Open Source Technologies: A Benevolence in Education Informatics

Education informatics is one of the emerging disciplines in the academic research and deals with the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education sector. Since education sector in India is growing very fast, the use of ICT can prove to be a valuable tool for better management of academic institutions. ICT is known to reduce cost, save time and optimize the utilization of resources through better management of operational activities. Nonetheless, many Institutions are unable to invest in ICT due to priority in other areas such as infrastructure development, marketing, admissions branding etc. The implementation of ICT has proved to be great enabler in operations excellence in other businesses. It is assumed that ICT can prove to be highly useful for education sector too. ICT can enable institutions in a bigger way; therefore, it becomes crucial that the institution explore surrogate means for its implementation. One of the valuable options is the selection of Open Source Technologies (OST), which are cost effective, easily available, secure and can be customized as per the user requirements. This paper advocates the use of cost effective OST for automation of educational processes for organization excellence.