), with assistance from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Access.
Conclusion
Various digital initiatives in higher education have been created to improve the quality of education and transfer the power of technology into the educational field. Educational institutions and the Indian government have made great progress in the last few years by developing technological solutions that can revolutionize the higher education landscape. Many of these digital efforts are free to use, and anyone can utilize them to improve their knowledge and abilities.
Teachmint is the leading ed-infra provider helping educational institutions improve their efficiency. With our offerings like LMS, attendance management, fee management system, and more, institutes can boost their productivity multifold.
