Building Quality Education: The Critical Role of Information Systems in the Digital Age
In an increasingly complex and dynamic educational landscape, making the right decisions can no longer rely solely on intuition or past experience. Data and information have become the backbone for educational institutions striving for excellence, efficiency, and relevance. But how is raw data transformed into strategic information? This is where the role of the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) becomes crucial.
From Fact to Data, Towards Meaningful Information
The process of creating reliable information begins with a fact. As stated by Jogiyanto (2017), a fact is an event or objective reality captured by the senses. For example, the fact that "a student was present in class on Monday at 7:00 AM" is a real occurrence.
These facts are then recorded as data, which is still raw, relatively meaningless, and exists as symbols or numbers. The student's attendance is logged as data: "Student ID 12345, Present, Monday, 07:00". This data only gains meaning when it is processed.
This processing of data gives birth to information. Information is data that has been processed, organized, and presented into a useful form for decision-making. For instance, attendance data for all students over a semester is processed into the information "the attendance rate for class X-A is 95%, higher than the school average of 92%". This is the information that homeroom teachers or principals can then use to give appreciation or analyze the factors driving good attendance.
Information Systems: The Heart of Modern Educational Management
According to Rusdiana (2018), an EMIS is a synergistic combination of human resources and information technology applications. This system does not merely store data but goes further to select, process, store, and retrieve data to aid strategic decision-making processes.
As emphasized by Zamroni (2020), this system supports the smooth running of the learning process and institutional operations, ensuring effective interaction between teachers, students, and other stakeholders to achieve educational goals.
An Expanding Scope of Information
The digital era has significantly expanded the scope of educational information. Anthony G. Picciano (2021) in "Big Data and Machine Learning in Higher Education" states that the scope of information is no longer limited to traditional administrative data like grades and attendance.
