GCU switching to virtual teaching

LAHORE:In the wake of Coronavirus outbreak, all the academic departments of Government College University (GCU) Lahore have been fast switching to virtual teaching for the students of all degree programmes.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi has directed the chairpersons of the departments to maintain the record of all online classes, digital handouts and recorded audio and video lectures besides ensuring necessary training and facilitation of faculty members by the newly formed Directorate of IT.

Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi also formed a WhatsApp group with all chairpersons and faculty deans to monitor regularly the progress of virtual teaching. In his message on Wednesday, Prof Zaidi said that the unusual situation due to COVID-19 posed additional challenges to all communities and they needed to adapt extraordinary innovative ways to tackle the challenges.

He said that most departments of GCU including History, Physical Education, Botany, Environmental Science, Urdu, Sociology, Political Science, Commerce and Finance and English, had switched to virtual teaching while some of the departments like Physics Department were in process of virtual teaching.

He said that besides GCU’s Learning Management System (GCU-LMS), the departments were using different pre-existing readily available Android/IOS/Windows applications, such as Zoom, Skype, Google Classroom, Instagram live, email, WhatsApp groups, recorded lectures and others for virtual teaching.

Prof Zaidi admitted that some of the departments like Fine Arts were facing more challenges as they were 70 per cent practical and studio-based, but they would also give home-based assignments to their students.

He directed that all departments’ chairpersons to keep engaged students virtually and find innovative ways to pass on teaching and training. “When the GCU campus will reopen, we will take extra measures to fulfil the remaining requirements of the courses,” he added. Extra measures have also been taken for those who have returned to far flung areas where internet connectivity is an issue.

The VC said the university would consider reimbursing at least the internet costs of those faculty members and students of remote areas who might need new connections for their online classes.

“However, the students who have the required means at hand must not look for excuses to evade their studies,” he concluded. PU employees paid salaries for March: Punjab University (PU) administration has paid daily wages employees salaries for the month of March without any deduction.

According to PU spokesperson, salaries of other employees and pensions of retired employees have also been issued on Wednesday so that they could make necessary arrangements to avoid any difficult situation.