In today’s fast-paced world, the outcome of learning is assessed according to the comprehensive development of an individual. Thus, to address the worldwide needs of 21st-century society, tertiary education must educate graduates with professional knowledge/skills and all-around qualities. 

Nowadays, various countries’ higher education institutes emphasize continuous quality improvement by reforming their curriculum, planning, and assessing learning outcomes at all levels. The accomplishment of outcomes is believed to be analyzed using evidence of learning to ensure learning outcomes are met.

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a student-centric educational paradigm that directs each level of learning on the accomplishment of learning outcomes. OBE emphasizes professional knowledge, skills, talents, values, and attitudes over the educational process. 

OBE is a student-centered strategy that fosters hands-on learning opportunities to improve the information, skills, and personality qualities that students acquire at the conclusion of a program or course. Curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation procedures are completely focused on expected goals to be accomplished by students after completion of their course or program. 

Students assume more responsibility for their educational pursuits under OBE implementation and can work more actively in line with their learning trajectory. Teachers also get feedback on the effectiveness of the teaching and learning strategies they use in the classroom via outcome-based assessment.

The teaching methods used in the OBE paradigm are tailored to each student’s unique requirements and are mandated to use active pedagogical techniques to empower real-world, technology-driven, field-based abilities that may illustrate the relationship between theory and its applications.

The assessment techniques include practical assessment techniques such as open book assessments, assignments, project demonstrations, and others that may demonstrate how well objectives have been reached and, ultimately skill set and values in learners.

We at iCloudEMS understand the 21st-century education demands and facilitate Higher Education Institutes to empower a learner-centric education system that can well prepare graduates to contribute in a globalized knowledge-driven world. Our key cutting-edge features and services include;

• A cloud-based server that can store a lot of data and records for easy record management, enabling instructors to keep track of how their students are doing with their course objectives.
• Time-saving tools for attendance management, assignment submission that automate the design of schedules, publication of assignments, and results reporting for academic staff.
• Digital course baskets that simplify the choice of courses and their allocation according to the Choice Based Credit System for a flexible and dynamic learning environment.

• OBE-LMS promotes an outcomes-oriented culture by developing interesting course materials and tasks using innovative approaches for accurately mapping and designing course outcomes.
• Our Accreditation management system automates OBE-assisted executions and digitizes the foundational work to save up staff time and resources from completing repetitive, tiresome duties. 
• Student-lifecycle management system, which allows users to quickly and easily access all aspects of a student’s academic career and fosters an environment for continuous quality improvement. 
• A system for online classes and exams that encourages the strategic execution of OBE in all pre-and post-exam tasks, from creating question banks to disseminating final results, with utmost care to developing and outlining every component with outcomes.

In a nutshell, iCloudEMS digitizes all-academic and non-academic functions of Higher Education Institutes to develop and establish a student-centric culture. We make you embrace the OBE paradigm in educational processes and systems that prepare the youth to think beyond academics and reflect real-life characteristics to enter the globalized workforce.

The Human Resource Development Ministry has always encouraged Higher Education Sector to expand their digital capabilities for upskilling their students according to demand of 21^st century Education system.

Now the Quality Education is not confined to four walls of classroom, digitization has facilitated uninterrupted education regardless of time and space. It is well said that

“The students of the future will demand the learning support that is appropriate for their situation or context. Nothing more, nothing less. And they want it now the need arises. Not sooner, not later. Mobile devices will be a key technology for providing that learning support.” — Dr. Marcus Specht

COVID-19 pandemic pushed all the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to showcase their best skill and converted their education model online.

It was very challenging time for Education sector but as far as technology implementation is concerned, it proved a blessing in disguise.

Leveraging technology enabled accessibility of Quality Education and Assessment to all students globally.

iCloudEMS understands the skill-oriented demands of modern Education system. We encourage HEIs across India to implement student-centric learning in digital ecosystem.

