Tips For Choosing The Right School Management Software

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School authorities all over the world are continuously engaged in numerous activities to efficiently manage school functions and provide a better educational experience to students.
However, managing school affairs is not at all easy in this fast growing world.
To better perform the functions of school management and assure parents of their child’s safety and progress, schools are using school management software nowadays.
This software boasts a variety of features that improve the overall administration of schools. Now, let’s have a look on the top 20 tips for highly effective school management software.

Below we have highlighted some best tips which you can use while selecting school management software:

1. Student Information
Attendance, homework, discipline, grades, and achievements! Almost all the information regarding the students can be accessed easily using efficient school management software.
Teachers can use the student database to avail basic information of students like grades, address, information regarding parents and siblings etc. In addition to this information, details regarding the students’ medical history, accounts, billing etc. are also added by the administration.
Smart cards for schools can be used as identity cards to access the details regarding a particular student when required. As simple as that!

2. Parent Access
Being part of your child’s school activities and stay connected with their academic progress can be a difficult thing in this busy world.
However, now it’s easy for parents to avail updates about their child’s academic activities through parent portals and school apps.
It helps parents to be with their child and teachers the whole day.
Benefits of Parent Portal
• Helps parents to actively participate in their children’s educational activities
• Provides up-to-date information regarding PTA meeting, grades, assignments etc.
• Provides great relief to teachers by providing students’ attendance report and progress cards to parents without any delay
• The feature of a direct line of communication to teachers helps students and parents to contact teachers in case of any doubts, questions, comments or suggestions

3. Teacher Information
Effective school management software not only helps in availing information regarding students but also provides information regarding teacher activities inside the school. It’s easy to view a particular teacher’s class schedule, file reports efficiently etc. Also teachers can use their database to keep the details regarding class timings, student progress and classroom activities in one place. Some of its advantages include:
• Teachers can log onto their database securely to access the records regarding school, classroom and student activities
• Classroom forms and reports can be filled quickly using the school management software where almost all information regarding the classroom and students are updated accordingly
• Teachers can easily notify parents about their student’s report once it is filed

4. Artificial Intelligence Integration
AI has slowly started to make its presence felt on our daily lives. In 2018, AI is has become part of many mainstream software. For effective school management software, one of the key areas with AI integration is School Bus Fleet Management.
With Integrated AI features such as Auto Routing, Auto Optimisation and Auto Allocation, managing school buses has become much easier than ever before. So, check out if the software of your choice offers any AI features.
AI is not a fancy term. It actually reduces your expense and makes a significant difference to safety and your ROI

5. Communication Facilities (Voice Messaging, E-mail, Chats, etc)
To a great extent, student success depends on the effectiveness of communication among parents, schools and teachers.
School management systems have Parent portal, which are capable enough to facilitate the communication process by sending text, voice messages and e-mails to a predefined set of parents and the whole school.
Thereby lessening the time invested by the school administrators in making phone calls or leaving messages to parents.
Another small but important feature of highly effective school management software is the facility to use templates that can be saved to communicate important days like teachers’ day, annual day, cultural day etc.

6. Attendance & Timetable Management
Attendance management is an important school administrative task and it requires teachers to spend a small chunk of time at the beginning of each class.
Sometimes, it is difficult for teachers to manage the whole process of taking attendance and recording them accurately.
Marking attendance in grids having small squares is very hard and errors can occur very easily.
But attendance management is no longer a burden with the Teacher App. Now, recording attendance of each student is just a click away. You can manage attendance of your students without any errors using online attendance pages and share the details with parents within a short time.
The teacher app also provides an effective way for teachers to mark their own attendance, check the timetable and apply for leaves from their smartphones.
Timetable management for schools become a much easier process with this feature.

7. Online Assessments and Assignments
While term examinations are still relevant, it is of much help to teachers and students to test and learn the knowledge each student has acquired continuously. Online assessments and assignments are therefore very important.
Teachers can provide individual assessments to each student looking at their level of knowledge if so required. Rubric-based assessments can be used by teachers for such purposes. So, this is an important feature for school management software to have.

