Choosing a Database for Your Organization - Term Paper Example

 Table of Contents Executive Summery Information technology (information management systems) is bringing modernism and novelty in industries. This report presents the analysis of the information requirements and management decision-making at different levels within education and training industry. This report also analyzes and recommends use of information management system in education and training industry. This report is divided into two sections. First section covers general discussion on the role of the information management system in education and training sector. Additionally, it discusses the ideas of different researchers on use of information technology in education sector. It shows how information technology can help educational institutions develop strategies to survive and grow in this modern world. Second section of this report covers specific discussion on the role of IT in the education sector. It offers suggestions and recommendations to improve the education and training sector. In this scenario, it suggests how an information system (web based platform) can help education institutions offer facilities and services to the students and teaching staff. Tasks 1 Education and training is one of the most important concerns of today’s world. After the emergence of web, this area has comprehensively evolved and attained a greater performance. In addition, by making use of new and advanced learning tools and web based information systems institutions are presently gaining a lot of benefits. This section will outline some important aspects of information requirements and management decision-making at different levels within the education and training industry. Information Requirements According to Psarras (2006), the society is going towards the new era where the future fundamentally will be determined through people's capability to intelligently utilize information, a valuable global resource that is the personification of human intellectual technology and capital. The new information-based business and economy offers a great deal worth on the distribution of information and knowledge, and its creation. In this new economy, companies and individuals are required to pay attention on enhancing and maintaining their information capital in order to remain competitive, since their capability to adapt learn and change became a core competency for survival. It is apparent that in this new information-based financial system need for training and education will increase. In case of effective establishment of economic system, new economy offers the transformation in companies and individuals that will best attain their educational objectives as well as best satisfy the demand for business information (Psarras, 2007). In scenario of training and education industry there are some specific information requirements such as transfer of information to others. In this scenario there is need for some resources that can effectively transfer the data and information to their recipients. At the present time when we have electronic and print media we are much keen toward the transfer of data at rapid pace. However we have following information requirements for the education and training industry: Need for fast data transfer Need for correct transfer Need for effective distribution of information Need for better user interaction The students and teachers are the main stakeholders in the education and training industry. In this scenario these both stakeholders require higher mutual interaction and dependency. Here are some requirements regarding student and teacher mutual interaction: Student course information Teacher notes availability Educational outline Course tracking Data sharing In the present age the emergence of web and high speed internet brought a new paradigm of ‘distant learning’. In this way the colleges and universities from all through the world are offering effective educational and training facilities. In this scenario CISCO based network training is a significant example. In addition, there are new technologies in the education and training sector that lead toward following requirements: Needs for online information Needs for online student registration Needs for data sharing Needs for online lectures Needs for online submissions of assignments and assessments Web based exams Management decision-making Martins (2007) outlined that in last decade business and corporate information management has appeared as an area of interest in business, academics as well as organizational practice. Additionally, the business literature exposes a quickly growing body of knowledge concerning to information management that covers a lot of diverse disciplines as well as areas of interest to practitioners and academics. Though in case of acknowledging that information is a main business asset: a lot of businesses are still in the early phases of recognizing the implication of business information and information management technology (Martins, 2007). According to Bennet & Bennet (2008), it is obvious that in case of implementation of the information management system and information technology platforms business possesses information as well as information that confer a special advantage, permitting it to plan with creativity, intelligence and occasionally. In addition, it is well-prepared to maintain its development and build up a dynamic environment. Through marshalling the expertise and skills of its business affiliates, it is capable to hold in constant business innovation and learning (Bennet & Bennet, 2008). Ford (2004) stated that an educational and training philosophy is linked to views of corporations on what education they are looking for (for example for self-actualization or vocational training). In case of some learning theories there are some views on how people learn as well as can efficiently be taught (for example: as comparatively passive recipients of information, or active representatives of meanings). Together this can influence educationists in identifying educational approaches, that stand for views on how learning and teaching should be delivered and prepared (e.g. by means of independent study and lectures), as well as specific learning objectives that correspond to views on what should be taught (Ford, 2004). In case of education and training industry’s management decision-making there are few people who can take decisions regarding the further operational strategy. These people can be university or college heads or teachers. However, for effective management decision-making in education and training institutes there is need to adjust its behavior to make clear transformations in the global situation. Devins, Gold, Johnson, & Rick Holden (2005) stated that in present business and web based economy, it is certain that the smartest corporation will survive. The smartness can be achieved in business structure by taking effective decisions (Devins et al., 2005). In education and training sector and global distant learning environment educational organizations need to take effective and in time decisions. In this scenario one of the main and excellent forms of competitive advantage in market is that a corporation has talented workforce and business staff. Thus, in education and training industry there is need to invest in offering effective education to management to take better decisions that match the industry’s information requirements. Most of the decision structures in education and training industry is predetermined. For instance, to take decisions they have previous history related to the similar situations. These factors can help the