Student Portal: Why Every School Should Have One.
Technology is rapidly bringing advancements to every aspect of our lives. Every contributing system of society is in a race to modernize and simplify it’s functions, education system is not far behind either. Ever since Covid-19, the implementation of E-Learning and Work From Home has been taken seriously. Universities and colleges around the world are introducing and constantly upgrading their online Learning Management Systems and Student Portals, but what exactly are student portals? Are you curious too? Great! let’s find out.
Student portals are websites that serves as an information hub for students by letting the students track and manage their academic activities, access news and notifications given by the institution and helps them stay connected with the institution.
In a 2016 survey about views on digital learning technologies as an academic tool according to college students in united states “81 percent of respondents agreed that digital learning technology was helping them to improve their grades” . Further, a study at the Business College of Beijing Union University on Blackboard (a student portal application) for students revealed that “92.4% of the students believed that the Blackboard was an important platform for their daily learning” (Li. Yinghua 290)
Now we know that student portal is in fact a great tool used by universities and colleges, but how affective would it be for schools? Let’s see.
Student Portals: How affective would they be for schools?
A student portal benefits almost everyone who has involvement in the educational institute. In order to understand it’s potential affects on schools and every aspect of it, let’s see it from the three major perspectives, student’s, institution’s and parent’s.
For students:
A student’s major amount of time goes into noting down topics and activities of chapters in their notebooks and copies. In a student portal, the teacher uploads the .PDF or .PPT files of topics that gets covered after each class and the student directly learns from there. This brings the focus of the student more towards learning than noting down.
Student Portals lets the student keep track of their academic activities including, attendance, grades, assignments and class schedules. This information access helps the student build their management skills way more than manual results and attendance papers could. It also provides application writing and messaging options to contact different departments and keeps the student updated with the news and notices issued by the institute. All of this helps the student to stay more connected and likely to participate more in the institution.
For schools:
These portals helps simplify the course management and distribution process for faculty members. Instructors marks attendance of students on portals and can host online classes easily. It also lets students give their feedback on respective instructors which helps the administration in keeping track of the faculty’s performance.
Since student portals are online, they reduce the use of paper work, which could be cost affective and can enhance the security, since all of the student’s academic and given personal data can be accessed by the security department easily instead of going through archives and papers.
For parents:
Parents can access their child’s student portal and can stay aware of their performance, academic notifications, institutional news, fee vouchers and can always give feedback. Online payments can be done through portals, making fee payments easier than ever for parents.
New opportunities and strong community.
Student portals provides smart learning for students with less course burden, better management skills and more participation in the institute, resulting in more time and motivation for extra circular activities such as sports, public speaking, art or science exhibitions and performing arts, all of which helps the student in discovering their personality, interests and future careers.
The constant courses updates keeps the teacher and the class more communicative and connected. Every aspect of student portals benefits people who could use it. Better learning, working and constant communication through information builds a strong community and enhances the academic standards of students and professional standards of the faculty, management and administration, which naturally leads towards a much stronger institutional reputation.