Our Online Examination system fosters paperless approach to conduct all examination activities from pre-examination to post-examination.

We offer cloud-based platform to conduct and evaluate flawless examination in HEIs. We promise to understand the complexities of tedious examination activities and offer our best services to save your priceless time and efforts.

All stakeholders of HEIs can make use of our Online Examination utilities in following ways: 

Faculty

• Can use ingenious Question paper formation approach to prepare papers of different difficulty levels.

• Can make use of pre-structured Question bank and templates to construct question papers.

• Can formalize outcome-based questions under the framework of OBE and Bloom’s taxonomy.

• Can safeguard the integrity and transparency of Examination with LIVE proctoring.

• Can utilize on-screen evaluation and reporting tools for tamper-free assessment. 

Students

• Can live through the comprehensible digital examination and evaluation system.

• Can access their records anytime and track their learning trajectory

• Can self-govern their learning matrix and accomplishment of learning goals with respect to their holistic development.

Administration

• Can have quick access to huge records with a few clicks only.

• Can retrieve earned credits of every student at each level using digital academic bank.

• Can experience effortless management of valuable resources and a seamless workflow.

Management

• Can scrutinize digital ecosystem of examination and evaluation settings anywhere and anytime.

• Can maintain the integrity of Examination system and foster continuous improvement in academic standards.

We at iCloudEMS will be glad to empower online governance of vital tasks of HEIs from admissions to accreditation. Now you can easily invest your precious time in nurturing a student-centric learning environment. 

Give us a chance to serve you and we are ready to demonstrate how you can make the best use of our cloud-based web space and transform your Institute from Good to Great.

The use of Information and Technology has been increasing since a long time. However, pandemic COVID-19 has made it to gain incredible momentum.

Shifting from Classroom learning to Online mode due to sudden closure was a challenge for educators and learners. But our education administration did not leave any stone unturned in making the accessibility and availability of Quality Education globally.

Online education was a difficult initiative, but its promising results were observed. Students experienced self-govern learning and the instructors could follow their learning trajectory easily, that bridged the learning gap between

Now as the situations started to become better, one more curling from Online to Classroom learning has not been less than a challenge for many students. Many Students feel more comfortable in learning under digital ecosystem. This requirement germinated an admirable Learning model i.e., Hybrid Learning. them.

What is Hybrid learning

In a hybrid learning environment, students have the choice of learning at the location of their own choice. In this model instructors can utilize the digital services like video conferencing technology and LMS to make the session available simultaneously for the in-class and remote students.

Advantages of Hybrid Learning

Hybrid learning is a model developed by combining the features of both Online and in-person learning strategies that gives rise to a seamless instructional approach irrespective of the students’ location, and its various advantages can be observed as:

– > It supports flexible learning where students have freedom to learn at their own space that aids convenience in the achieving their learning
outcomes.
– > It gives better exposure towards interactive peer learning as both in-site and remote students are connected for learning sessions at same time.
– > It fosters self-management and disciplined approach in students for the accomplishment of their learning goals.
– > It enables the best use of resources, as different resources can be used to make concepts clear according to requirement of course and topic.

Hybrid approach has not only been proved advantageous in teaching-learning, but also for administration and management of Education Institutes. Therefore Higher Education Institutes are working exceptionally well in stretching their digital capablities in line with the demands of 21 st century education system.
We at iCloudEMS always take care of visionary needs of Higher Education Institues. Our following unique products and services have encouraged student-centric learning and facilitated their administartive functions consistently.

– > We offer cloud-based platform to effortlessly manage enormous amounts of data and reports.
– > Our dedicated managed services offer seamless management of their administrative and non-administrative operations.

