As 30th June 2019 marked as the Social media day in the calendars . So sharing some perspective as to how Education Management System can incorporate Social media in their framework as well.

Social media is just not a buzzword or keyword that is trending nowadays.

Disruption in the sectors like telecom and consumer electronics has not only given access however has increased the consumption level of data that is consumed.

Increased availability of internet connections and access in recent years, propelled by the central government’s Digital India initiative was directly proportional in the growth of social media users.

India has the world’s highest data usage per smartphone at an average of 9.8GB per month, a new report by Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said, adding this will double to 18GB by 2024, fuelled by rich video content

Of  which 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users.

(Emarketer, 2019). Check here for more .

With the ease of internet access, the number of social media users in India stood at 326.1 million in 2018 and it’s growing day by day.

Students are an integral part of any education system and of which major student prefer use/addicted to social media and its exceptional features that every channel has got. Likewise how EMS supports or enables the integration of key modules processes at various colleges, institutes or universities. The central role each technology plays is what makes the integration of Social media with EMS software more efficient and productive rather than the distraction.

Some Institutes or management even treat this concept as absurd: Social media use invites distraction, they reason, so how can it be useful in an educational setup. Some more stats here

The above line of thinking is both unproductive and unwarranted. Students have been blending their college time and social time for years now. Instead of forcing the rule/law we can enable collaboration, communication, typical day-to-day activities will enjoy improvements from social media integration.

Instead of aimlessly scrolling/trolling through TikTok ,Snapchat and Instagram accounts we can make use of community or user groups of students and universities to explore more on knowledge ,showcasing innovations and addressing concerns and make life easier for the students and for the educator’s as well. Check here for more perspective and here

The millennial’s are the most tech-minded in history. They are concerned with what’s new and cutting-edge. Your universities won’t be able to attract the right student force if you aren’t able to appeal their sensibilities or share experience that fulfil their expectations of a plugged –in and “always-on” experience.

By using channels like YouTube, Podcast, Reddit , Github and Slack channels.

Not also students even teachers or educators also have their own channels for imparting knowledge.

That’s the short version of how EMS stands to gain from social media integration. They nurture an involved, modern and long-term student force that is prepared to handle all the disruption the universities has to offer. But let’s get into specific ways you can enhance EMS with Social media integration.

Education industry or edtech landscape is quite fragmented different from most others because there are multiple stake holders involved. Also unified common goals for students, teachers, parents and district leaders/educators are also a part of decision making process.

According to Holoniq

However the trend is changing

Not all data can be shared or aired in social media channels. The rules that we apply in personal life some gets applied here as well as Universities and institutions cannot air their data in public and is very sensitive of those.

We can use social media for following purpose

• Making announcements for important events and matters, such as graduation/exam or admission dates, new rules, new courses, events, campus dates, visiting lectures and visits etc.
• Showcasing facilities such as new infrastructure, e.g. library, swimming pools, canteen, transport facilities etc. that are an important part of the student life.
• Taking feedbacks from various stakeholders like students, teachers, administrators, leaders etc.
• Showcasing important events such as annual day, sports day, events, hackathons , campuses organized.
• Driving awareness of world events and internal events (e.g. fundraisers, blood donation camps, hackathons, visiting lectures etc.) that concern the student force
• Building a strong and loyal alumni network and encouraging participation. Posts on career achievements, promotions, campus hires, community building, references etc. will help reconnect alumni, grow the university’s exposure and increase the SEO value of alumni and the college/university.
• Serving as a thought leader by proactively providing interesting content around career and study areas.

Check how other universities are doing here and here and here

HOW UNIVERSITIES CAN GAIN FROM INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA WITH EMS

PERSONALIZATION

Personalization is unlocking vast opportunities for Universities/Institutes. It facilitates acceptance and the rapid adoption of the technologies that are driving change; as your cohort becomes more comfortable, they will feel empowered to be more creative and innovative.

