Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, educational institutions, including Universities, were closed to prevent the spread of the virus. As soon as World Health Organization announced it as a Pandemic, the authorities at HEC held a meeting of the Vice-Chancellor Committee through video conference, and Universities were requested to develop a strategy for online teaching within two weeks. Most of the institutions had essential components for online classes like Learning Management System (LMS) in place. Therefore, they were required to make sure that all students and students are with LMS Ids. The faculty members are required to upload course contents on the LMS. The Universities without LMS may avail the offer of Virtual University for sharing their LMS application; there are also many free online LMS platforms like google classroom, Moodle, etc.
The active online strategy requires both synchronous and asynchronous mode, of course, content delivery. For the asynchronous mode of delivery, the institutional arrangements for LMS hosting, developing course content, SOPs for the frequency of interaction, or discussion on LMS, Assignments, and Quizzes are required. As far as Synchronous mode is concerned, the Universities which are part of the Pakistan Education Research Network (PERN) can utilize unified communication tools for online lectures, or real-time interactions. There are many other free solutions for this as well, i.e. Facebook Live, Youtube Live, etc.
Online interaction should be more about specifying the roles and responsibilities of institutions, faculty, and students. The LMS is one of the main components of online education, where course content, discussions, and assessment would be carried out
Most of the students may not have good internet speed for Synchronous mode. Therefore, universities and faculty members are required to make arrangements for better connectivity facilities through telecommunication service providers on a discounted rate for their students. The video lectures can be linked with LMS for reference purposes. The major challenge will be to engage students during these difficult circumstances, and the appropriate strategy should be to keep students engage in academic as well as co-curricular activities through virtual means.
I would like to share my experience of an online course from the University of Melbourne, Australia, as a good practice. It was a one-year online Graduate Certificate in Quality Assurance (GCQA), and all students were required to join one mandatory synchronous interaction during the week. There were three subjects in a term and course content hosted on LMS comprised of ebooks, reports, and research papers in downloadable format.
The course contents were divided into the weekly reading material, and all participants were required to share their reflection on the reading of the week or opinion shared by a peer on the discussion board of LMS regularly. The faculty member was needed to correct the assumptions and views shared by the students. In essence, the reflection of a minimum of 250 words on the activity initiated by the respective faculty member was required. As there was one compulsory synchronous lecture announced with a mandatory reading list; therefore, everyone was asked to relate that reading with their local context. Anyone who missed that interaction will write a 1000 word essay on the topic of the week or decided by the faculty member. We were also required to turn on the camera during the interaction. Due to any reason if I changed or turned off the camera, then there will be a beep from the faculty side who will remind me of the protocols for synchronous mode.
The online course was too engaging that even we felt it was tougher than face to face. The assessment for each subject was done through multiple ways, online activity in discussion boards, quality of the references in the submissions, innovation in applying theory with existing issues in the sector, and short time-bound quizzes. A final project was also assigned in the group, and faculty members would assist at every level of the project milestones.
Online interaction should be more about specifying the roles and responsibilities of institutions, faculty, and students. The LMS is one of the main components of online education, where course content, discussions, and assessment would be carried out. In the current situation, students can be asked to use the learning material of Virtual University, Books of AIOU, Courses of Coursera or other MOOCs. The faculty members should engage all students in a discussion on subjects as well as taking measures for well-being of the family and neighbors. They need counseling for relying on authentic sources of information; otherwise, disinformation and misinformation will detract them from the right direction. Although, it will be difficult to use online tools at first but keep in mind the future of Higher Education is in customized online education.
The writer is the Director Devcom-Pakistan, an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach consulting