What is SIS?
Digital transformation is evident in all industrial sectors and it has pushed the boundaries of the traditional educational system. It has connected institutions and students and brought them closer.
One such solution that has helped educational institutions to streamline and automate their process is the Student Information system. Student Information System (SIS) is a software platform that allows the authorities of educational institutions to access and manage student records in one place, anywhere, anytime.
If you are keen on deploying SIS or are just curious to know more about SIS in higher education, you have come to the right place. This article guides you through the basics of the SIS platform.
Why SIS in higher education?
The SIS has a prominent role in maintaining records and supporting them in the delivery of administrative and academic services for higher educational institutes. It is essentially a helping hand for the back-office administrator.
The secret to running a successful institute is the all-around efficiency in maintaining quality teaching as well as seamless administrative standards. Gone are the days when offices are stacked with papers and files, and officers are seen immersed in time-consuming, manual log entry work.
With an SIS software application backed by the latest technology, institutions can simplify most administrative processes, including automating repetitive tasks. It helps the office staff focus on productive aspects of their work to help the institution gain revenue through maximum admissions.
SIS manages almost all aspects of an educational institute, from maintaining student records to managing the accounts. So, let’s delve deeper to uncover more benefits of SIS.
Benefits of SIS
As per a recent survey, the global SIS market industry size is set to grow to 2,583 million by 2022. The reason for this massive growth is the benefits it brings to the table:
- Increases Staff productivity
SIS is a cloud-based platform that enables teaching and non-teaching faculty to enter all student-related information just once, as opposed to the offline student management process, where staff is required to write student details every time they fill out a form.
With SIS, all they need is to enter a registration or student number, and all the details are accessible in one click. This reduces the paperwork for staff, so they can utilise their time towards other crucial tasks.
- Improves Student Performance Analysis
SIS acts as a great platform to store all performance details of students. It allows teachers to manage, organise and analyse student performance based on exam grades, homework completion rates, attendance, etc.
The SIS has an integrated dashboard analytics feature that generates automated reports for each student based on the data uploaded by the staff. These reports are either in text or graph forms and are potent tools for teachers to track a student’s performance. Better insight into student performance helps teachers improve the areas where students are lagging.
- Promotes a healthy parent-teacher relationship
Student performance not only requires teacher involvement but also needs parental overview. With SIS, teachers and parents connect seamlessly and can use the platform to analyse and discuss ways to improve the performance of their wards.
It promotes a healthy learning environment for students as they receive the attention of their parents and teachers alike.
SIS allows institutions to store data securely with the power of cloud security. It also enables secure remote access for authorised personnel. It reduces the misuse of data, which miscreants would easily access if stored in hard copies.
The cloud-based centralised storage creates a high-security layer around the sensitive standard data.
SIS allows student track during school hours. In case there are any deviations from the schedule, like a student staying back at school for extra classes, the parents get notified.
This ensures the student’s safety from the prying eyes of criminal minds, as parents and teachers can easily trace their location.
- Better Reports for management to review
Management can acquire various institutional reports for the purpose of analysis, and extract information from sister branches for comparison of performance, through specific metrics in the SIS Platform.
How does the Student Information System work?
The student information software includes Student Management System (SMS), Student Information Management System (SIMS), and Student Records System (SRS). All of these allow digital entry of student data that can be accessible to the authorised staff.
The software also allows integrating student data into one easy-to-access platform. It is capable of standardising data formats to create a unified and clear database that saves time and provides concise analytics. All the data is automatically organised and stored in such a way that it is accessible remotely.
SIS, a cloud-based software, is easily reconfigurable and reliable enough to store sensitive and confidential information due to added security. It also integrates various departments to share the data in a safe and secure place. In addition, it enables open communication across an institution.
SIS platform also enables parents and students to perform payments for the school. The school authorities can easily generate bills and invoices and control the payment schedule and other related activities from a single place.
To understand how SIS works, it is best to understand its unique features, discussed in the next section.
Features of Student Information System
The SIS is essentially a cloud-based information storage software. It generated reports based on the information available. Students, parents and teachers have access to the information related to attendance, academic planning, schedule, student discipline, and much more.
What an SIS can offer depends greatly on the features it poses. Some of the most common and useful features of the SIS software include:
- Cloud ERP
Almost every educational institution that implements SIS looks for cloud-enabled software. It reduces the stress of maintaining and storing data and helps in optimising the resources. The cloud ERP SIS model can be customised to serve the requirements of the institute.
- Student Progress Report
Here, the progress of the student is recorded throughout the academic year. The information helps analyse the student’s progress and lets teachers and parents implement actions to improve their performance.
- Student Emergency Contacts
This feature helps to ensure the safety of the student. Here the primary, secondary mailing address, along with the phone number of the parents and or guardian, is stored.
- Automated Admission Process
Every admission process can be automated, from inquiries to enrollment applications, helping the staff work productively to helping students get admitted into the institute.
- Student Attendance
Attendance logs are crucial in a student’s record. SIS generates attendance reports on demand for various purposes.
- Student Grades
Apart from attendance, the most crucial element about a student is their grades. SIS offers automatic grade tallying features that generate reports as per the parameters set by the users.
- Test Assessments
This feature aids in creating a powerful test assessment, that connects student records, curriculum standards, and test results.
- Track Student Discipline
Some SIS also offers a feature that helps teachers to track the social behaviour of the student. The information can be used to analyse the student’s social development, so teachers can pinpoint areas in which the student needs to work and improve. In addition, it helps in inculcating a sense of responsibility for their actions.
- Customised Library Management
SIS software also has features that allow institutions to create an online customised library management space. Here users can view the list of borrowed books, request a book, and renew membership, while the librarian in charge can create fines and reports.
- Student Health Records
Institutions need to keep a check on the health and immunization records. The medical history of each student can be stored and accessed.
- Prompt Notification
SIS offers a robust platform where all the important notices and announcements about upcoming events can be sent to the concerned parents, staff, or students through E-mail, SMS, and messaging.
- Hostel Management
For students who need hostel facilities, this feature helps them get an idea of rooms available, and mess settings. These features help hostel management authorities to track details of menu, rooms, services, and optimise room allocation.
- Parent Access
Parents get complete access to their child’s record. They can also interact with teachers on-demand, to understand and analyse their child’s performance.
How To Choose The Best SIS?
Choosing the best student information system for your institution can be tricky. With so many options available, it is obvious to be confused about making the right choice. The first thing you need to consider is if the SIS you choose works well for everyone- features that benefit the staff, parents, and students.
It should also prioritize data security and cloud connectivity. The SIS contains a lot of information about students and all of these must not be misused. Therefore, the SIS software you choose must have stringent quality checks that ensure data security.
The information loaded in the SIS should be easy to access and share. In addition, the interface must be compatible with mobile and website applications. The SIS software must also have a constant robust support service to clear your queries at any time of the day.
You must also understand your reporting requirements and see if the SIS you choose meets those expectations. Also, check if the SIS has a teacher portal.
This will help your teaching staff maintain the records, schedule classes, and conduct student assessments efficiently and smoothly. Ideally, an SIS teacher portal provides real-time data, personalised customisation, and access to student information like grades, attendance, behaviour, and live alerts, so they can plan and implement better teaching techniques.
The next feature that you need to look out for while choosing an SIS platform is its administrative tools. Institutions need a seamless administrative process that allows the smooth functioning of the organisation. In addition, it gives a holistic idea of school performance and growth.
Source @ Camu Digital Campus Blog