COMMUNICATION IS A TWO WAY STREET

This is one of the more obvious benefits. Social media platforms thrive on streamlining communications. The biggest social media platforms of the past decade all saw rapid growth because of their abilities to change the way people thought about communication. Applying those lessons might take the form of adding features to student interactions like instant sharing, likes, and algorithm-based machine learning, which in turn can make communicating and collaborating a more seamless part of your system workflow.

EFFICIENT AND ENHANCED OUTCOMES

EMS are chiefly concerned with maximizing learning /productivity i.e Program Based Outcome/Course Based Outcome. Conventional knowledge tells us that giving students, especially young students, access to distractions during work hours is the death knell for productivity. Right? If we were talking about actual distractions, that may be accurate, but it’s precisely this narrow view of new technologies that makes younger people so hesitant to go for traditional universities/institutions. The kind of social media features we’re talking about – personalized profiles, activity tracking, group sharing, instant messaging – are far from being distractions. In reality, these features are likely to enhance productivity more directly than many of the other software features your employees use regularly.

Instantaneous and integrated departmental communication is the next step for increasing productivity in every Institution/Universities. Questions, grievances, and reports that once required human labor and time-consuming meetings can now be completed in seconds or a few minutes. Integrated communications can also help break down departmental silos – a common occurrence where different departments or teams are reluctant to share information with one another and may even be outwardly hostile towards the idea of sharing information or collaborating. However, when social media’s innovations are paired with the already exceptional productivity features offered by EMS, you stand to gain in ways you had never thought possible.

OMICHANNEL WAY FOR GREATER STUDENT EXPERIENCES

What is the most important thing for a Institution/University? Most answers involve some concept related to serving students. The experience is the single most valuable part of any college to attract students to their cohorts. And the data associated with the student experience across every channel of communications (omnichannel) –especially for visitors or the lead generation module. How they decide to enrol for a certain course, how long they spend on a course webpage, what informs or influence their admission process – is extremely valuable. Social media integration can be key to accessing this data.

Omnichannel statistics are integral to EMS. The integration of social media with your enquiry management i.e leads, Schedule management (time table), Library management, event or short notices to students/parents processes yield easier access to these statistics and enhances the visibility and transparency of each of those functional areas. It also enables the ability to monitor the student journey from beginning to end. Open social media integration allows you to communicate and reach out to the students/parents in a better way rather than having various Apps and whatsapp groups for communication. EMS alone usually cannot provide information in as much detail. The end goal is to use all this new data to create custom, fully-personalized profiles for each of your customers. Also the whole purpose is not to air the data publicly however reach the desired target audience in a better and easy way maintaining the privacy within the group or closed knit community.

AUTOMATING REPETITIVE TASK

Integration allows you to automate and optimize handling negative student/parents feedback. Your EMS can collect and send the above data to your Point of Contacts POC’s instantaneously. While your POC /Community builder’s uses social media to collaborate on a group effort to rectify any complaints, your EMS can collect other valuable statistics pertaining to such issues. For example, methods that show the most promise for resolving any disputes/queries/misunderstandings can be answered. Integration means relevant data can be compiled immediately and acted upon promptly, rather than completed sequentially over time. This can provide the higher authorities to keep tab or a bird eye view or more in-depth and accurate understanding of its relationship with student and teachers.

CENTRALIZED COLLABORATION

With social media integration, you get to choose which social media platforms your students are using. Many are already using social media during the study hours anyway – they may just think it’s frowned upon to do so and are forced to do it in secret. Integration not only helps you foster more satisfied and engaged students, it also lets you choose the platforms they’re using. Think of it this way: your students can either be having conversations on private, third-party servers, or they can be having them on communication lines managed by your support team.

The University/Institute adoption creates not only a more productive and welcoming environment but a more easily-monitored one as well. Instant messaging, student user profiles, and group projects will all be hosted under a single banner. And it’s your banner, at that. Finding specific messages and statistics, a process that once required considerable individual labor, can now be performed in an instant by checking your integrated platform’s logistics. In addition to increasing productivity/outcome, this practice also decreases the possibility that important data will not be manipulated or tampered with.

Conclusion: In short Universities can increase productivity and efficiency along with a conducive stable environment based on policies or standards created by the governing bodies by integrating their Education management systems with social media.