8. Report Cards
A Report Card represents a student’s hard work throughout the year and it is the most anticipated thing in an academic year. However, both the teachers and the school administration find it a time-consuming responsibility.
School management software can help teachers and school authorities to streamline the process of generating report cards using an interactive database. With the already available information about a student’s class performance, attendance and exam results, the database completes the report card automatically.
Teachers can review this before finalizing and approving the report card and make it accessible to parents and students immediately.

9. Fee Tracking and Online Payment
Managing receipts and incoming payments, preparing bills, tracking several types of fees before applying them to the right student etc can be time-consuming and difficult without proper software to handle the functions.
A simple way to manage and deliver payments, charge fees and prepare bills is by using Smart Cards for payment system. It is easy and convenient to use.
Online billing helps schools to allow credit card payments and parents can pay their child’s school fees at home easily. This make the whole process of fee payment hassle-free for both parents and the school.

2. Parent Access
Avoid keeping bundles of files as you can save all the data in a system. This method can help you to access the data immediately if required. You can do this with effective school management software.
Such software is capable enough to manage the registration and admission process of both old and new students smoothly. This software can remove the difficulties caused by human errors and treats the new and old students differently based on the information provided.

11. Profile Management
School management system software efficiently performs profile management. It is one module of the system which is used to manage students, parents, staff and teachers. It captures information such as name and contact information of the users. Every user has unique login credentials to access.

12. Homework
With this module, daily classroom homework assignments become easily available to students 24 hours a day. It also contains the date when it was assigned and when it should be submitted. In addition to these, teachers can also modify homework assignments and projects as per the requirements.

13. Library Management
This module is an effective solution to make school library management simple and effective. It has features such as find, search, issue and return books. It supports bar code & scanning capability to automate your library. It also includes reports of library members, daily issue register and much more.

14. Transport Management
Any effective school management software will have the facility to manage school transportation effectively. With this, you can keep track of each student’s route change history. They also display information such as students who has opted for school transportation without routes assigned to them. It ensures student safety by making sure whether a student is present on the bus or not and later submits the report to their parents.

15. Use of Convenient Apps
As smartphones are daily drivers these days, it is a given that any school management software worth its salt should make use of apps. Smoothly performing apps with the right feature sets make lives easier for students, teachers, parents and support staff.
Some key apps that should be in School Management Software include Parent App, Teacher App, Transport Management App

These are some of the characteristics of highly effective school management software. So, what are your thoughts on the same? Please feel free to share them with us in the comment section.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Examination System

online examination system

An online assessment is to conduct an online evaluation or test to assess academic performance among students. Traditionally, orally or through written tests using pen and paper, these examinations are performed. Students gathered in an exam hall or room where students obtained a question paper and students had to write answers within the time allotted. In order to ensure a fair evaluation of all participants, these questions were not previously used. Participants then turn to their answer sheets and evaluators exchange student scores after a period of time.

All these traditional elements continue to persist with an online study, but the method of evaluation has changed–instead of a physical examination room, students now log into an online examination system through which they view and post their answers to the question paper. This method also involves analysis and reporting of tests.

What are the advantages of an online examination system?

The advantages of implementing an online examination system at your educational institution are plenty. Below we discuss some key, easily accessed advantages of switching to an online examination system at your school:

Environmentally Friendly

Straight out of the gate, the negative impact of conventional pen and paper tests on the world is minimized by an online examination system. This kind of eco-friendly and forward-thinking approach to daily processes is essential in a world where students can graduate into an environmental crisis caused by climate change. Students will imbibe these values over the course of their education.

Technologically Forward

The key advantage of using the online examination system is that it is well incorporated into a technologically rich world. For professional situations, the use of pen and paper is growing. Most of the work is done with email, text messages, presentation machines, computer-based development, etc. Using this method to familiarize students with a range of interfaces prepares them for the real world. It is possible that their experience with such a system and method will be particularly helpful even in the future after they have graduated for activities such as training and testing.