– > We deliver digital choice-based credit system, that facilitate faculty and students to select and allocate courses.
– > Our personalised learning management system supports creative teaching and boosts student engagement in sessions.
– > We allow students to learn at their own pace and space through an online repository using their login information.
– > We present digital setting for the administration and preparation of on line examination and evaluation while protecting system integrity.
– > Our dashboard reflects Student lifecycle management system enables effectively tailor future plans for students’ overall development.
In a nutshell, we can say that Hybrid learning is a comprehensive technological Education model that can deliver Quality Education without any time or space constraints.
We at iCloudEMS make every effort to digitally strengthen organizational and administrative arrangements of Higher Education Institutes to nourish the learning preferences of 21st century’s youth.

We live in the digital world where access to any information is possible with a couple of clicks only. Although, there are immense resources present for each and every topic, yet we need a mentor who can facilitate our learning and help us to gain knowledge from the best available resources. We have an abundance of text books on every subject, still the role of instructors can never be ignored to make us understand Between Lines.

It is necessary to channelize the energy of youth in constructive ways to make them grow and shine in the global arena. Here comes the importance of discipline learning, and attendance of students in Higher education is more concerned with the development of discipline and personal relationships among students. Thus, it is necessary to motivate the students of Higher Education Institutes to be regular in classes where they can participate in active and cooperative learning.

Apart from boosting attendance in HEIs, there is one more important concern is to maintain the analytics of students’ attendance by regular tracking and managing attendance records. Manual management of such functions is a tedious and error-prone task. However, thanks to the Cloud-based management system that acts as a digital companion in solving such issues and saves the valuable time and efforts of the instructors.

iCloudEMS is a trustworthy digital partner of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) that offers cutting-edge products and managed services for the smooth and automated workflow of institutions. Our attendance management services boosts efficiency and decreases workload of teachers and administrators by tracking real-time attendance and seeking solutions for absentees. We promote a paperless approach for generation of multiple type attendance reports while avoiding redundant or missed data entry. The key purpose of our attendance support system is to enhance the attendance in classroom along with minimization of attendance management tasks that include:

Transparent attendance insights: We offer dashboard attendance marking that makes the attendance analytics easily presentable to all the stakeholders of HEIs. Students can easily observe the real-time attendance trajectory and govern their attendance & learning in no time. 

Synchronous attendance notifications: Our digital attendance services allow the synchronous mail and notification of absentees to the students as well as to their parents that has proven to maintain a good attendance record without any manual efforts. 

Integrating Feedback with learning: We propose an innovative learning management system that includes feedback after learning sessions, assisting the teachers to understand the learning gap and promoting the students’ interest and retention in the classroom.

Understanding the students’ cognitive abilities: We encourage the designing of outcome-based curriculum and assessment under the framework of Bloom’s taxonomy that fosters deeper learning and skill development in students by increasing students’ engagement and interest in classroom activities.

Paperless attendance reports: Our Cloud-based attendance services can easily generate visual attendance analytics including charts and statistics online, on multiple criteria that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. These reports can act as an early warning indicator for the students failing in different criteria that allow them to take necessary action on time.

iCloudEMS is a market-leader assisting Higher Education Institutes to accomplish their Institutional goals and save valuable time of the associated staff by eliminating their manual efforts in daily tasks so that they can invest their efforts in more productive goals.

In the 21^st Century, technology acts as a catalyst of creativity and innovation to improve the quality and significance of education and learning. Today the youth is more interested in becoming active learners and want to govern their own learning where the major responsibility of Higher Education Institutes is the development of Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration in the learners. Integrating technology into conventional teaching-learning practices enhances digital literacy skills that open the doors of a wide range of opportunities for youth.

Let’s examine how technology can improve the educational outcomes for students:

Students’ Interest and demand: We are living in the world of gadgets. Students outside the campus are used to their smartphones and laptops for their entertainment. So, using these gadgets as their instructional tools where instructors act as facilitators helps to create a conducive and dynamic learning environment for the achievement of their academic goals. 
Learners’ Engagement in Classroom: Technology enhances the creativity of teaching approaches that has the potential to change the traditional teacher-centred learning environment into one where students are more actively engaged in performing and learning. Nothing is more satisfying than witnessing your pupils actively participating!

Self-regulated Learning: All students are blessed with different capabilities. However, it is difficult for instructors to manually manage their teaching momentum according to the learning needs of students, but the usage of ICT tools and digital services makes self-regulated and independent learning possible for students. Moreover, educators can also identify the learning gaps easily and help individual students according to his learning requirements.   

Self-govern learning: It is a studied fact that if students are made to take ownership of their own learning, they are more likely to carefully track their learning trajectory and take the lead to achieve their objectives. Digitization allows students to build a regular routine for students to revisit their goals and decide what is working for them in their plan of success.

iCloudEMS complements the traditional ecosystem of Higher Education Institutes with its digital capabilities and allows its learners to timely attain their academic goals. We promise to bring creativity in the classroom that reduces the gap between teaching-learning and assist the instructors to cater the assorted needs of their all learners. Our innovative products and services make the academics and research free from physical boundaries for the instructors and the students, that promote student-centric learning in HEIs:

• We offer a cloud-based cyberspace where instructors can access, process, and keep track of their massive data and records that can be fetched without any time or place constraints. 
• Now attendance taking and tracking is no longer a tedious task for teachers because now they can maintain error-proof attendance records of all students with a few clicks only. 
• Instructors and students can easily be networked 24*7 for regularly updating the schedule of classes, setting due dates for assignments, and posting them online. 
• Students can easily register and access their desired courses from anywhere at any time by using our web-based communication tools.
• Our integrated feedback services allow students to give feedback on the learning sessions that helps the instructors to follow their learning trajectory.
• We save valuable administration hours with our cutting-edge Online Examination System that gives a digital examination portal with LIVE proctoring to maintain an integrity of the system.
• Teachers and Students can enjoy our quick evaluation approach along with easy-to-read OBE mapped digital statistics reports that reflect students’ performance under the framework of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

iCloudEMS fosters a learner-centred environment in HEIs that is not restricted to physical limitations and encourages a paperless administration. We take care of 21st century education needs and synthesizes technology integrated innovative learning ways to connect and learn from real-life situations.

Unlike the traditional education system, that is more focussed on what teacher teach rather than what their pupils learn, Outcome-based education (OBE) places the student at the centre of the educational system and focuses on what the student is expected to achieve at the end of their course rather than how they achieved it. Outcome-based education is an educational strategy in which curriculum decisions are centred on the outcomes that students should demonstrate by the conclusion of the course-professional knowledge, skills, abilities, values, and attitudes-rather than the educational process. It emphasises the importance of knowing your eventual destination before embarking on your journey. Tertiary education must equip graduates with both professional knowledge/skills and all-round traits in order for them to meet the diverse but global needs of 21st century society. Today higher education institutes in various countries are emphasising on continuous quality improvement by reforming their curriculum, plan and assess learning outcomes at all levels, collect evidence of learning and analyse outcomes accomplishment using a variety of assessment techniques, to guarantee that the learning outcomes are actually met.

What makes OBE different from Traditional Education System

Change is inevitable in today’s dynamic world, and that also demands from the education system to update and adapt their approaches and parameters in all spheres. OBE is a pedagogical model in which curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment processes are reconstructed to reflect the attainment of high-order learning rather than the accumulation of course credits. Unlike traditional education, which emphasises what is taught, OBE emphasises what is learnt. The latter is a student-centred approach that includes practical learning experiences to enhance the knowledge, abilities, and traits that students get at the end of a programme or course. Traditional education is based on rigid curriculum and standardized practices, in which students gather under one roof at a specific time to be instructed by a teacher. Learners interact with peers or ask faculty members questions once a lecture is over. This suggests that the effectiveness of the educational system is mostly determined by the teacher’s efficacy and classmates’ knowledge base. On the other hand, OBE is a system of education based on specific outcomes. It focuses on the skill sets that students will need when they finish their education. Activities in and out of the classroom are planned to assist students in achieving these goals.

