Daily Times

Universities in Pakistan have been through shut downs time out of numbers in the past due to terror attacks and the politics of agitation, but universities did not resort to virtual classrooms. An abrupt shift to online learning amid the Covid-19 crisis has posed some inevitable challenges to the system as majority of students do not possess their own computers or internet facilities, particularly the ones residing the primitive areas of Pakistan.

Like the rest of the world, Pakistan is striving hard to combat the tough challenges the virus has thrown up. The unique nature of this challenge also calls for a more iterative planning and implementation approach with feedback loops to continuously adapt to changing circumstances expected over the next few months and possibly two to three years.

As the situation is still evolving with uncertainty, the future course of this pandemic cannot be predicted accurately. Hence the plan and framework provides a set of options and strategies that can be operationalized and implemented by provincial and area education authorities and departments in collaboration with other stakeholders based on different short to medium- and longer-term eventualities that will be context-based.

Notably, experts are calling for new ideas so that university students can emerge from this mess without their future prospects being harmed. “Examinations and assessments are an integral part of the teaching process. Attempts to eliminate exams will have severe repercussions.” said HEC spokesperson.

However, a long-standing criticism of the Pakistani university system has been its general lack of concern for critical thinking, comparative and analytical modalities of instruction and meaningful, engaging classroom discussion and participation. Universities across the world prioritise the development of these facets in recognition of the fact that they greatly accentuate the ability of a student to cope with challenging real-world scenarios once they move on to professional spheres. Pakistani universities, on the other hand, with their heavy focus on high percentile averages and GPAs, have become notorious for their inability to produce students who are capable of channelizing knowledge into insightful and pragmatic decision-making once they leave college. And now online education proves to be the last nail in the coffin.

But, there is another side of the picture too. University of the Punjab is one of the biggest and oldest universities of Pakistan, Covid-19 has pushed university to a new level of technology evolution. The fact that Punjab University has shifted to a digital model in a matter of weeks is impressive. Prof.Dr.Niaz Ahmad Akhtar Vice Chancellor Punjab University has left no stone unturned and has taken all pro-student measures for the continuity of their learning process and has given all possible facilitation to the students academically, administratively, and financially.

In a recent interview to DailyTimes newspaper, Dr.Niaz said, “Punjab University was the first one among Pakistani educational institutions to shift to virtual teaching system after the pandemic broke out and on campus classes came to a halt. We devised a full-fledged system to ensure that the classes go on smoothly. Proper training of faculty, both regular and visiting, was conducted online and guidelines were provided to teachers and students to arrange and attend online classes. So far, all departments have wrapped up the semester and we are going for online exams. Yet we are prepared for conventional exams too, we have two types of question papers, so if allowed, we can conduct on-campus exams too”.

The examination will be conducted online using Safe Exam Browser integrated with Learning Management System (Moodle). The online exam will be conducted in a supervised environment (proctored environment), where the monitoring will be done using Google Meet. For all the online examinations, every student must use his/her official email address of PU. To appear in these online examinations every student must have a desktop PC or full-size laptop computers having Microsoft Operating system (Windows 8.1 onwards). Good quality camera/webcam must be attached and installed with laptop / desktop PC with a working mic. The system and Internet modems must be connected to UPSs to avoid any power interruptions. Moreover, the place of exam must be a quiet room with no one else present during the exam.

For every exam students will download a SEB configuration file on clicking it will open safe browser, in addition to the configuration file, half an hour before the exam time, every student will receive an email (at their official email address) from the respective invigilator/proctor containing a Google Hang Out Meeting ID for the examination. After setting the Google Meet, the examiner/proctor will verify the identity of the students with the picture IDs provided to them, and will mark the attendance. The examiner will give students all the required instructions before the start of exam, the entire duration of the examination will be recorded by the invigilator/proctor and he will watch and listen candidates via camera and mic.

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