In the light of HEC COVID-19 guidelines, the Universities in the country are trying to engage students through different online activities through the Learning Management System (LMS), Communication tools, and various social media platforms. It is observed that the online mode of teaching is not suitable for everyone. Especially for those students who are not willing learners and in the current situation, even those who may be considered as willing learners are getting demotivated due to non-serious attempts of online teaching made by few institutions. There may be many reasons and justifications for this, but the fact is bitter as usual.
There is an outcry by some students over social media that faculty members are not delivering lectures in detail and outlines are taught with little explanation and without examples. In this regard, the last document of the HEC COVID-19 guidelines talks more about the online readiness of the institutions, faculty members, and students. The documents identify three categories of the institutions as Basic, Effective, and Exemplary. These categories are based on the readiness of stakeholders as well as the availability of the basic infrastructure and course content. The document expects that Universities at the basic level should focus on improving their level first before offering online classes. The infrastructure, roles & responsibilities of institutions, faculty members, as well as of students, need to be in place first.
The conventional or traditional system of face to face teaching requires class activities and out of class activities, i.e. lecture plan, slides, reading material, discussion points, quizzes etc. and assignments, group tasks, projects, presentations etc. as an out of class activities. The faculty members remain committed to guide students for building their ideas in their discipline. The significant advantage for students in such an environment remains the presence of faculty members, his motivation, support, encouragement, and guidance. In the online mode, it is a challenge for the teacher to perform the above-mentioned roles. He can respond by both synchronous and asynchronous design of content. He may focus on developing content for the synchronous mode in which he may adopt a strategy to define, explain, and exemplify the ideas. During the interaction, someone should be asked to recall the same; this way; all students will remain attentive. Offering incentives for online participation in the shape of comments and questions will further make sure that everyone is given attentive during online interactions.
The current situation requires active and supportive participation of all stakeholders as a team to face the crisis stably without blaming any institution for their inability or lack of action
The active discussion on LMS may be another way to engage students for in-depth learning. The objective is to develop critical and analytical skills of the students while remaining within the scope of the course content. The active participation in terms of moderating all discussions, and keeping students more focused on course objectives will be challenging. The LMS shows statistics of those students who remain most active in posting and reading content on it. The active students should be encouraged, and everyone should be allowed to moderate discussions on a weekly or daily basis. This will create a competitive environment, and resultantly more focus will be on reading and reflecting the same.
The group tasks can be included in the weekly online activities, and for that, faculty members must define the proper role of each group member or make one group leader to further coordinate with members regularly. Resultantly, all members, including group leader, will try to find material about the assigned topic on the internet and on other sources. At the end of such activity, all groups must review the outcome critically in the light of some rubric. As all such activities are being carried out on LMS; therefore, active participation of the faculty member is required. It is an institutional responsibility to define minimum time spent on LMS for both faculty members and students.
The students who are not much active on LMS should be given a chance to express why they are not active; if there is an issue of connectivity, then voice recorded participation in Whatsapp may also be given consideration. In order to understand all issues of such students, the faculty member may develop a team of supporting students who may engage those who are not performing well. The lead role-playing students should be given some incentive for bringing them at par. The ultimate focus should be on active participation in LMS based activities. On the same pattern, the Universities should also help their faculty members through their peers for designing, delivering, and assessing online courses.
The current situation requires active and supportive participation of all stakeholders as a team to face the crisis stably without blaming any institution for their inability or lack of action. The institutions that are doing good in terms of online programs must share their good practices in public for others to follow. Social media platforms can be used for sharing institutional and individual good practices. HEC has already established a technology support team which is providing full-time support for introducing an online solution for the Universities. The main objective is to create an enabling environment for teaching and learning, which is best for the students who are our asset and potential to adopt new ways of teaching, learning, and research in these times.
Dy. Director, Higher Education Commission, H-9, Islamabad