management run the education industry. However is changing global economy the education and training industry also need to take some innovative decisions. These dicisions could be related to reduction of fee, launching new courses, offering new trainings, etc. Next section will discuss some effective aspects regarding the education and training industry technology implementation. Task 2 At the present, almost all the universties and colleges have their websites that are used to offer or present a lot of activities related the education, for instance universty news, exams schedule etc. In this scanario I am going to recommend a web based education and training information management system. However, this system needs to have a lot of capabilities to tackle the various activities that can convince the traditional and present new (distant) learning styles. Here this section onward will suggest some of main functionalities and features of this web based structure for the education and taining industry. Support the operational processes In the education and training sector there is huge need for the support regarding the online data sharing and information transfer. As I have highlighted some basic needs regarding the Education and Training industry in the above section. Now this section will present the main support areas that can be effectively supported by the web based platform of the education and training industry. New facilities and features will be available in new technology based platform at the web. Here are some of main facilities and features that can be attained through the new online system for the education and training industry. Online admission facility Rapid data sharing 24x7 availability of data and information Better database management of students and other concerned personals Quick delivery of notifications New web based examination system Web based payments (for fee and other areas) Support decision making processes In case of online education and training industry I will recommend the server based database technology. The online educational institution is established to facilitate the students to have an online remote access to their educational institution. In this scenario the online educational institution cannot implement the desktop based information management technology. The main reason of not implementing the desktop based information management technology is its inflexibility regarding the huge data sharing. The desktop database technology is only limited to a single user and offers such a huge scope for huge and current information access. The desktop databases are also not able to manage huge amount of data that an online education and training industry would have. Another main feature is that this technology is lacking in the scalability that is not obtained through the desktop database because these are less flexible to add new and more form and amounts of data and features (Chapple, 2009). In contrast the web based information management systems of educational institutions work in a most excellent way because they run on the education and training industry servers. These servers can hold large amounts of information and data that can be changed and updated as per requirements of students and institutions. The server database is also more flexible for online educational institution because it offers more security in this way only privileged users can access the web based information management system. In addition, the online or web based information management system database change privileges rights are held by the administration of institute (functionx, 2009; Hoffer et al., 2007) & (Chapple, 2009). By having a web based information management system educational institutions will have a lot of advantage regarding the flexibility of the web based information management system. The clients (students) need not to have some specific technology of hardware to manage the web based data transfer and retrieval from online educational institution’s servers (Hagen, 2009) & (Chapple, 2009). To facilitate management and decision making the new web based information management system will facilitate in management of online data circulation. The web based platform will offer data in a much better format that will facilitate in effective academic decision making and developing policies for institutes. Conclusion The implementation of information technologies has become an essential activity of corporations and the corporations now understand the value of information technology. Education sector is by no means an exception to information technology. This report has discussed the use of information technology in the education and training industry. To easily understand the scope of this research I have divided the report into two sections. Both sections have discussed the role of IT in education and training sector. The discussion in the first section has shown the importance of information systems in the education and training sector. This section has discussed how different organizations (small, medium and large) are getting benefits by implementing IT tools and applications. In the same way education and training sector can also implement these tools to improve the level of education and training. Additionally, it can use these tools to offer facilities and services to its stakeholders (students and teachers). The second section of this report has presented few recommendations and suggestions to help improve the services of education and training sector. This section has suggested the implementation of an information system that will be a web based platform. It will help educational institutions manage educational activities and offer facilities to its stakeholders (students and teachers). Bibliography Alwis, R.S.-d. & Hartmann, E., 2008. The use of tacit knowledge within innovative companies: knowledge management in innovative enterprises. Journal of Knowledge Management, 12(1), pp.133-47. Bennet, D. & Bennet, A., 2008. Engaging tacit knowledge in support of organizational learning. VINE: The journal of information and knowledge management systems, pp.72-94. Chapple, M., 2009. Choosing a Database for Your Organization. [Online] Available at: http://databases.about.com/od/administration/a/choosing_a_db.htm [Accessed 10 May 2010]. Darroch, J., 2005. Knowledge management, innovation and firm performance. Journal of Knowledge Management, 9(3), pp.101-15. Devins, D., Gold, J., Johnson, S. & Rick Holden, S., 2005. A conceptual model of management learning in micro businesses. Education + Training, 47(8/9), pp.540-51. Ford, N., 2004. Towards a model of learning for educational informatics. Journal of Documentation: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 60(2), pp.183-225. functionx, 2009. Desktop and Server Databases. [Online] Available at: http://www.functionx.com/access/Lesson04.htm [Accessed 10 May 2010]. Hagen, I., 2009. Desktop vs Server Database Software - Which Database Software is Best? [Online] Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Desktop-vs-Server-Database-Software---Which-Database-Software-is-Best?&id=684644 [Accessed 10 May 2010]. Hoffer, J.A., Prescott, M.B. & McFadden, F.R., 2007. Modern Database Management, Eighth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Martins, L.P., 2007. A holistic framework for the strategic management of first tier managers. Management Decision: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 45(3), pp.616-41. Psarras, J., 2007. Education and training in the knowledge-based economy: the application of knowledge management. International journal of information and knowledge management systems, 6(1), pp.92-104. Read More