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Current Overview:
The current generation is immersed in a digital bubble filled with slick streaming services, online retail services and gratifying social media platforms. Even when it comes to digital learning it’s no wonder that they expect high-quality and personalised digital learning experiences. From being easily able to book library computers and books to quickly checking changing timetables, from accessing lecture notes online at a click to interacting seamlessly with other students (whether via an online chat forum or a university community page), scheduling video calls with university faculty and support staff, are all now expected from a university’s digital experience. Overall, a ‘trendy’, ‘functional’ and ‘well designed’ user interface is a must for enhancing student and faculty experience.
The above requirements are well backed by research as published in The Higher Education Digital Experience Report 2022, a study conducted by Great State (a UK based digital product and service design agency who specializes in Market Research and insight mapping) – which includes findings from a study of more than two thousand students currently attending university in UK. This report looks in detail at what students expect from their university’s digital experience, the benefit to universities of meeting – and even exceeding – those expectations, and the challenges universities face in attempting to close the Digital Experience Gap.
As per the findings, 91% of students believe that what their university offers in terms of digital services should be as strong as face-to-face lectures and life on the physical campus. Additionally, 67% students felt that their current University was providing the basic digital learning experience with vast scopes for improvement. Almost all the students interviewed in the study felt that a good digital experience can help them manage their wider student life, perform better academically, feel a part of the university, and maintain mental wellbeing.
In similar research conducted by Educause, a US based non-profit, it was found that only 13% of colleges in USA have a digital campus solution of some sorts, whereas 32% are in process of developing a digital strategy, and another 38% of higher education institutions are exploring the opportunities. However, a staggering 17% of institutions are not even thinking of any form of digital transformation.
Figure 1: Overview of US Universities position on digital transformation
In the same study conducted amongst college students, 38% students responded that their universities are not agile enough to invest in technology to enable digital transformation and 52% of students strongly disagreed that their university has invested in a business model to promote digital change of any sorts.
Figure 2: Overview of students’ opinion on digital transformation in their universities
Problem Statement:
Now the question rises that hasn’t the Universities, even after more than two years of online learning that was turbo-charged due to COVID, been able to provide a state-of-the-art digital experience? Though Universities have tried to digitally transform to varying degrees to better support their student population, the actual on ground reality and the student expectation is starkly different. Let us now have a look at the key reasons where University administrations are failing to capture the essence of a well encapsulated digital learning experience.
• University senior management do not have a clear understanding of what they are trying to achieve by a digital tool.
• Universities tend to address requirements to point solutions instead of taking into consideration the experience it will provide the student and faculty who are the end users.
• Analysis on user journey is taken from an organisation viewpoint instead of students and faculties who will be the end users.
• Lack of funding to make large scale digital transformations.
• Use of legacy systems with few capabilities of integration with learning tools for content or learning tools like video conferencing software’s etc. Additionally, they also suffer from lack of technical knowhow and capabilities to employ the latest technologies.
The University management needs to understand that in the present age of digital enablement, students are consumers and customers who are empowered with choice. Armed with social awareness, the choices of today’s students are based on purpose, value and experience. For this reason, institutions should reflect on their goals and reshape how they move forward using advancements that other sectors have grown accustomed to. Colleges and universities should drive interaction that serves intuitively and fosters positive outcomes built on innovative practices leveraging emerging technologies to enhance the consumer experience. Faculty and staff also expect a digital workplace that allows them to focus on meaningful activities that serve a true purpose and promote the mission of the campus. To stay sustainable and relevant, institutions should employ technology and analytics-based insights to enhance the well-being of the communities in which they are rooted.
Solution:
Universities should understand that Higher Education campuses are epicentres of activity, and for that reason, leveraging smart campus strategies can improve the experience of students, faculty, administrators, researchers, practitioners and communities. A digital campus will incorporate technology into nearly every aspect across social, academic and administrative activities of an institute, and students, faculty, administrators, and management will be crucial pillars in the ecosystem. Garnter defines a digital smart campus as “…a physical or digital environment in which humans and technology-enabled systems interact in increasingly open, connected, coordinated and intelligent ecosystems. Multiple elements, including people, processes, services, and things, come together to create a more immersive, interactive, and automated experience for students, staff, faculty, and stakeholders of a university or college.”
Figure 3: Smart Campus – Enabling Digital Transformation in Universities
A smart campus can help improve three important factors: experience, efficiency, and education. It can help reshape how students’ study, how they learn, what they learn and how they interact with an institution. And it can be the catalyst for the transformation that will likely enable campuses to address the future of learning and the future of work while reshaping the campus experience. As needed, it can continue to serve the traditional campus while enabling it to adopt new approaches to serve in a manner that their digitally native stakeholders have come to expect.
TCS iON Digital Campus solution:
Understanding the need of the hour, TCS iON solutions are designed to bridge the digital gap between students, faculty and administrators. Keeping in line with the TCS goal to build a better future by harnessing the power of inspiration and invention, we engineered a plethora of solutions associated with the entire digital learning ecosystem. The solutions are built on three pillars of digital transformation:
• Transforming Assessments – Digital Assessment and Marking solutions.
