How The Cloud Is Transforming The Education Industry
With technology significantly influencing various aspects of our life, even the education industry isn't untouched by it. From blackboards and chalks to online classes, modern tools have notably reformed the education sector. One such tool is the cloud.
With its multiple functions and handy features, gone are those days when students were confined within the walls of a conventional education system.
Let’s have a look at how cloud computing is transforming the education industry.
1) A Push Towards A Paperless Future
Do you know how many trees are cut down every day just to make paper? Approximately 1,50,000. Shocking isn’t it? With many environmental issues brought by the rising deforestation, industries worldwide are minimizing their paper usage to lessen the impact.
This is where the cloud has proved to be a game-changer.
Digitalizing the information and storing it on the cloud has revolutionized the way organizations used to handle data. The education sector, which accounts for the massive consumption of paper, is now adopting e-learning methods for schooling in the institutions.
Replacing traditional books with e-books and integrating them with the cloud ensures that students can access them from anywhere, anytime. For financially weak students, who are unable to bear the cost of purchasing expensive textbooks, the cloud enables access to cheaper e-books, ensuring that they don’t miss out on any learning opportunity.
Also, it brings more value to the education system, as students, instead of merely reading about saving paper, are a part of the movement.
2) Easing Up Storage Issues
While digitalizing the data has dramatically enhanced our storing prowess, as only 1 Megabyte is sufficient to store information worth 75 pages, storage shortage has still not ceased to be an issue. Pictures, videos, applications, and various multimedia files are the other occupants of a student’s storage space. These are things that hold their own distinctive value in a student’s life.
However, like any other problem, the cloud offers a comprehensive solution to it. It provides vast storage space for its users. With the cloud, students can stop worrying about storing their study material and make the most of their device’s storage.
They also don’t have to buy external storage tools or shuffle their files back and forth between other devices whenever their space runs low. Further, since the cloud offers flexible scalability options, students can simply intimate the schooling authorities about their growing needs and have the additional space allocated for them with further communication with the hosting provider.
3) Round the Clock Education
Perhaps whenever someone reminisces about the sweetest times of their life, school days are the first thing that comes to their minds. However, with changing times, the needs of students have also changed.
They want an education system that is agile, latest, and can keep pace with this ever-changing world. They don’t want to be confined by geographical or time-zone restrictions but have around-the-clock education experience.
And, this is where cloud computing convincingly answers their needs. Since study materials on the cloud can be accessed from anywhere, anytime — they don’t have to worry about being physically present or any other time-bound limitations to obtain it.
Teachers can take online classes remotely and then upload their notes on the cloud for the students. This way, those faculty members and students working or living overseas cannot themselves come to the institution’s premises can easily partake in the study curriculum.
4) Keeping The Costs Down
As much it is necessary to provide quality education, so is the need to keep it affordable. However, there are various expenditures like maintenance of institutional premises, setup of an IT server, printing text materials, and handling administrative tasks that can make education a costly venture.
Integrating cloud in your machinery allows you to keep your operational costs down and ensure a more comprehensive outreach for the needy students.
Economically weak students who cannot buy expensive textbooks can easily access and use cloud-based e-material for their studies. Also, it cuts down on printing costs for institutes, as they have to provide the digitalized version, which is comparatively cheaper to produce. Since both students and faculty can remotely partake in academics, authorities can save upon the maintenance capital needed to sustain the premises.
Also, as all the IT costs are taken care of by the service provider, an institution doesn’t need to invest considerably to set up their own IT infrastructure.
5) Backing it Up Safely
When it comes to schooling, each passing second can either make or break you. With time being one of the most invaluable commodities in a student’s life, it is imperative to do effective time management. Also, teachers should be punctual when it comes to catering to their pupil’s needs. However, relying on traditional methods for sharing and storing data is both inconvenient and risk-prone.
Using the cloud to back up all those critical assignments and documents ensures that students don’t waste their precious time rummaging for the lost or misplaced item. Similarly, teachers can use the cloud to safely backup all the student-related documents. As the paper is easy to access and can be easily destroyed by environmental factors, the cloud provides a better and more secure option. Its additional security features further ensure that any unauthorized party cannot access the information stored in the cloud. Also, the cloud provides readily available backups for the rapid restoration of lost or damaged data.
6) Bringing in the Innovation
In today’s era, mere education isn’t enough. An education system should be molded so that it brings about the all-round development of a student. It should be flexible, modern, and capable enough to accommodate their changing needs. And that’s when the cloud comes into the picture.
With the cloud, you can bid adieu to that customary world of education and be a part of the latest innovations.
The usage of cloud brings automation into the processes of an institution. Since tests could be cloud-based, a teacher can pre-feed the answers into the server and get them automatically checked after their submission.
This is time-efficient and reduces human errors. By saving time on manual tasks, teachers can focus more on student counseling sessions, results publications, and other administrative tasks. Also, students can check their attendance online and collaborate with others in real-time. Parents can also be an active part of their child’s academics and monitor the performance via a cloud-based dashboard.
Conclusion
Remote accessibility, convenient data backups, and guaranteed safety measures are just some of the reforms that have been brought about by the cloud in the education industry. It has widened this sector’s outreach and has made education more accessible, innovative, and affordable. With cloud technology upgrading with new beneficial features every day, it also promises better innovation in the education industry.