Reduces Labor Cost

The sheer amount of resources that can be used to set up a single exam is mind-boggling — from teachers setting the test to administrators ensuring that all students receive enough copies of the exam paper. The use of an online examination system removes many of these procedures and the related labor costs, which have a significant and positive impact on the bottom line of the method implementing educational institution.

Saves on Time Investment

The design, administration and assessment of a test are time-consuming activities for all concerned from the student to the teachers. The use of an online examination system allows for a reduction in the time required for the analysis process as a whole. This is because features such as inserting and exporting questions, easy access to the students ‘ test, and batch-wise assessments allow students and teachers to save valuable time that would usually be spent on non-primary tasks and instead channel those resources towards setting and assessing students ‘ academic progress.

Reduces Overheads

The overhead costs of obtaining an exam hall, printing out multiple question papers, supplying students with answer sheets and other resources could actually add up. Nevertheless, switching to an online review platform reduces or removes many of these overhead costs directly. Such a move has a positive effect on the educational institution’s bottom line, freeing up much-needed resources for the school or college that can then be guided to core responsibilities.

Increased Security and Privacy

A final advantage of the online examination system is that it allows for increased student privacy and an improvement in how secure the entire process is for all stakeholders involved. For instance, there can be no meddling or untoward activities within the system since there is no opportunity for malicious elements to game the system and produce erroneous responses or results, engage in cheating or any other unethical practices.

Students often earn outcomes that keep their reputation among peers confidential and encourage positive development rather than harmful and futile peer rivalry. This kind of security and privacy may seem unnecessary, but for both students and teachers alike, it really provides a safer and more positive attitude towards the whole examination process. Fostering such a mentality is in the interest of the educational institution as a whole.

What are the disadvantages of an online examination system?

Open Book Exams

Due to the nature of the online examination system model, exams conducted through this platform are open book exams to some degree. Unlike traditional examination settings that did not allow the examination to have external materials in the physical space, nothing prevents students from referring to their course materials during an online examination. Since there is also no direct supervision during the exam time period, the entire system is reliant on an honor system to prevent cheating or other malpractice.

Teachers can, however, mitigate this effect by setting questions that do not depend on the ability of the student to search for information in a textbook or Google. Instead, questions must concentrate on evaluating the student’s understanding of the topic. These are in many ways predictors of the actual comprehension of the content being learned by the student and thus a better representation of their academic progress.

Onboarding onto New Technology

The implementation of an online examination system necessitates a period of familiarisation on part of all users. Any change in structure will require some investment in onboarding on behalf of the educational institution in question.

The best approach to take here is to model preparation for both students and teachers during the transition from traditional examinations to the online examination. Such learning will familiarize students and teachers with the system’s different features, making it more likely that they will actually use it rather than sticking to the status quo as to how exams are conducted at their school.

Infrastructural Barriers

While the online examination system offers great scope to improve student inclusion and accessibility worldwide, its positive impact can still be mitigated by the location’s infrastructural conditions. Nevertheless, these obstacles are beyond the influence of the system itself, it is clear that it affects it.

Factors like steady internet connectivity, the presence of an electrical connection, and other infrastructural issues in many parts of the world that interfere with how an online review system will work. Therefore, it is important to keep the audience in mind when introducing the school’s use of this program.

Not suited for Collaborative Evaluations or Group Projects

The very nature of examinations in the online examination system prevents certain modes of evaluation being implemented at the school. The most obvious one here is that it is not an ideal platform for collaborative evaluations or group projects. This is because the nature of the platform is objective, preventing subjective evaluations where points are handed out to a group for subjective efforts, rather than points awarded on an existing framework.

Conclusion

Examinations are an inevitable part of the educational ecosystem. With evolving technologies, a globalized world, and an increasingly competitive educational landscape, it is necessary to keep up with the times. Along with ever-evolving teaching and learning methods, processes like examinations must also be examined. An online examination system is the product of such an analysis – it automates, digitizes and flattens the process to become more accessible, inclusive and accurate compared to its previous avatar. At the same time, it does not eliminate best practices in student evaluation and examination that have been built over the years. Instead, the online examination system is a culmination of the old and familiar and the new and innovative.

Why RFID Attendance System in Schools & its Benefits?