How OBE is a Revolutionary Practice in Indian Higher Education System

OBE has been adopted by the majority of countries around the world. The signatories are obligated to implement the programme outcomes in accordance with the benchmarked outcomes set forth by the Washington Accord (WA) to make the Indian Higher Education system at par with the global standards.

The OBE paradigm is more focused on clear understanding of the ultimate result to achieve for both students and teachers. Students and teachers have a clear understanding of their learning outcomes that allows them to plan and streamline learning activities to actualize the desired outcomes. 

OBE is a flexible learning approach where learning becomes skill-based, and teachers are able to create lessons and practises to meet the requirements of their students. Unlike the rigid traditional education system, OBE is mostly student-centered, with teachers serving as guides who promote student involvement at each learning stage. Students self-govern their learning and take greater ownership of their learning activities. The assessment practices in OBE are consistent with stated outcomes and more accurate as it allows students to evaluate each other, self-evaluate, and have employers evaluate their performance. 

Outcome-based assessment provides educators with feedback and information on the success of the teaching and learning techniques they use in the classroom. This has a positive and significant impact on the creation of more responsive and adaptable teaching strategies that assist students in achieving their educational goals.

Role of iCloudEMS in technological accomplishment of OBE framework in Higher Education institutes

iCloudEMS has a unified cloud-based platform that assists institutions and teachers in defining outcomes, mapping assessments, implementing course correction methods, and tracking outcome achievement. Today most accreditation and regulatory authorities choose OBE to assess an institution’s quality standard, OBE platforms are in high demand among higher education institutions. We have designed NBA and NAAC-related OBE modules to meet this high demand and streamline difficult procedures.

We provide stepwise digital assistance in defining, mapping, and tracking all the learning outcomes including Program Outcomes (PO), Program Specific Outcomes PSO, Course Outcomes (CO). 

You can get the details of these outcomes in our other OBE related blogs 

iCloudEMS ensures a paperless approach to encourage the environment sustainability in Higher Education Institutes, moreover we take care of all the assorted needs of stakeholders to obtain and compile the OBE friendly data and reports with a couple of clicks only. Our following revolutionary products and services guarantee the seamless management of all the administrative and no-administrative operations in Higher Education Institutes.

• A cloud-based server that can store a vast amount of data and records for convenient record management, allowing teachers to monitor the progress of their students’ course outcomes.
• Time-saving solutions that automate attendance records, timetable creation, assignment publishing, and results reporting for faculty personnel.
• Digital strategies for course selection and allocation that support the Choice Based Credit System and encourage a flexible and dynamic learning culture.
• OBE-LMS promotes outcomes-oriented learning by offering engaging course content and assignments using a creative result designing and mapping process.
• The implementation of OBE has become critical in lubricating the accreditation wheels in Higher Education Institutes, and our Accreditation Management System automates and aligns the accreditation preparation work under the OBE model.
• Student-lifecycle management system that enables students to access their whole academic experience with only a few clicks, enabling student-centric learning and encouraging the Continuous Quality Improvement ecosystem.
• Online Classes and Examinations system to promote strategic execution of OBE in all pre and post examination activities, ranging from the preparation of question papers to the publication of final results, all of which are concerned with the design and mapping of all components with predetermined outcomes.
• A user-friendly and cost-effective portal with rich reporting capabilities for quick statistical analysis at all levels.

Finally, it can be concluded that, to embrace OBE’s fundamental goals, everything in educational processes and systems should be based on results; outcomes that go beyond academics and reflect real-life characteristics in youth to enter the workforce as professionals. iCloudEMS stimulates the redesigning of various academic elements including outcomes-oriented teaching and learning, as well as assessment tasks, to ensure that students are prepared not just for academic achievement, but also for life success.

