US expert talks on instructional technologies

Islamabad: Professor Dr. John Tashner of Appalachian State University, USA, visited the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Friday and shared his experience and expertise with faculty members about the use of instructional technologies for promoting online courses.
During his talks held here in connection with the AIOU distinguished lecture series, he underlined the need for developing online coaching and appreciated the ongoing efforts of AIOU facilitating students with the state-of-the-art designing system.
AIOU Vice Chancellor Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, in his welcome remarks, said that the AIOU will be enhancing its collaboration with national and international institutions to develop online courses. As a pilot project, the first online course on M.Phil level education will be introduced from the next semester.
The AIOU Instructional Designing Department has already developed various online teaching devices for helping students. Hectic efforts are being made to bring qualitative improvement in the overall educational network of the university, taking maximum advantage of new technologies, he added.
Dr. John Tashner was of the view that students could be effectively engaged in group discussions and project development through online interaction among students themselves and between students and teachers. He said new instructional technologies have generated interest in the formation of various kinds of online learning communities for distance education. In the USA, a wide-range of distributed learning communities are currently involved in training, education and social networking.
Through the help of slides, Dr. John Tashner explained various techniques and skills for engaging students through online educational system. The use of instructional technologies in online teaching has been proved successful in the USA.
AIOU Registrar Dr. Nowshad Khan highlighted the ongoing cooperation with international institutions in developing online courses.