Webinar held on Digital Education during pandemic at UoS

SARGODHA: Universities around the world are under immense pressure on connectivity, continuity, excellence, equity and the quality of education in online learning process.

Radical transformation of the education system would be the only way out to provide, maintain and ensure the quality of education in this new landscape. The policymakers have to think about strategically utilising and allocating resources in a manner that allows smaller institutions to develop expertise from larger universities as digital learning has become imperative in these testing times and even it would be in post Covid-19 scenario. These deliberations were made by the international and national education experts, who got together for a webinar at the University of Sargodha (UoS) on Wednesday, to discuss the “Digital Education during Pandemic in Pakistan” from the perspective of higher education. Educationists from across the globe including Professor of Eastern Michigan University USA, Dr Joe Bishop, Director Department of Education University Grenoble-Alpes, France Dr Laurent Lima, Director University of Hong Kong Dr Susan Bridges, Associate professor of University of Malaya, Malaysia Dr Faizal bin A Ghani, Professor of Aga Khan University, Pakistan Dr Anjum Halai, AIOU Professor Dr Nasir Mehmood and prominent education expert Dr Faisal Bari, Associate Professor of Economics and Education, LUMS Lahore attended the webinar moderated by Ms Rubina of the Department of International Relations and Politics Sargodha University.

Commenting on the connectivity problem of the students, Dr Joe Bishop said “Even the students of advanced countries like United States faced internet issues, however, we expanded the Wi-Fi delivery and students having internet access issues joined online classes by sitting in cars at parking lots of the university.

“He also shared the strategy and suggestions adopted by the US universities including mapping the classroom spaces, and plastic glass inserting between teachers and students. Dr Laurent Lima highlighted the problems of connectivity, methods of teaching, economic crises and various family issues faced by the students. He suggested project based assessment to avoid the issue of copy pasting and similar assignments with shuffling of words.