The world has adapted many ‘New Normal’ outcomes generated in the light of pandemic COVID-19. Thanks to the advanced Information and technology practices, that have evolved as backbone to renovate the traditional education sector and made it realize its actual potency. Our education administration has shown its unbelievable agility to get trained and leverage the latest technologies in using online platforms to deliver Quality Education and bring the reforms according to the recommendations of NEP 2020 in this challenging time. Blended and Hybrid learning are also the modifications embraced by the Education system to avoid uninterrupted learning in the time of uncertainties. 

Difference between Hybrid and Blended Learning

The terms Blended learning and Hybrid learning are used interchangeably most of the time as both incorporate technology in teaching-learning practices to operate efficiently. However, the difference lies in the way to deploy the technological measures; Blended learning is concerned with leveraging technology in classroom learning activities to make the concept clearer and more understandable, while Hybrid learning model is the use of technology to make simultaneous learning sessions available for both the students present in the classroom as well as those present at their own place. 

Blended learning is not new model to be adopted, UGC has always put its best efforts to integrate technology in teaching-learning measures of Higher Education System but Pandemic has pushed to implement the same with no other option left whereas Hybrid learning model is an evolved learning model which makes the learning free from any physical barriers by using the digital platform effectively to open the way to explore new technologies to build upon the digital strengths and achieve the learning outcomes. 

Higher Education Institutes are required to take a few measures as mentioned below, for the operative implementation of constructive Blended/Hybrid learning that can ensure the quality teaching-learning experience

The Online Education System deployed in that time of emergency has made the world reimagine the unthinkable Education practices and future possibilities of using digital tools and technologies to make quality learning available to the student at every part of the globe. NEP 2020 has also advocated some visionary actions to promote the utilisation of technology in teaching-learning methods at Higher Education Institutes. It has recommended incorporating national digital platforms like SWAYAM and DIKSHA to foster multidisciplinary and flexible learning. The establishment of Virtual labs will also encourage hybrid/blended learning in Higher Education Institutes to offer equal access to excellent experiment-based knowledge.
NEP has also emphasised the role of special training and incentives for faculty members to motivate the student-centric learning and advanced pedagogical practices. It has fostered the development of an open, interoperable technology-based infrastructure in the education sector that can provide solutions to the country’s major difficulties, such as India’s size, variety, complexity and improve the digital divide constraints in learning.

Experts have stated that the use of technology driven learning and online platforms will continue to be appreciated and implemented in the post-pandemic Education landscape. Higher Education Institutes are fostered to develop their digital capabilities and explore the benefits of deploying Blended and Hybrid learning model given as:

For the Students:

• Flexible and Self-paced learning
• More engaging sessions than chalk and board ones
• Can govern their own learning.
• Can follow their learning trajectory.

For the Faculty:

• Can be more collaborative and creative than classroom sessions
• Can easily track the learning milestones.
• Can be more time saving than manual handling of academic functions.
• Can experiment with more pedagogical practices for deeper learning.

For the Administrators:

• Can be labour-saving than manual administration.
• Can easily train and upskil the instructors.
• Can have a bird-eye view of academic and non-academic operations anytime and anywhere.
• Better course and faculty management.

Although,the transition of incorporating technology in Education practices brings lot of advantages for every stakeholders yet Higher Education Institutes should prepare themselves to address a few challenges along with such as digital infrastructure that consists of advanced and collaborative digital tools and services to create a secure and updated experience, regular training and support for instructors and students to use updated digital platform and technologies etc.

Therefore a strong technology foundation has become the need of the hour for Higher Education Institutes for achieving the learning goals of the 21st century education system.

iCloudEMS has always  taken the utmost care of digital needs of Higher Education Institutes in order to host a digital ecosystem and support student-centered learning. We have always extended our utilities to empower uninterrupted learning experience in every situation. Our primary characteristics that address the technological requirements in the course of implementing Blended and Hybrid learning models in Higher Education Institutes are listed below.