• Transforming Learning – Digital Learning & Learning Hub solutions.
• Transforming Business Operations – Digital Campus, Manufacturing and Energy solutions.
TCS iON Digital Campus solution comprises a suite of offerings, catering to seasonal academic events, mapped to specific departments of an institution. The solution facilitates the entire student lifecycle management from enquiry to alumni. With pre-built business processes and easy-to-configure solution capabilities, institutions can start using the system with minimal implementation time and effort. To make the delivery process smooth and effective for the end users, modules are available in a managed services model as well. The solution acts as a one stop platform where all the functions required to run a campus efficiently are digitised.
Figure 4: TCS iON Campus – Offering & Modules
The key modules of TCS iON Digital Campus Solution are:
• Admission Process: A business process that defines the entire admission cycle for an educational institute. It ranges right from processing the applications to allocating the seats.
• Enrolment by student's choice: Also known as credit-based choice system it enables students to register themselves in subjects of their choice during an academic session.
• Curriculum Definition: Allows admin to create, update, delete or modify curriculum and content for the online and offline courses offered to the students.
• Timetable & Attendance: A business process that generates the different types of timetables, taking into consideration the different permutations and combinations of the availability of faculty and lectures.
• Student Feedback Management: Provides an easy-to-use, rich text editor to configure and capture responses of students, faculties and other stakeholders.
• Exam and Grading: A business process that defines the exam patterns, category, and report card format, and the grading system of an institute. Allows configuration of complex rules to check the student's eligibility for an examination, process results and grades and eventually promotion of the student to the subsequent academic curriculum.
• Hostel: A business process that defines the different rules for creating a room type, the hostel master, process the requests, and the discipline action master for defining the rules of a hostel.
• Transport: A business process that defines the details required for transport - driver details, stoppage details, agency details, route details, and other such details. It also maintains data associated with the allocation of vehicles.
• Discipline: A business process that defines the disciplinary action master of an institute. This includes maintaining a record of the actions to be taken when the code of conduct is violated.
• Separation Process: A business process that defines the formalities to be completed when a student separates from the institute. Separation could be of any form - student being expelled or graduation being complete.
With features that enhance operational efficiency, TCS iON Digital Campus (iDC) helps institutes upgrade their administrative functions and provides a platform for e-learning. Our 'IT-as-a-Service' model equips us to cater to hardware, software and network infrastructure of an institute comprehensively, thus reducing installation time. Our pay-as-you-use model allows institutes to adapt to the changing usage of the software, thereby lowering the capital expenditure.
The solution encompasses the entire student life cycle management activities, institutional support activities, and efficient control of management resources by providing education platform solutions, such as learning management facilitating synchronous and asynchronous learning, virtual community, assessments, and distance learning to support teaching and increase teacher student collaboration.
Additionally, TCS iON Digital Campus platform is device agnostic, which means the same application can be accessed seamlessly with any device (desktop / laptop/ mobile). In addition, we provide Apps both for iOS and Android so that learners can access the solution anytime, from anywhere and on any device. The mobile app has a responsive platform design to deliver anytime, anywhere and any device access to learning based on screen size, platform, and orientation.
We have our own mobile version by the name of mTOP for both Android as well as iOS versions.
Keeping in mind the changing and ever evolving nature of smart campuses we follow Perpetual Beta Model to make continuous enhancements and upgrades in the platform seamlessly. All the new features developed in the platform are available to all our customers free of charge. The new features added in the platform are based on Market Research, Competitor Analysis and Changes logged by our customers We have a planned roadmap for 6 months and follow the same. Upgrades and patches for all system software is conducted on a regular basis. They are also thoroughly tested in non-production environment before deploying in production.
Our solutions follow the multi-Tenancy architecture model which enables us to maintain a single platform with personalized customizations for each client according to their unique individual requirements. This model allows a higher scalability range for our applications as well as accelerating the pace of maintenance and updates.
TCS iON Digital Campus solution is a well-planned and executed system catering to all campus related functions. Automating the most mundane processes, the solution helps campuses gain an edge and creates confidence amongst their stakeholders. With TCS iON Digital Campus solution, customers will find a trusted partner who has capabilities, credentials and thought leadership to support them in the digital transformation of their digital journey.
TCS iON provides the assurance of a technologically advanced solution with robust programme delivery along with inclusive change management to make the transition a success. TCS is a partner who is transparent, agile, dependable, and flexible to work with and we are committed to our customers’ success.
Currently, TCS iON Digital Campus is being used by 145 institutions with a registerered number of 1.43 Mn students globally. The below numbers will provide a detailed overview of the reach and usability of the solution.
Figure 5: TCS iON Digital Campus Digits
Please refer to the below case studies to view the scope and implementation of TCS iON Digital Campus in institutes in India and globally.
Case Studies: