However, the start of online classes led to a lot of criticism from students. Especially, pertaining to the weak technological infrastructure and how unfair the system is for students who belong from areas with internet connectivity issues.  Regarding this, Talk Show with Salman Piracha conducted an online session on this topic with Shahid Mustafa Haq. The topic ‘Why online classes?’ was discussed profusely with the other side of the story given precedence. Usually, students and their opinions have surfaced on the internet but this time the talk show brings teachers’ perspectives to light.

A perspective about online classes

The professor explains because of the COVID-19 there is a lot that has changed, including how drastically social dynamics have overturned. But the best thing to do is to keep your mind and body active as much as you can. He explains online teaching as a great way to keep this in check. Also, a lot of conundrum ensued pertaining to management indecisiveness. Many universities did not have the necessary logistics or infrastructure to be able to teach online during the pandemic. This further led to students and faculty being frustrated. But many other institutes including Bahria University adapted very quickly. They’re continuously evolving and upgrading of the interactive Learning Management System (LMS) facilitated everyone.

Utilize the time to the best of your capability

He further added that students instead of sitting at home and wasting time should utilize this situation for their betterment. Online classes are one way of doing this.  The semester that was supposed to end in June if elongated per se, could easily waste six months to one year of the student’s life. Besides this, universities have a set schedule to follow, and disturbing this could take a long time to return to normal activities.  Keeping students schedule of study and exams on track is one of the universities primary duties so that graduation, further studies, and job search is not greatly disturbed.

Classroom dynamics were already dependent on online platforms

Salman during the talk raised an important question. He said that universities located in metropolitan cities easily adapted to the situation, but the same cannot be said about universities in other parts of the country. To this Haq explained, if you analyze classroom dynamics, they were already dependent upon online platforms. Including applications like WhatsApp or even Facebook Messenger, wherein, teachers or class representatives would stay connected with students and share necessary details. So, to a certain extent, things were already happening online. But obviously full dependence on the online platform required a learning curve which was not only difficult for students but for teachers as well. But with apps like Zoom, things eventually became easier and we were able to resume class teaching with a semblance Faculty of normalcy.  The LMS platform with the possibility of sending notes and assignments, holding quizzes and exams, and providing feedback allowed us to do what would be done in a teaching system.

We are learning as we go along

Not only the students but teachers also had to learn ‘on the job’ as there was no training or preparation for this new situation all were in.  This was difficult and had its own share of challenges. The professor explained, we had to download papers, assignments, research papers, and other important material to effectively teach our students. None of us were prepared for it but we learnt as we went along. But on a note of positivity, some online teaching training sessions have commenced. Which means people are now on board with the premise. Organizations and councils are now pushing students, faculty, and administration to be ready for online teaching in the Fall semester. Obviously, there needs to be training sessions and policies in place which will happen along the way.

One good thing to come out of online teaching has been the change of teaching and evaluation mode.  Out of necessity, it has to move away from the rote learning system and reproducing in the exam to a more applied and analytical form of learning.

There is no doubt a drastic change from the classroom setting to the online session and it is challenging, and adaptability is the key. The fall semester will start as per schedule, online if needed, but we are hopeful that things will get better and everyone can return to normal classes at the universities with everyone safe and sound.

The post Pros and cons of Online Classes: The Faculty Perspective appeared first on PromiAD.

Students, parents, family, community, government, and other institutions spend a lot of money, time, and effort in education.  As stakeholders, it is only fair to assume that they expect reasonable sustained returns.

Change in Education System

To date, many reports have pointed to the need of changing education to fulfill the need of the countries, societies, employers, and graduates. The reason is that the investment done by all the relevant stakeholders has a measurable and beneficial return.   Education institutions, and especially the ones in developing countries, continue to ask for more and more budgets for education. Developing countries already have strained budgets.   Asking for more funds from the governments needs more justification with some better and verifiable and measurable criteria.  There is however no comparative evaluation done on the benefits and impacts of earlier spending, and the proposed benefits of the requested funds.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cost-Benefit analysis is now the norm for all sectors and should be done for all investments whether they be personal, society or government.  Even the social benefits can now be quantified to be able to justify the investment requested in these sectors. Higher education needs to do something similar.   The lack of such planning was pointed out in a 2014 article by the known consultants McKinsey who predicted that countries will face crises in the government and education sectors as they do not know what needs to be done and how.

Money and other resources have been allocated but the ability to deploy the funds effectively by knowing or defining the desired impact and measuring the results has been lacking.

Market & Society Needs Driven Education System

The present system of education and higher education is being challenged and the whole concept of the university as we know it today will likely change in the coming years.  The concept of four years degrees, separate departments, silo-based programs, method of teaching, evaluation system, etc. will change.  This will be driven by the market and society’s needs. Therefore, investing in more of the same of what we have today might not be the most suitable and sustainable model.

In developing countries such as Pakistan, it is very disheartening to see people with stretched means pouring a big chunk of their meager funds into children’s education in the hope that this will give them financial returns i.e. the investment will have sustainable returns.  Only to be disappointed as the qualifications and degrees acquired by their children do not have the expected returns.

Similar is the case with scarce government funds, scholarships and financial support funds, donations by charitable people and organizations, and very importantly course the money investing public.

The encouraging thing is that this realization is dawning and people and organizations have started talking about the education-employment gap, the market and academia linkages needed, etc. resulting in designing programs, courses and teaching methodologies to make educated people as employable people.

Developing In-Demand Skills

At the World Economic Forum in January 2018 global leaders promised to join a reskilling revolution to provide needed skills for employability or self-employment.   Even the HEC in Pakistan has announced special courses to enable graduates with 16 years of education to acquire more marketable and in-demand skills. This, however, is being wise after the event.  In hindsight what becomes more important is that we build in the relevant knowledge and skill into the existing programs so that the provided education becomes more relevant.  The investment made will deliver a clearer and more definable return thereby providing education with sustainable benefits.

Role of Universities

While the role of universities will be very important, it is essential that the nation’s planners, governing bodies and supervising regulators develop criteria for defining and measuring sustainability and expected returns.  The ranking of the universities, their evaluation and funding, and their proposed cost structure can be governed by these factors.

A well-known program in Pakistan advertised itself by just stating “ X percentage of grads employed (including self-employed) at an average income of Rs.    ……annually within … months of graduation”

Let us make education in Pakistan more meaningful for all the stakeholders; the students, employers, partners, society, and the country, who all have a lot at stake in it.

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The post Promising Return on Education In Pakistan appeared first on PromiAD.