• Cloud-based platform for seamless management of massive data and reports.
• Specialized managed services for the sustenance of Higher Education Institutes’ ERP systems, that brings digital transformation in handling administrative and non-administrative operations in Colleges and Universities. 
• We make the course choice and allotment sample for faculty and students under the framework of Choice based Credit System.
• We provide a cloud-based personalised Learning management system to increase student engagement and encourage advanced pedagogy in the teaching-learning.
• Students can access the study material through an online repository using their login credentials, allowing them to learn at their own speed and bridging learning gaps.
• At the end of each topic, rating and feedback systems aid instructors in gaining insights into students’ learning curves and strategic planning of their pedagogical approaches.
• Our interactive Learning Management System (LMS) supports a variety of multimedia formats to help students visualize concepts better.
• Outcome-based education (OBE) has become a must-have for achieving learning objectives. Our outcome-based LMS links teaching and assessment procedures with OBE and Bloom’s taxonomy to assist teachers in the definitive assessment of cognitive abilities of students.
• One of the most essential aspects of education transformation is on-demand examination. The Online Exam Management system provides a disciplined environment for the planning and governance of on-demand examinations while maintaining system integrity.
• Our specialised Student lifecycle management system promotes student-centered learning by integrating a student’s entire academic journey onto a single dashboard that provides an overhead view of the students’ activities and progress, allowing for more efficient tailoring of future plans for students’ overall development.

It can be summarized that in this world of uncertainties, we all are required to learn the way to survive in the digital ecosystem. The fundamental necessity is to strengthen the digital infrastructure of Higher Education Institutes for enriched quality education management without any time or space constraints. Blended and Hybrid learning are tech-integrated models that nourish the 21st century skills in the students in a multidisciplinary culture. iCloudEMS digitally facilitates the organizational and administrative arrangements of Higher Education Institutes to support student-centric and flexible learning that can fulfil the learning preferences and needs of the modern era youth.

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a visionary objective to bring reform in higher education for the upskilling of students according to the demands of 21^st century society. Our traditional education system is more focused on rote learning and less emphasis is given to improve the skills of students including communication skills, interpersonal skills, analytical skills, working attitude etc. that enable them to meet the global demands of the 21st century.  OBE is a student-centric education paradigm that measures the students’ progress in terms of predefined outcomes so as to attain knowledge, skills and attitude to compete with their global counterparts. 

Implementation of OBE framework

In the world of multidisciplinary and flexible learning, it is essential to encourage the effective implementation of Outcome based education models in Colleges and Universities. To implement the OBE model, the first step is to outline a set of learning outcomes and once the outcomes are structured, all the imperative components and activities of learners are framed in line with the desired outcomes and the learners are encouraged to demonstrate the outcomes to gauge their learning achievements.

OBE framework consists of following components:

• Vision and Mission
• PEOs
• POs
• COs

Program Educational Objectives (PEOs): Program Educational Objectives (PEO) are predefined attributes or qualities or specific goals that students are expected to demonstrate in their career and professional life after the completion of program. These objectives are framed by taking inputs from the industry partners, students, parents, alumni, faculty and administration and are synced with the Vision and Mission of the department.

Program Outcomes (POs): POs are narrow statements that give the competencies, knowledge and behaviour attributes of students through the journey of their learning program. 

Course Outcomes (COs): COs are statements which are more specific to the courses/subjects and are narrower statements that describe the learning expectations from students at the end of each course.

OBE Framework

After the course outcomes have been determined, the assessment techniques must be devised to measure the attainment level of stated outcomes. Assessment is necessary to govern whether a student or learner has achieved the goals set for him. The outcomes will be used as a feedback approach to maintain and enhance the quality in the future. Depending on the desired course outcome, an appropriate assessment method must be chosen.

Analysis of OBE model

The analysis under OBE implementation constitutes Direct and Indirect assessment methods to gauge the learning abilities of students. Direct Assessments measures are devised by the faculty to analyse how well the student has learnt. Direct assessment procedures include assignment, exam, term paper, project, Laboratory Tests, Quizzes etc.

