When the initially lockdown was announced last year in March, educational institutions have been one of the initially to have been closed, and however education delivery didn’t quit, even although these institutes faced challenges in transitioning to completely on the web education delivery. “Unlike the IT or healthcare sectors that were already undergoing a slow but steady digital transformation, the education space was far behind in terms of technology and virtual interactions,” says Vishal Agrawal, MD, India & SAARC, Avaya, which provides the Avaya Spaces digital option for each corporates and educational institutions. In an interview with FE’s Vikram Chaudhary, he adds that Avaya Spaces enables teachers and students to connect practically, share content and coursework, and retain the ‘human connection’ that is so crucial to the nicely-rounded improvement of young minds. Excerpts:
Avaya Spaces is a digital collaboration tool. But is Avaya Spaces for educational institutes unique from Avaya Spaces for corporates?
The core, i.e. the videoconferencing element, remains the similar. But education delivery is not merely about videoconferencing, it is more about how teachers engage with students, how immersive that engagement is, and that there ought to be correct and meaningful communication in between teachers, students and parents. Institutes that are making use of Avaya Spaces have been capable to assure that the development curve of students and the high-quality of education delivered is not compromised.
We also produced Avaya Spaces free of charge to educational institutions, like colleges and universities, along with non-profit organisations, with the purpose of guarding students although guaranteeing continuity of classes.
What all Avaya Spaces brings on board for an educational institute?
Avaya Spaces gets integrated with a mastering management technique. It enables teachers and students to connect practically, share content and coursework, and retain the ‘human connection’ that is so crucial to the nicely-rounded improvement of young minds.
As far as campus is concerned, it can assist boost safety and response capabilities—by disseminating facts swiftly and regularly to safety, students and faculty, automatically sending alerts by e mail, SMS or voice when a essential occasion happens, and sending distinct notifications by unique regions of the campus.
It also aids boost academic quality—by giving on the web and offline mastering experiences, as nicely as on the web and hybrid mastering options.
It can also assistance your recruitment needs—by connecting with applicants beyond classic geographies and communication channels.
So Avaya Spaces is not just a different videoconferencing tool?
As I stated, it gets integrated with the mastering management technique an institute could be currently making use of. Therefore, in addition to advertising on the web meetings in between parents and teachers, it also permits teachers to produce virtual classrooms and invite their students to take element in videoconference lessons. Tools such as live student Q&A sessions and other job management options make it straightforward for them to assign students homework. Teachers can additional upload mastering material straight into the virtual classroom for consumption at any moment with Avaya Spaces’ unrestricted cloud storage. Our option has permitted students and teachers to share documents securely, organise collaboration, and allocate and monitor coursework irrespective of exactly where they are situated. Also, Avaya Spaces is institute-agnostic, i.e. it can be utilized by any sort of educational institute from greater education to schools to coaching institutes and so on.
With educational institutes reopening in due course of time, do you feel the usage of technologies will cut down?
If usage is measured in the quantity of hours, it will certainly be impacted. However, the future clearly is blended or hybrid mastering. Therefore, technologies going forward will develop into more sophisticated, collaboration platforms will develop into a lot more integrated with mastering management systems, and communications and content management will boost drastically. Tech intervention will go substantially greater in the field of education.