Every day we all appreciate the benefits of RFID solutions even though many of us do not acknowledge their presence in different situations in our everyday life. We see it in shops, libraries, hospitals, amusement parks, airports, schools and any location where item / people movements are tracked to better serve customers. While RFID-related solutions have long been part of libraries, there is a sudden increase in student monitoring RFID applications as it improves the overall safety of students in schools and other areas where continuous adult supervision is required. RFID systems can produce huge data that can be analyzed to provide insights into decision-making.

Biometric attendance management

How RFID Attendance System works?

In a school environment, RFID can be applied to gain benefits for all participants–students, family, educators, and management. An RFID tag is issued to each student to wear. It can be in the form of an ID card and part of your uniform every day. Each RFID tag is preprogrammed in conjunction with the student’s unique user profile. The antennas will be placed in strategical locations like school gate, classroom doors, library, canteen, etc. Multiple antennas can be placed around the same location to increase accuracy and work as a standby to avoid the single point of failure.
The antennas will be connected via a well-planned network of power cables and communication cables to RFID readers and power source. RFID readers are then connected to a computer for the information and database to be stored and processed. This computer will be linked to the student information system such as Paatham by sending different warnings to the stakeholders. Ex: SMS alerts parents when they enter the main door, Mobile app alerts when they enter or leave a certain area.

Benefits of using RFID Attendance System in schools

Security & Safety

A well-developed RFID attendance system provides protection for students ‘ daily operations and health. As all the information about the student is registered and transmitted to the parents after the student enters the gate in the morning before leaving at night, there is less worry about the safety of the students. Since all the information are transmitted by SMS or mobile apps to parents, parents find peace of mind and can comfortably concentrate on their jobs.

Fast Communication

Without an automatic RFID solution, to communicate with the parents, each of the updates must be entered manually in the student information system. This job could be completed either end of the day or once every week, depending on the workload of teachers and admin staff. This is not beneficial to the parents as it is the same as how schools are pre-technology run. All location data is collected and automatically transmitted to the student information system with RFID solution. The same information will be provided to the parents on pre-set timing and logic, depending on the settings chosen by the student information system operator.

Better Discipline & Better Grades

It is observed and proven in case studies that a well-monitored school will have better discipline compared to schools without surveillance. This is not only because of the improved discipline of the kids, but also due to the improved discipline of various non-teaching staff in the school like security guards, bus drivers, maids etc.. When students are aware of the fact that the attendance is tracked live and communicated to parents instantaneously, this will avoid disciplinary issues. And better-disciplined students produce better grades and good citizens.

Other Places to Install and Benefit from RFID System in a School

Libraries

Apart from attending students, the RFID solution can be applied to improve everyone’s library experience. The books can be embedded for tracking and data analysis with RFID tags instead of barcode. It, in conjunction with student RFID tags, can create seamless experience in borrowing and returning library books without the need for library queues. Students may also check for the availability of any book in library management software or school management software. The RFID device will also provide comprehensive data on student and book movement within the library over a period of time to understand student behaviour. Where we can understand why certain actions of students enable them to become good readers and good students.

Restricted Areas

In most of the schools, there will be restricted areas where the students are not advised not to approach. This can be for privacy, security, and safety or to improve discipline. The entry to the restricted areas can be tracked and the warning can be issued immediately.

School Buses

Another recent trend is to implement an RFID system in school buses. This allows the tracking of students outside the school campus when they are on a school bus. This collects information about the stops where the kids on-boarded and de-boarded the bus. This also will be communicated to parents on a realtime basis through the student information system mobile apps or SMS.

Canteen

Similar to how a library is automated, a successful RFID system can be used to automate regular canteen operations. The pre-funded wallets incorporated with the student information system and the RFID solution will subtract transactions. This will save students and teachers a lot of valuable time.

Attendance System for Teachers and Non-Teaching Staff

While the RFID system is mainly used to track student attendance, the same system can be applied to track teachers and non-teaching staff attendance and movement without cost increases. The same components of hardware and software can be used to produce information on the performance and actions of teachers and non-teaching personnel on the school campus.