World renowned academicians join AIOU’s e-learning series

Islamabad

Some world renowned academicians joined the lectures’ series launched by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) to provide education to its students through E-learning or online system.

Initially, the process of e-learning has been started for the students of higher education, M.Phil and Ph.D-level. It is the part of University’s ongoing efforts for shifting traditional Open Distance Learning (ODL) system to e-learning through a gradual process.

Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Shahid Siddiqui said on the occasion that they will push forward the government’s policy of promoting online learning at higher educational level. He hoped that the university’s weeklong lecture series, undertaken by the University’s Faculty of Education will be a useful exercise to meet the educational needs of the students.

This will also connect the students with foreign academicians, enabling them to update themselves with the latest knowledge of international standard, he added.

According to the Workshop’s coordinator Zahid Majeed, the foreign academicians engaged in the workshop through Skype include Professor Mark Adams, Professor Bobbi Makani, Professor Minna Holopainen, Professor Mohammad Saleem from SJSU California, USA, Dr Ishan Abeywardena from Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, Professor Rory McGreal from Athabasca University, Canada and Dr. Jun Xiao from Shanghai Open University, China.

The university has planned to enhance share of online academic teaching. The objective is to facilitate thousands of students, particularly those living abroad in their educational pursuits. As per the plan, automated educational services and digital academic contents will be made available to the students from basic literacy to the Ph.D level.

The AIOU will be the first in the country to adopt the massive open online courses (MOOCs) system, which has emerged as a popular mode of learning worldwide. The facility to be provided through web will have virtual classroom, besides availability of online interactive study material.

Entire learners’ support system and continuous assessment will be web-based. Students will also be able to submit their assignments online. They will have regular interactive sessions with teachers by text chatting, video conferencing and desktop and white board sharing.