In Conversation With MS Bala

We sat down with Bala MS, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Ken42, to hear his thoughts and insights on the current state of education technology and how education institutions can adapt and thrive with the changing landscape.

1. How has the landscape of education technology and adoption changed over the course of your career??

Technology has completely revolutionised the once wholly paper-based field of education. While the pandemic provided great impetus, colleges and universities have been quick to adopt new-age tools and embrace digital teaching.?

During my time at BlackBoard, it was initially challenging to get institutions and administrators to see the value in adopting digital technologies to complement their pedagogy. However, attitudes have changed and blended learning enabled by virtual classrooms, discussion forums, e-libraries has become the norm. Technology has also done away with so many cumbersome manual processes and has instead allowed for better operational efficiency and communication between all stakeholders, whether it is between teachers and students, between teachers and parents, and between and among students. Student satisfaction levels have greatly improved as a result of access to an enhanced learning environment and faster communication and support from faculty and the administration.?

The use of automation technology has also helped institutions reduce organisational inefficiencies enormously. Right from curriculum planning, to conducting and grading assessments, identifying at-risk students and providing support, faculty have been able to reduce the effort and time required to manage their tasks and provide a better teaching experience. Institutions have also benefited from greater strategic planning by using in-depth data analytics tools to derive better insights and make data-driven decisions.?

2. At a time of great disruption in education, technology and the workforce at large, how can institutions act as the innovation hubs of our country?

To serve as an innovation hub, institutions will need to foremost build an infrastructure capable of sustaining a new-age, technology-rich learning community of students, teachers, administrators, and external stakeholders. This doesn’t mean high cost, physical infrastructure - but instead leveraging technology that enables transparency, open communication and collaboration. The kind of technology that institutions adopt must be capable of facilitating an environment of active learning, enhanced and uninterrupted information access and communication and global collaboration.?

Innovation hubs and centres have already begun to spring up in major universities across the world. American universities like Carnegie Mellon, Brown University and Michigan State University have introduced innovation hubs, designed to create a new type of thinking and likewise, Indian institutions like Karnatak University in Dharwad, have followed suit.

It has been very heartening to see our institutions collaborating with international organisations to find solutions to strengthen our country's public infrastructure. For instance, IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand, has signed an MoU with a Swiss technology giant to construct an operational smart electricity distribution network and management system (SDNMS) on campus, which will eventually serve as a pilot for the government’s Smart Cities Mission. At IIT-Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, students and faculty are working with students of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), USA, on urban renewal initiatives in Mandi town, designing smart filters that can detect and remove iron and biological contamination in water, all season plantation for food security, etc.

3. How can institutions implement the guidelines proposed by NEP to embrace technology for operational support and academic excellence to complement global competition??

The NEP has been designed by carefully taking into account the interplay between technology and education. It provides extensive guidance on how institutions can leverage technology to the teaching and learning experience for students and faculty alike. Institutions must have a dedicated office of Technology and Innovation, whose central objective must be to facilitate a seamless transition to digitised operations from attendance tracking, fee payments, academic planning, faculty workload management to conducting examinations and student assessments. However, data privacy is an increasingly important concern and institutions must incorporate the right kind of processes to handle student data and maintain a strict level of data security.?

Colleges and universities must also place focus on imparting crucial life skills to students using digital tools and make provisions to conduct Continuous Professional Development (CFD) programmes to enable an environment of continuous learning and self- improvement for faculty and administrators alike. The government provides a great deal of support in this regard, with platforms like DIKSHA and SWAYAM. Institutions can also avail overall guidance on implementing NEP policies in the right way by partnering with National Educational Technology Forum(NETF).?

To be competitive on an international level, it would be prescient for institutions to invest in engaging with prospective international students at an augmented and consistent pace. Colleges should establish an international student affairs office committed to providing prospective applicants with admissions and matriculation related support. The NEP has also promoted the formation of tech-enabled centres for translation and language interpretation to promote Indian languages at a global level.?

There is no country as ancient and diverse yet cosmopolitan and modernised as India is, and we have so much to offer to the world. Institutions can collaborate with foreign universities and create exchange programmes and other immersive learning experiences for students from all around the world that allows them to truly experience all that India has to offer.?

4. What excites you the most about Ken42?

If one looks at the EdTech space, there is no dearth of education technology companies. While many claim to digitise and automate administrative operations of education institutions, there is a significant trust deficit, as few can actually provide meaningful value. When institutions invest in these technologies, they are hoping to modernise and level up the experience they offer to students, faculty, administrators - and more importantly invest in something that can be of value in the long run. Ken42, along with its flexibility, personalisation, interactivity and depth of analytics offers exactly that - a solution that grows with you.? In a nutshell, learning experience, & personalised experience will improve the student’s experience which will further determine the success of the Institution.

We are true disruptors and first movers in that sense. I have been following the company’s quiet yet steady rise in the education space, and I am excited to join the team at this pivotal stage!