Indirect assessment measures are more concerned with the student’s perspectives, than how well he has learned the course. Unlike Direct methods, under which evidence of students’ learning are collected in the form of results, indirect measures require the faculty to infer the cognitive abilities of students from feedback, surveys, teaching evaluations etc. 

Attainment and Mapping of Learning Outcomes

COs are framed for each course by its respective faculty member using the appropriate action verbs from Bloom’s taxonomy from the first year to the end of the programme Then, using predefined correlation values a mapping matrix is created between COs and POs, under which value 3 is assigned, if the CO matches strongly with a particular PO criterion; 2 if it matches moderately or 1 if the match is low else mark with “ – ”  The total attainment of a program’s outcomes (POs) is calculated by combining direct and indirect attainment numbers in a predetermined proportion and comparing them to a set value. Any differences from the target value calls for the quality improvement measures.

There are many benefits of OBE including:

• The structuring of outcomes and its analysis of attainment increase the commitment and participation of all stakeholders.
• The clarity of learning outcomes, makes the room for teaching practices to be more creative and result oriented.
• The OBE implementation in Colleges and Universities enhances international recognition and job chances on a global scale for graduates.
• Graduates with professional and soft skills, social responsibility, and ethics are more employable and innovative.
• The OBE paradigm empowers the graduates to flourish in their fields and reach new heights in their jobs and studies.

Technological OBE implementation in Higher Education Institutes

OBE has become the buzzword in the skill-oriented education system. Every Higher Education Institute is following the progressive OBE implementation path to produce the young mind who can add value to the society. But its implementation introduces challenges of exhaustive designing and mapping of learning outcomes at each stage for each student. But today technology has the solution to nearly all organizational problems. iCloudEMS is a pathfinder for all education management issues. We have come with the ground-breaking solutions to enhance the digital capabilities of Higher Education Institutes for OBE administration and accelerate continuous quality improvement. Our pioneering products and services are designed to achieve high standard in both administrative and non-administrative operations that include:

• A cloud-based server that can hold a large number of data and records for easy record management, allowing teachers to track the learning status of their course outcomes.
• Innovative technologies enabling faculty members to save their time by automating attendance records, timetable creation, assignment posting, and results reporting.
• Course selection and allocation strategies that support Choice Based Credit System and empower a flexible and progressive learning culture. 
• With a creative outcome designing and mapping methodology, OBE-LMS helps to promote an outcomes-oriented learning by providing interesting course content and assignments.
• Implementation of OBE has become essential to oil the wheels of accreditation in Higher Education Institutes and our Accreditation management system automates and aligns the preparation work for accreditation under OBE model.
• Student-lifecycle management system that allows students to access their whole academic experience with a few clicks, empowering student-centric learning and fostering the Continuous Quality Improvement ecosystem.
• Online Classes and Examinations system to promote strategic execution of OBE in all pre and post examination activities, ranging from the preparation of question papers to the publication of final results, all of which take care of designing and mapping of all components with predetermined outcomes.
• A cost-effective and user-friendly portal with robust reporting options for rapid statistical analysis at all levels.

Thus, OBE is a paradigm shift in the education system that is focused on successful learning and demonstration of knowledge, skills, abilities, values, leadership and judgement by students. In a convocation event held in a university it was well said by Shri Prakash Javadekar, MHRD that “Education should not just be input-led, but also be outcome-based”. He also added that “We can judge it by sensing whether the students, who have passed, think only of themselves or whether they think of the society also, whether they are good citizens and whether they are inculcating values to make society better,” 

iCloudEMS facilitates college administrators towards the methodical execution of all strategies and workflow under OBE ideology. We offer cloud capabilities to simplify error-prone and hectic analysis and mapping of COs, POs and PEOs. Our powerful analytic and reporting tools ensure the access of outcomes attainment at the fingertips of stakeholders.