Digital transformation in education: the solutions

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"When digital transformation is done right, it's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when it's done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar." - George Westerman, senior research scientist, MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Having identified the challenges associated with digital transformation within the sector, we will now explore the solutions available to educators.

Develop a strategy

Any significant change or internal innovation begins with developing a strategy that not only works in principle, but that everyone within the organization understands and can work with.

To create a robust digital transformation strategy for your organization, you need to work collaboratively, identifying your core business objectives and goals, as well as the technologies, methodologies and innovations you will need to achieve them.

Once you've done this, you'll need to create a step-by-step action plan and communicate it to all key stakeholders within the organization.

Hire, train and invest in skills

As mentioned above, the digital skills gap remains quite significant worldwide, chiropractor email list meaning that the talent pool is currently scarce.

As an educational institution, your primary business objective is to educate and upskill others so they can thrive and succeed professionally. By taking this approach internally, you will be able to implement a digitally-driven learning programme that will provide your staff with the skills to evolve their roles within the business and catalyse its digital transformation.

Additionally, investing in upskilling internally across all departments, helping each team member develop their confidence and knowledge while nurturing departmental leaders, will help drive the business in the best possible direction.

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Integrate and leverage digital data

To extract maximum value from the vast chains and silos of data collected in the education sector, it is essential to be able to seamlessly integrate and leverage your data sources, understand where each insight comes from, and how it can benefit your institution.

To ensure the flow and understanding of the colossal amounts of student-driven data available to educational organizations, the x API and IMS Caliper standards have been implemented to ensure all data is processed in a standardized format.

And this year in particular, a growing number of data platforms have adopted such standards and are developing edtech tools that wrap intelligence into these insights, helping educational institutions segment data and understand existing student behaviors to improve curricula, processes, and deliver a higher level of insight and personalization.

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By taking the time to understand the areas of data that will be most valuable to your institution and implementing the best tools to analyze these metrics, you will benefit from a wealth of insights that will help the continued evolution of your digital transformation.

Automate

On average, around 49% of companies across all industries are currently using automation, and more than half of B2B companies adopt the technology as part of their strategy.

Especially in education, automation could be invaluable for institutions looking to improve their digital maturity. Notable time constraints and limited budgets can put a huge strain on the modern educational institution.

But by implementing automated systems and technologies to assist with operational tasks – from administrative workflow management to computing and data collection – you can increase productivity exponentially with minimal infrastructure, reducing long-term costs and allowing you to focus on more valuable efforts or activities.

Harnessing the power of mobile

The millennial generation is very focused on mobile devices, with 98% of 17-24 year olds and 97% of 25-34 year olds saying they own a smartphone.

To attract and inspire this important mass, adopting a mobile mindset is essential or you will be left behind. Mobility is a necessity of the modern age, and if your prospective students cannot access the information or material they need in a flexible portal format, your chances of offering them value will be reduced to a minimum.

Mobile learning is an incredibly effective way to deliver value, but mobile-first developments don’t have to be limited to course material. Michigan State University, for example, understanding that mental health affects a significant proportion of its student body, developed a mobile app called iSee .